Thunderbird keeps caching web image in signature

Question

I have an HTML signature with a web-based image. The image changes about once a month, but Thunderbird keeps using an old image. I believe it's being cached somewhere.

Any ideas on how to ensure the image is dynamically fetched every time?

Answer 1

On the server side:

Add an adequate Cache-Control header in the server's response for the image. E.g. Cache-Control: max-age=0 - On Apache this could be achieved through a .htaccess file using the Header directive. Please add details about the used web server to your question if you need further information on how to configure this.

On the client side:

Set browser.cache.check_doc_frequency to 1 in Tools –> Options –> Advanced –> General -> Config Editor...

Either way will work to prevent Thunderbird from using the image without checking the cache freshness, but you probably want to use the server side way to make sure your recipients see your signature correctly.

Answer 2

You can manually purge Thunderbird's image cache by deleting the TB cache directory:

• close TB
• navigate to your TB profile folder...
  • on Windows:
    %LOCALAPPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\YOUR_PROFILE_NAME.default
  • on Mac OS X:
    /Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/Library/Caches/Thunderbird/Profiles/YOUR_PROFILE_NAME.default
  • Attention: In both cases those folders are hidden by default!
• delete or rename the sub-folder Cache in your profile
• restart TB

Answer 3

Thunderbird now ships with the option to clear the cache. Go to Tools -> Clear recent history…

Answer 4

How about generating a new filename each time, and dynamically updating your sig file as well? More work than just replacing the image, but less work possibly than changing the server header response.