Mailto Links Not Functioning

[GaryR55]

All mailto links in webpages are not responding in Firefox 3.5. I have Thunderbird set as my default email client and I have Firefox set to use Thunderbird to open all mailto links, yet, nothing happens when I click on a mailto link.

Oddly enough, the problem a I was having earlier was that everytime I clicked on a mailto link, Firefox would pen a GMail login page instead of Thunderbird. It did this when I was using Outlook, also. So, I uninstalled the Google Toolbar and Firefox stopped opening the GMail page. However, now it won't open anything at all, even though I have Thunderbird set to open.

Gary

[Daifne]

Moving to Thunderbird Support. This is a bug in the latest version of Thunderbird. See this topic viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1314185
And this one: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1313135

[Gary55]

Neither of these topics has anything to do with the problem I've described. It is NOT a problem I'm having with Thunderbird, in the first place. The problem is in Firefox. When I click on a mailto link on any webpage it is supposed to open my email client. Instead, nothing happens at all. It doesn't open Thunderbird, Outlook, or anything else. This is a glitch within Firefox, itself, not Thunderbird.

Thunderbird is set - in both Thunderbird and Firefox - as my default email client and as the application to open mailto links in. It should be opening when I click on any mailto link.

[Daifne]

Then you have a problem with Windows, not Firefox. See this: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Default_mail_client

[Alice]

I was searching this forum for an answer to someone else's similar problem and found this thread.

It looks like this could be a "Firefox" problem, after all, or at least a problem with a Firefox extension that doesn't reset preferences when it is uninstalled. In case it helps anyone here, see:
http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&comments_parentId=400474
email links go to gmail instead of thunderbird

It turns out the Google Toolbar for Firefox can also set the mail client that opens in Firefox.... You should be able to deselect the "Send with Gmail" toolbar option* but uninstalling the extension without doing so may leave you with Firefox opening nothing at all for mailto links, even though you have a system default mail client.

A possible fix is to reset the Firefox user preference network.protocol-handler.external.mailto to the default value, which is "true", in about:config

* See this Google Toolbar help article:
http://www.google.com/support/toolbar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=34800
Web-browsing tools: Use Gmail as your default email handler

Open Gmail when you click email links
Instead of opening email clients like Outlook Express or Thunderbird, use Toolbar's Send with Gmail feature to automatically open Gmail's Compose Mail page when you click mailto: or email links in your browser.
Enable or disable Send with Gmail
1. Click the Toolbar's wrench icon.
2. On the Search tab, select (or deselect) the 'Use Gmail for "Mail To" links' Send with Gmail checkbox.
3. Click Save.