Where did you install Firefox from? Help Mozilla uncover 3rd party websites that offer problematic Firefox installation by taking part in our campaign. There will be swag, and you'll be featured in our blog if you manage to report at least 10 valid reports!

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Can't Turn Off Unread Message Badges in Thunderbird 115.3.1

more options

Hello Mozilla Community,

Just upgraded to Thunderbird 115.3.1 on Linux Debian yesterday, and what I guess are called "badges" are now shown for any folder in the folder pane, that has under read messages in it.

This is new behavior as these were not present before this upgrade.

The three dots (directly above all the Unread Messages Badges) for Folder Pane Options only shows: Folder Modes Show "Get Messages" Show "New Messages" Show Total Message Count Show Folder Size Hide Local Folders Hide Folder Pane Header

Show Total Message Count and Show Folder Size allows toggling the display of these data next to the Unread Message Badges, but again there is no way that I have found to shut off (not show) the Unread Message Badges.

As always, prior to making this posting I have done web searches to try and find out how to do this, but I have found nothing.

Please help!

Kind regards, Jeffrey Bruton

Hello Mozilla Community, Just upgraded to Thunderbird 115.3.1 on Linux Debian yesterday, and what I guess are called "badges" are now shown for any folder in the folder pane, that has under read messages in it. This is new behavior as these were not present before this upgrade. The three dots (directly above all the Unread Messages Badges) for Folder Pane Options only shows: Folder Modes Show "Get Messages" Show "New Messages" Show Total Message Count Show Folder Size Hide Local Folders Hide Folder Pane Header Show Total Message Count and Show Folder Size allows toggling the display of these data next to the Unread Message Badges, but again there is no way that I have found to shut off (not show) the Unread Message Badges. As always, prior to making this posting I have done web searches to try and find out how to do this, but I have found nothing. Please help! Kind regards, Jeffrey Bruton

All Replies (7)

more options

This can be done with userChrome.css:

/* hide folder pane unread count */
.unread > .container > .unread-count {
  display:none !important;
}


Help/Troubleshooting Info (TB 115), Profile Folder, Open Directory (Win:Folder), close TB, create a new folder named chrome, create a new document in chrome with a text editor, name it userChrome.css, Save as type: All files *.*, copy in the above code. Double-click toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets to true in Settings/General/Config. editor, restart TB.

Online css generator

There is similar code to change the colour of the count or hide the circle background.

more options

I have no idea what version of Thunderbird you came from. But the unread message count for each folder has been in every release I have used since V2.

Just to check myself, I did a google search and this image https://www.actsofvolition.com/images/lunaforthunderbird.png dating from a blog posting in 2003 https://actsofvolition.com/2003/09/lunabluetheme/

The image shows unread message counts per folder. The only change I can see is that the counts have moved from being on the left and in brackets to being in a column and having a button like appearance.

Whilst I am sure change can be obtained using CSS, this forum is bound by this policy on userChrome. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/userchromecss-js-usercontent-unsupported As for user options, you have already determined that they are not available, if they were they would be on that menu.

more options

Thank you, sfhowes, for the instructions to use a userChrome.css to make the badges disappear. Despite my being unskilled in CSS, your instructions worked perfectly. Could you also please provide the code to hide the circle background?

I realize I am on shaky ground, based on the post from Matt regarding the policy on userChrome, but I found the new badges rather unpleasing in appearance, and suspect many others will find that as well. Could you put in a good word to provide a user setting to give some control over the appearance?

Again, many thanks.

Chris Brandt

more options

This css hides the circular background of the unread count in the folder pane:

/* folder pane unread count */
.unread > .container > .unread-count {
  background:none !important;
    color:black !important;
}


To change the circle's colour:

.unread > .container > .unread-count {
  background-color:yellow !important;
    color:black !important;
}
more options

There's no such a problem with version of TB earlier than 115.3.1...

more options

I believe Solarscream is correct. I did not have this problem until upgrading to 115.3.1 as stated in the original post.

Thank you Matt for the post. I came from the version immediately before 115.3.1, whatever that was. Again I am on Debian Linux 10, and have never had this issue until now.

This bug report shows there are four others who have this issue also, and Solarscream's post indicates this issue indeed show up in 115.3.1,

Kind regards, Jeffrey Bruton

more options

Thank you indeed sfhowes!

As Chris found, the method you provided in your 08 Oct 2023 post works perfectly! Thank you so very much.

Wish Dev would put this ability in the three dot menu directly above the badge column.

Thanks again sfhowes!

Kind regards, Jeffrey Bruton