Solved How to make email links on webpages open thunderbird (my default email client)

CelticKnot

Expected behaviour: when there is an email link on a webpage, clicking it opens my default email client (which happens to be Thunderbird).

Actual behaviour: clicking on an email link opens a screen inviting me to log into a Microsoft account.

OS is Linux Kubuntu; Thunderbird is set as the default in system settings. Also xdg-email successfully opens a new mail in Thunderbird. Presumably, therefore, Vivaldi is not drawing on the system default settings and is not using xdg-email. But I can't find anything in Vivaldi settings that explains what it is doing or why.

Many thanks in anticipation.

CelticKnot

@Pathduck Aha! And there it is:

No idea how that happened - I blame the cat!

I note you can't get there from Vivaldi → Settings → Privacy and Security, or Vivaldi → Settings → Search, or even from vivaldi://settings/handlers, you must go to

chrome://settings/handlers

to find that setting.

Is there a way to mark as solved, or mark as chosen solution?

mib2berlin

@CelticKnot
Hi, there is no setting in Vivaldi for this.
Work for me on Opensuse Linux:

Do you have a Outlook calendar or mail account setup in Vivaldi?
If I use my Vivaldi default install it open the Vivaldi mail client.

Cheers, mib

DoctorG

@CelticKnot See https://forum.vivaldi.net/post/600236

DoctorG

In shell of my Debian 12 my Vivaldi 6.1 Stable shows:
/usr/bin/xdg-email: 599: thunderbird.desktop: not found
But

$ xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/mailto
thunderbird.desktop

Weird!

This
xdg-open mailto:[email protected]
starts Thunderbird editor window.

Bad, that issue with xdg-email is in Chrome, chromium and Vivaldi
But works with Firefox 102 ESR.

//edit: same in Debian 12 KDE
Something broken in KDE 5 Plasma.
⇒ 🪲xdg-utils issue 187

Gonna test Ubuntu 22 LTS and 23.
//edit2: Ubuntu 22 + 23 Cinnamon works

CelticKnot

@mib2berlin Thank you. That looks like the behaviour I would hope for.

I do have an online outlook account as an organisation I do some work for uses it. And that is indeed what it is trying to use. But it's not my personal email, and not my email client of choice. It looks like Microsoft is hijacking mailto: links, and if there isn't any setting in Vivaldi itself, and default OS settings aren't being respected, it's hard to see how to stop it...

Edit: I meant to add, I even tried clearing out all Microsoft cookies, and restarting, and that didn't stop it.

CelticKnot

@DoctorG Thank you. I read the link you posted as well.

For me

xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/mailto

does indeed return

thunderbird.desktop

and

/usr/bin/xdg-email

return a Thunderbird new mail window.

And outside of Vivaldi, other apps respect mailto: links.

CelticKnot

@DoctorG Thank you. In this linked thread, you say,

If you do no want Vivaldi catching mailto uncheck Vivaldi Settings → Mail → Mailto Links → Handle Mailto Links in Vivaldi

I don't have any option on Mailto Links, because when I go to Vivaldi Settings → Mail I get

mib2berlin

@CelticKnot
Please try this in the guest view:

https://help.vivaldi.com/article/guest-view/

Cheers, mib

DoctorG

Workaround

my Debian 11 KDE 5 Plasma a run in shell of command helped!
rm ~/.config/emaildefaults

This emaildefaults works now:

test@debora1:~$ cat .config/emaildefaults 
[Defaults]
Profile=Standard

[PROFILE_Standard]
ServerType=
test@debora1:~$

CelticKnot

@mib2berlin Thanks again - some progress! I hadn't thought of trying that. The guest window does indeed respect OS default and open Thunderbird!

Of course, that isn't a workaround, because I can't always work in a guest window to make links work (and the easier workaround which I have been doing atm is to copy and paste the address).

But it does suggest that there must be something in the Vivaldi profile rather than the OS settings causing this, so that is where to look for a solution.

npro

@DoctorG said in How to make email links on webpages open thunderbird (my default email client):

Something broken in KDE 5 Plasma.
⇒ 🪲xdg-utils issue 187

Worksforme️ and according to that report it's fixed and closed.

mib2berlin

@CelticKnot
OK, it is maybe an extension or a service worker call MS.
For the fist start Vivaldi with --disable-extensions.
For the second open vivaldi://serviceworker-internals and go to the list if anything is MS/Outlook relevant.

You can clean that up in one rush with open "Delete Browsing Data" from the tools menu and choose:

I am not sure if you have to restart Vivaldi.

Cheers, mib

DoctorG

@npro said in How to make email links on webpages open thunderbird (my default email client):

according to that report it's fixed and closed.

Not in all distros

CelticKnot

@mib2berlin Thanks for the suggestions, but...

vivaldi-stable --disable-extensions

didn't work, i.e. it still opened outlook webmail instead of thunderbird.

vivaldi://serviceworker-internals

was new to me! I found what I thought was a likely candidate:

but when I deleted what you suggested, and even though that entry (and almost everything else) had gone after restarting, it still didn't work, i.e. it still opened outlook webmail instead of thunderbird.

Microsoft is very persistent, somehow!

mib2berlin

@CelticKnot
That's company policy.
I am a bit out of ideas, do you have a tab or web panel running Office or something MS?
It would reload the service worker immediately.

CelticKnot

@mib2berlin

That's company policy.

Microsoft, I assume you mean, not Vivaldi !

My Linux computer has no Microsoft software; my Vivaldi preloads no tabs at all, just home page https://www.ecosia.org. I have just found that if I delete all cookies, storage and cache, close Vivaldi, reopen it clean and do nothing else other than click on a mailto: link in https://privacybadger.org/ (a page that plainly has nothing to do with Microsoft, and an email address of the Electronic Frontier Foundation)...

...this generates 14 Microsoft cookies afresh as it tries to load outlook:

I'm logging off now. Thank you so much for trying to get to the bottom of this with me. If you have any further ideas I'll pick them up in the morning.

Pathduck

@CelticKnot Hi, looks like you at some point allowed Outlook (Webmail) to handle mailto links.

Check Chromium internal url:
chrome://settings/handlers

Make sure no sites are set to handle email.

If you don't want this to happen at all, set the Default to "Don't allow". This corresponds with the option in Vivaldi's Privacy & Security settings.

CelticKnot

@Pathduck Aha! And there it is:

No idea how that happened - I blame the cat!

I note you can't get there from Vivaldi → Settings → Privacy and Security, or Vivaldi → Settings → Search, or even from vivaldi://settings/handlers, you must go to

chrome://settings/handlers

to find that setting.

Is there a way to mark as solved, or mark as chosen solution?

Pathduck

@CelticKnot It's usually something simple

And yes, you have to copy the url and paste it, there's no way to the internal Chromium settings from Vivaldi's settings. Although you can create a bookmark to them, just make sure the url starts with chrome: not vivaldi:

Tip! To mark a topic as solved:

Edit the first post
Open the dropdown on the Submit button and click the option Ask As Question:
Submit the post again
Select the three dots menu of the post that resolves the question:
Select the option Mark This Post As The Correct Answer:

Thank you for making it easier for others to find a good solution

npro

This post is deleted!