Restore Thunderbird's previous look

Thunderbird 115 introduced a new look. I hate it. Not only does it no longer fit in with KDE Plasma, it lost functionality due to it's new integrated search bar in the title bar.

So I went on a mission to fix it.

To restore the regular title bar:

Go into Settings > General > Language & Appereance and uncheck the Hide system window titlebar

To remove search bar:

Toggle toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets to true in Config Editor (bottom of Settings)

Find your profile directory via Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory (or about:profiles in same page)

This directory should have lots of files e.g. prefs.js and places.sqlite

Create directory chrome Inside that folder, create a file named userChrome.css with the below content:

#unifiedToolbar {
  display:none !important;
}

Restart Thunderbird

Enjoy!

4 points · 7 comments · view on lemmy.world

7 Comments

1984@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 3y (2 replies)

Haha there is always someone who dislikes all the space in today's modern design. I love the new look and it's why I'm using Thunderbird now as a new user. But I love that we have choice in the Linux community to alter things.

redw0rm@kerala.party · 1 pts · 3y (1 reply)

Exactly. I liked the new design so much than old design , and as a fan of GNOME style , the Thunderbird-gnome-theme was perfect for me.

Fisch@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 3y

I was actually searching for a theme like this just a few minutes ago but didn't find anything, so thanks for sharing. Does this use the GTK 4/Libadwaita style?

Ashiette@lemmy.one · 2 pts · 3y

It's sad that you hate it. It's good that you found a way to fight against change.

I will however admit that I didn't consider Thunderbird ac an alternative for my email management prior to v.115. Now I find it finally not ressembling a Windows 98 email client and really like it.

Iam@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 3y (1 reply)
[ removed ]
1984@lemmy.today · 0 pts · 3y

There is theme support for thunderbird so if someone makes a classic theme, you can just download and install it.

But depends on the level of changes you want to make.. Maybe not all can be changed with themes?

Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 3y (1 reply)

I haven's seen the updated UI, but if Firefox taught me anything I have to thank you in advance

Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 3y

I was right, this is nasty