How do I get Thunderbird to show the attachments expanded

Question

The latest update to Thunderbird email client shows the attachments under a separate panel. I'd like the panel to display expanded automatically.

How do I do that? It doesn't seem to be in the help files or the release notes.

Answer 1

Right-click on the attachment pane, and click "Initially Show Attachment Pane."

(The option was added in Thunderbird v24 and up.)

Answer 2

This ability to change this through the UI has been removed in newer versions, but it still exists in about:config (Preferences > Advanced > General > Config Editor...)

Set mailnews.attachments.display.start_expanded to true

Answer 3

As per this writeup on the Attachment Pane Redesign on MozillaZine, you can add the following to userChrome.css to remove the attachment toggles:

#attachmentView > [collapsed="true"] {
  visibility: visible !important;
}

#attachmentToggle {
  display: none !important;
}

Edit: Corrected filename to userChrome.css

Answer 4

In the version I have, 45.6.0, there is an option under the View tab to Display Attachments Inline that worked for me.

Answer 5

Since this question has been asked over 11 years ago, I'm sharing a solution for recent versions of Thunderbird. In my case, I'm referring to Thunderbird 102.11.0.

1. From the main menu, go to Tools > Settings. Alternatively, click on the gear icon in the bottom-left corner.

2. Go to the General tab (you should be there already) and scroll down until reaching the Config Editor button.

3. At this point, filter for the attachment attributes and set the properties mail.inline_attachments and mail.inline_attachments.text to true.

Answer 6

You can also go to Preferences > Advanced > General > Config Editor... and set mail.inline_attachments -> true

If you'd like to show attachments pane when composing new email, then set mail.compose.show_attachment_pane -> true