If you are interested in changing the mail program used by Firefox you are not alone. Typically, Firefox uses the default mail program for sending email upon clicking on a “send link” or “mail to” link. By taking the right steps, you can change the mail program while also fixing any issues that you may be encountering.

To get started, you need to open the Applications options/preferences window. From there, select the “mailto entry” and use the menu to make any necessary changes.

With the “use other” option, you can select a mail program that is not listed in the menu. Follow these steps to get started:

1. Click “use other” as a means of opening the “select helper application” screen.

2. Click on the “browse” button.

3. Within the file picker you should navigate to the installation directory. This is where you will find a list of mail programs, allowing you to select the one you want to use.

With Windows computers, for instance, you may find that Mozilla Thunderbird is not listed. You can click on the “use other” folder to find where Thunderbird is installed. From there, you can select “thunderbird.exe” which will allow Mozilla Thunderbird to be listed in the drop-down selection menu.

To go along with mail programs, you are also able to use webmail services including Gmail and Yahoo Mail among others. If you want to use a service that is not listed, there are extensions available.

Mail Not Working

There is nothing worse than your email application not working. If you click on the send link or mailto link and nothing happens, it is safe to say that you have an issue. But don’t worry, there is a good chance that you simply need to adjust a preference setting.

Mailto actions will not work if the network.protocol-handler.external.mailto preference is set to false. This may not be something you do on purpose, but instead a result of installing an extension that changes the value.

You can reset the preference by following these steps:

1. Type about:config into your Firefox address bar

2. If you see a warning message, click continue.

3. Type mailto in the filter.

4. Browse the list of preferences until you find network.protocol-handler.external.mailto.

5. If you find that the value has been changed to false, right click as a means of resetting it. This
changes the default to true. In turn, your problem should be solved.

Problems with Extensions

With the Google Toolbar for Firefox, the mail program is automatically changed to Gmail. This is the case regardless of your Firefox settings. For this reason, you do not want to use the “send with Gmail” option that is offered via the Google Toolbar.

Instead, you can use the “use Gmail” option that is available in the Firefox applications listing.

If you uninstall the Google Toolbar, it could lead to Firefox opening nothing for mailto links. At this point, you will need to reset the user preference to the true value.

This advice should help you when changing the mail program used by Firefox and/or troubleshooting related issues.