topic Re: Keyboard disabled by Thunderbird in Discussions

Keyboard disabled by Thunderbird

justgina — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 17:44:33 GMT

I am using Thunderbird 140.4.0esr on Ubuntu 24.04.

I routinely lose use of my keyboard when writing an email in Thunderbird. The application freezes and locks up, then a dialog box from Ubuntu is displayed with the option to 'kill' the app or wait for it to respond.

I always have to kill the app and restart it to regain use of my keyboard. During the time the keyboard is disabled in Thunderbird it works fine in other applications (Chrome, Notepad, Sublime, etc), so the issue is directly caused and resolved by Thunderbird.

This problem occurs several times a week, and at least once a day.

Is there a solution for this problem?

Re: Keyboard disabled by Thunderbird

siffemcon — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 07:36:02 GMT

Try this:

- go to TB menu > Settings > General

- scroll all the way down and click the 'Config editor' button on the right

- click 'Accept the risk and continue' if that appears

- search for accessibility.force_disabled > change the value to 1 > click the check mark

- restart TB

Re: Keyboard disabled by Thunderbird

fpr44 — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 11:54:08 GMT

Thanks.... However, I cannot imput the 1 value... No keys...
Where is the associated config file ?
Regards

Re: Keyboard disabled by Thunderbird

siffemcon — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 21:56:25 GMT

Prefs.js in the profile folder.

To open the current profile folder:

Windows:

- TB menu > Help > Troubleshooting Information

- under the Application Basics section next to Profile Folder, click 'Open Folder' button

*nix:

- TB menu > Help > Troubleshooting Information

- click 'Profiles' near the bottom > about:profiles > Local Directory > click 'Open Folder' button

-----

Close TB > open prefs.js > add this line:

user_pref("accessibility.force_disabled", 1);

Save > restart TB