Sep 15 2008

Thunderbird - Reply Above Quote Doesn't Work

Filed under: Software » Email, Open Source,

Tools:

Placing your signature immediately below your reply

Are you trying to set your Thunderbird email settings such that your signature is placed right below your reply (instead of at the bottom of the entire email)? This would seem the logical place to me, as I'm not sure how many people want to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the message each time they need to access your contact information. Nevertheless, Thunderbird considers the recommended setting to be to place the signature below the quote. You can edit this option as follows:

Thunderbird signature placement options

To set where Thunderbird places your signature (either immediately below your reply, "above the quote", or "below the quote"), browse to the following settings options:

Tools -> Account Settings -> Select your identity
Click the "Manage Identities" button at bottom right
Select your identity and click the "edit" button
Select the "Composition & Addressing" tab
Under "Composition", check "Automatically quote the original message when replying", followed by "start my reply above the quote", and place my signature "above the quote"

This setting should cause Thunderbird to insert your signature below your reply, not below the quote, and therefore get buried at the bottom of the message. I can see why, in a discussion list format, it's more useful to place lengthy signatures at the end so they don't get in the way of a conversation. But when you're composing professional emails it's important to have your contact information readily available, especially when new people get added to the message half-way through.

Thunderbird 2.x identity signature options aren't saved

This option worked as intended in earlier versions of Thunderbird, and continues to work again in the upcoming Thunderbird 3.x release. However, in the 2.x version we currently have installed (2.0.0.16), it doesn't work. Specifically, when we select the "above the quote" setting for placing the signature, the setting is not saved. It automatically resets to "place my signature below the quote (recommended)". The workaround for this, if you're reading this before the Thunderbird 3.x release, is as follows:

Tools > Options > Advanced > Select the "General" tab
Click on the "Config Editor" button at bottom right to reveal a window with your preferences.
Type "mail.identity.id" into the search bar to reveal a listing of e-mail identities.
Find the entry containing your identities e-mail address (they are listed numerically from top to bottom in your account settings). For example, "mail.identity.id1.useremail" will correspond to your first identity.
Find the "mail.identity.id1.sig_bottom" entry.
If it reads "true", double-click on it to switch it to "false"

Voila This overrode the setting that you were unable to adjust using the navigation windows. Your signature should now be placed immediately below your reply (if it doesn't, close and open Thunderbird).

Tools:

thank you

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2010-06-08 01:28.

thanks for that. so simple and effective

Thanks!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2010-06-01 09:35.

I'm deeply thankful for this little helpful tip!

Regards,
Bro

Using TB 3.0.3...does not work

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2010-03-25 03:15.

mail.identity.id5.sig_bottom;false

Actually, it was set to FALSE by default. My signatures still do come in at the bottom of the message. Any ideas?

Thanks

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2010-03-21 10:45.

Hey thanks for the solution. I was searching for that a lot and finally I got this.

Thunderbird v2.0.0.24 User

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2010-03-17 20:45.

Thanks...the work around does the trick...

My signature is quoted in the reply after update. A new bug?

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2010-03-14 23:40.

Hi,

I wonder if anyone else has this effect: Settings "reply above the quote" and "signature under my reply" worked for me well for about two years, but now something went wrong - I think after the last update.

My signature is now quoted with the reply - it starts in the quoted text, just before the first line of the message to which I am replying. I think this happened after I updated to 3.0.3 from 3.0.2 (or 3.0.1). It definitely worked correctly for me in 3.x for a while, and I haven't touched any settings or my signature.txt file for ages.

The quoted signature problem appeared simultaneously after the update on two different PCs - with Vista 32 and XP. My current Thunderbird version is 3.0.3. (The quoted text is the one starting with ">" or blue line in reply editor window. Now I get > in the beginning of each line of my signature).

Has anyone experienced this? I bet many people do.
Thanks.

This is a known bug, and there is a solution.

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2010-03-20 02:47.

Found this as a reported bug.

A workaround: open a blank (New) message; then click on "Reply" to the message you wanted to reply. The signature will reset and display correctly from now on.

Thanks!!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2010-03-08 09:34.

Thanks... this was driving me insane!! considering that the conventional way of reading emails is latest mail at the top... the default Thunderbird way is kinda silly... having to scroll all the way to the bottom is kinda silly!

Thanks. Worked like a charm

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2010-03-02 11:38.

Thanks. Worked like a charm for me.

Mac OSX User - Thanks

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2010-01-29 16:23.

Hey thank you so much! This workaround works great. For Mac OSX users its a slightly different route to get to the General tab. Go to Thunderbird/Preferences instead of Tools/Options. Otherwise works like a charm. Thank you, thank you.

Seriously, why! do this?

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2010-01-17 14:17.

It's just plain irritating!! Do they do this just to mess with people?? I just absolutely DO NOT understand the mentality of posting a reply beneath a quote!! As if I wanted to re-read everything and make more work for myself by scrolling all the way to the bottom just to read a reply.

Quotes go below, so that the reader may instantly read your reply. They already know what the conversation is and do not need to re-read it every single freaking time!

*waves fist in air*

Anyway, thanks for posting this. Thunderbird is now fixed and working PROPERLY!

Agreed

Submitted by cwd on Sun, 2010-01-24 10:46.

We agree with you - it makes no sense to have the reply appear beneath the quote. The first thing you want to see is the reply, not what someone already said.

How does one "reply" with a

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-12-28 18:17.

How does one "reply" with a heading something like:

On 12/28/2009 at 05:30:23 PM, "SenderNickname" wrote the following: I can't figure out the config parameters!

Thank you in advance, A.B.

Thank you

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2009-12-22 18:36.

Thanks, just what I was looking for.

Using the Settings dialog works properly in 2.0.0.23

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-12-14 18:00.

In 2.0.0.23 it actually works properly to use the Account Settings dialog to set the "above the quote" option.

But still, I totally agree that it's really nice how people make an effort to assist people in solving apparently unsolvable and annoying problems!

Amazing

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2009-12-08 11:02.

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for this well-written and helpful article. I do support for a major University and through your article (Googled) I was able to help a user a lot more than I would have been able otherwise. Great!!

J.S.

Glad to help

Submitted by cwd on Mon, 2009-12-14 18:50.

Hi J.S.,

Thanks for the nice note. Glad to hear we were able to help you - it motivates us when people take the time to acknowledge our efforts.

Cheers,
- CWD Team

Thank you

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2009-11-10 11:40.

Thank you!

Thanks

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-10-14 16:04.

I finally got around to using a pretty signature and this site helped me make it right.

I hope Thunderbird 3 fixes all these petty problems once and for all.

More Direct

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-10-01 04:59.

Instead of searching for 'mail.identity.id' simply search for 'bottom' (obviously no ') and it lists all addresses.

It Works!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-09-30 22:01.

Thank you for this solution to the problem - it was driving me crazy!

Thank you, thank you!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-09-10 10:31.

Unfortunately in my new job the only preloaded email client on site was Outlook Express (useless). Thunderbird seems like a much better option, but when I could not place my signature where I wanted, it was amazingly frustrating.

Thank you SO very much for your one, last tip on this process of manually changing the setting... restart Thunderbird. I really thought nothing was going to fix this problem, and then TADA, it works. Sometimes working on a problem for so long makes you forget all of the simple fixes.

Once again thank you for all of your time and knowledge!

Thank you for signature placement hack

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2009-07-31 09:15.

Thank you so much for the Thunderbird sig placement workaround.

I'm using TB version 2.0.0.22 on a dual Athlon Win XP Pro SP3 system.

Here's a tip to help eliminate tearing your hair out: after applying the workaround - Do NOT access the TOOLS -> ACCOUNT SETTINGS -> MANAGE IDENTITIES window as outlined under "Thunderbird signature placement options" above.

Although I applied the change to the Default and id1 sig_bottom parameters, the change only stays put in the Default param. Accessing the TOOLS etc window seems to cause the id1.sig_bottom parameter to revert back to the "true" setting.

Leave well enough alone, I guess.

Thanks again.

Hey thank you!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-07-13 04:03.

So Thunderbird not saving its settings is definitely a bug...

Placing the signature at the bottom of the mail got very ugly and confusing with longer correspondence.

Thank you for sharing your workaround so that I can permanently change the default behavior now.

About signature

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-06-24 02:40.

When I choose "add my reply above the quote" it places my signature above the quote, but when I choose "below my reply" it doesn't work. What to do?

Thanks heaps!!!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2009-06-02 21:26.

Thanks heaps!!!

Thank you

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2009-05-30 08:45.

Can't thank you enough...

Works beautifully

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-05-14 08:54.

Thank you for this workaround, I have an image as my signature, so frequently I was copy/pasting it to the correct spot before sending a message, which bothered me quite a bit. Now it works like a charm.

It works!!!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-05-07 22:54.

Many thanks for the detailed steps of the work around.

Signature on bottom for forwarded emails?

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-04-09 13:35.

Hi, it's me again. This didn't work for when I forwarded e-mails. My signature would still be on the bottom. Any advice?

Bottom signature as default

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-04-09 12:45.

I also was going crazy over this.

However, this advice you listed didn't work until I also switched the "sig_bottom" for the "default" line (not just the "id1" one for my account) to false.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Works for the "Manage Identities" bug too...

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2009-03-07 07:10.

Thanks a million for that fix.

I'm on TB 2.0.0.19 which does allow the signature to be positioned above the quote but below my reply in all the major accounts I created.

However....

I had one account where I wanted to use the same account for two identities via the "Manage Identities" option. Setting the signature to above quote and below reply in the managed additional identity *did not stick*. Even when "OK'd" and saved.

This cured it.

Cheers!

Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 still doesn't work

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-02-09 17:31.

I was very grateful to find this tutorial, but unfortunately, whether I have the booleen to "false", I have closed and reopened TB, and still get the same signature placement.

I am on a Vista 32 Ultimate SP1

Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 still doesn't work - IT DOES - Follow this

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-02-25 11:12.

I had the same problem as you - did everything and still Thunderbird didn't change a thing. Was going a bit crazy. However, sorted it out.

The issue is with the number designated to your mail accounts. Now, you would expect that when you open Account Settings and Thunderbird lists all the accounts. The top one will correspond to id1 and the next to id2 and so on...however, it doesn't.

My top account was in fact id8. This is upside down. So have a look at the config page where all the accounts are listed and you will see email addresses in each id set. You just choose the id that corresponds to the email identity you are changing and then change the sig_bottom property to 'false'. Restart Thunderbird and it will work beautifully. Hope this helps.

Sam

Signature below reply but above original message

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2009-08-02 16:52.

Thanks for this fix. I'm not a techie person, but you have solved a problem that was causing me mechanical hair loss on a massive scale. Thanks for taking the trouble to post this. Martin Klute

Thunderbird quote placement menu

Submitted by cwd on Tue, 2008-12-16 13:30.

I'm using the same version of Thunderbird. You might not be seeing the menu options because of the way they are laid out graphically.

Here's a screenshot of Tools -> Options with the "Config Editor" button circled in red:

Thunderbird Config Editor

Don't see menu options in Thunderbird

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2008-12-16 02:10.

I do not see the Tools > Options > Advanced > Select the "General" tab on my Thunderbird 2.0.0.18 any help?

Thanks for making Thunderbird quote bug fix available

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2008-11-29 11:23.

I'm running Thunderbird 2.0.0.18 on Win XP Pro w/SP3 and the suggestions for 3.x didn't stick, but the mail.identity.id1.sig_bottom suggestion for 2.x did - thank you very much!

One additional thing I did - the double hyphen disappeared when I changed that config setting so I added it back to the top of my signature manually. No biggie!