Disable keyboard shortcuts in Thunderbird

Question

Is there a way to disable those evil keyboard shortcuts in Thunderbird?

When I accidentally hit a, suddenly the message gets archived and a new Archives folder is created. Similarly other keys bring havoc to my workflow.

While googling, I have found many complains similar to mine, but no working solution offered. There used to be a KeyConfig addon, but this is incompatible with new versions of Thunderbird.

My Thunderbird version is Icedove 24.6.0, but the problem still exists in Thunderbird 31.

Answer 1

Without extension you can only disable some of it:

• A can be disabled by disabling the Archive functionality in genereal, this has to be done in each Mail-Account under Copies and Folders->Keep messages archives in:
• J can be disabled by disabling the Junk functionality, which is not a desired solution.

A better solution is the add-on tbkeys or tbkeys-lite.

To install this, follow the Readme, then open the settings for the extension and change the settings to this:

{
    "j": "window.goDoCommand('cmd_nextMsg')",
    "m": "window.goDoCommand('cmd_previousMsg')",
    "s": "window.goDoCommand('cmd_openMessage')",
    "k": "window.goDoCommand('cmd_reply')",
    "a": "window.goDoCommand('cmd_replyall')",
    "w": "window.goDoCommand('cmd_forward')",
    "c": "window.MsgNewMessage()"
}

which will remap all dangerous shortcuts to harmless actions. (I didn't remap "r" because I actually like this one)

---

For Thunderbird older than version 68, you could use keyconfig Add-On

To install this, you have to

• right-click on the first word "keyconfig" in the old first forum post here from "April 30th, 2004"
• install the keyconfig.xpi file in thunderbirds add-ons "as file"
• open the settings for the extension "keyconfig 20110522", there you can disable (or change) all single-key-shortcut, you don't like (and also "Ctrl+Q" which is my favorite ;-)

Answer 2

You can disable the "a" problem by disabling email archives in general. This applies to all accounts.

Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> General -> Config Editor... mail.identity.default.archive_enabled -> false

Answer 3

Sigh, this was a hard nut to crack. I wish there was more documentation.

The patch above posted by αғsнιη still works. There is a catch, however, if you are using a patched Thunderbird, which updates it self, you can't patch it again! By doing so you will probably break your Thunderbird. You need to download a completely fresh copy of Thunderbird and patch the omni.ja again. It is hard to predict when the patch will break so you should do patching via script.

I have taken a liberty and create a patch script called thunderbird-patch that can patch the omni.ja for you. You need to run it where your Thunderbird's directory is e.g. ./thunderbird-patch /usr/lib64/thunderbird.

It creates a backup of the original, unpacks it to /tmp/omni. There it patches the files which are needed and then it packs everything back again and stores it into original location.

One side note: The original omni.ja is using uncompressed zip file. The reason being that they wanted to have Thunderbird started as fast as possible. The script is using a compression, I did not notice any slowdowns of any kind. Should you experience those remove the compression.

The original file:

Archive:  backup_omni.ja
Zip file size: 51474524 bytes, number of entries: 5115
5115 files, 50486796 bytes uncompressed, 50486796 bytes compressed:  0.0%

The new generated file from the script:

Archive:  omni.ja
Zip file size: 15214620 bytes, number of entries: 5115
5115 files, 50486796 bytes uncompressed, 14226892 bytes compressed:  71.8%

(One more thing, omni.ja is a former jar file and that is the reason why it is just zipped file).

My patched omni.ja for Thunderbird 68.8.0 only (for any other version you have to patch it via script).

Edit: How to disable shortcuts like CTRL+Enter, and CTRL+SHIFT+Enter

Shortcuts containing Enter alias keycode VK_RETURN are using little bit different approach.

• First to find the keycode at:

chrome/en-US/locale/en-US/messenger/messengercompose/messengercompose.dtd (comment out the line containing VK_RETURN)

<!ENTITY sendNowCmd.label "Send Now">
<!ENTITY sendCmd.keycode "VK_RETURN">
<!ENTITY sendNowCmd.accesskey "d">

<!ENTITY sendLaterCmd.label "Send Later">
<!ENTITY sendLaterCmd.keycode "VK_RETURN">
<!ENTITY sendLaterCmd.accesskey "L">

• Secondly you need to find out key_send and key_sendLater:

chrome/messenger/content/messenger/messengercompose/messengercompose.xul (comment out both lines)

<key id="key_send" keycode="&sendCmd.keycode;" observes="cmd_sendWithCheck" modifiers="accel"/>
<key id="key_sendLater" keycode="&sendLaterCmd.keycode;" observes="cmd_sendLater" modifiers="accel, shift"/>

The sed to change it should be something like this:

sed -e '/^\s*<!ENTITY [^\.]*Cmd\.keycode "/{  s:^\s*:<!-- :; s:$: -->: ;}' \
    -e '/^\s*<key id="key_send[^"]*" keycode="&[^\.]*Cmd\.keycode;"[^/]*\/[^>]*>$/ { s:^\s*:<!-- :; s:$: -->: ; };' \
chrome/en-US/locale/en-US/messenger/messengercompose/messengercompose.dtd \
chrome/messenger/content/messenger/messengercompose/messengercompose.xul

Edit2: It works, I've just pushed the script changes. In order for the changes to work you need to remove your profile (perhaps --clearcache is enough?) completely and remove/uninstall your Thunderbird. Next do a fresh install of you Thunderbird. I have tested the changes on Opensuse and it works for me.

The Omni.ja copy above does not include the removal of the ctrl+enter and ctrl+shift+enter.

The modified patch script: thunderbird-patch.

Answer 4

The mentioned keyconfig 20110522 Add-On is not compatible with the latest Thunderbird releases (here v60.7.0).

I found dorando keyconfig which is a drop-in replacement. With it you can rebind nearly every keyboard shortcut.

Answer 5

Install tbkeys-lite plugin, then configure

{
    "a": "unset"
}

Ref: https://superuser.com/questions/1537337/anybody-know-of-a-way-to-disable-keybindings-in-thunderbird-68