Thunderbird focus / edit problems when composing mail

[timt]

For the last week I've been experiencing intermittent problems with Thunderbird in Kubuntu 16.10.

When I open a compose window to write a new email or reply to an existing one, the window comes up, but there is no edit cursor in the window and the focus stays in the main Thunderbird window. (This causes all sorts of havoc when I start typing, thinking I'm composing the new mail, but am actually causing all manner of destruction in the main window by triggering keyboard shortcuts left, right and centre...)

Even if I click on the compose window to give it the focus I still don't get an edit cursor in the compose window, and can't write anything.

The problem is normally fixed by restarting Thunderbird.

This doesn't happen all the time. It seems to happen most often when I first fire up Thunderbird after booting the machine.

Any idea what's going on?

[GreyGeek]

It appears to be a bug that has plagued Thunderbird for over a decade. The bug report is here.
This is the last commend, a month ago:

I have experienced this bug for a while and I have now finally realized that I always lose the cursor after I drag and drop an attachment into the top RHS when composing an email.

The condition persists until you shutdown Thunderbird and restart it.

[timt]

Thanks for the useful link! Weird that I've never experienced it in Kubuntu up until a few days ago though, even though I've been using Thunderbird in Kubuntu for many years.

[GreyGeek]

It's been happening on all OS across the board with about the same frequency. What is strange is that after more than 10 years the Mozilla dev team hasn't been able to identify the problem, which is why their suggestion of Sft-Ctl+F5 to send debug info to them. Very few Thunderbird users take them up on that, however. I just moved from Thunderbird to KMail after a year because I've used KMail for most of the time it has been out and like it. To me, KMail has a much more fluid work flow.

[TWPonKubuntu]

I've been using Thunderbird for several years now and never experience this problem. I do allow all Thunderbird updates via the repository version. Now on Ver. 45.8.0

I'll keep an eye on this.

[timt]

I also keep Thunderbird (and my whole system) updated from repositories on a daily basis. I too am on Thunderbird 45.8.0. I seem to experience this problem mostly on my desktop. I'm not sure that I've experienced it on my laptop (which is, in theory, running exactly the same system but on different hardware). I'll keep an eye out and see if it happens on the laptop too or is specifc to desktop.

[WaltS48]

It appears to be a bug that has plagued Thunderbird for over a decade. The bug report is here.

That bug was filed about Firefox, not Thunderbird.

I could not find a corresponding one for Thunderbird.

I can confirm it for Firefox, because the cursor just disappeared after I hit the Backspace key when composing this reply.

[GreyGeek]

That bug was filed about Firefox, not Thunderbird.

I could not find a corresponding one for Thunderbird.

I can confirm it for Firefox, because the cursor just disappeared after I hit the Backspace key when composing this reply.

The problem occurs in both. There are eight references to Thunderbird, including the last one, two months ago:

	jeff	-
Comment 72 • 2 months ago

I have experienced this bug for a while and I have now finally realized that I always lose the cursor after I drag and drop an attachment into the top RHS when composing an email.

The condition persists until you shutdown Thunderbird and restart it.

[WaltS48]

Oki