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

[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!

[CelticKnot]

@Pathduck Sorry, came back to it this morning and see you've already marked it as correct answer (I was going to mark your answer!)

Thanks for doing that, and for explaining how to do so - a bit obscure!