How to Set up Thunderbird as an RSS Reader

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2024-10-23

In this article, we'll learn how to set up Mozilla Thunderbird (version 128.3) for RSS. Thunderbird is mainly an e-mail client, but it an be configured to fetch articles from RSS feeds, i.e. it can become a local RSS client. In this article, we'll learn how.

To set up RSS in Thunderbird, follow the following steps:

1: install and open Mozilla Thunderbird.

If it's your first time opening Thunderbird, you'll be greeted with a screen telling you to set up your e-mail account. We aren't going to use e-mail so you can ignore it. Close its tab if you wish.

A window with three tabs, one blank, one that reads "Account Setup" (active), and one that reads "thunderbird Privacy Notice." In the active tab, it says "Set Up Your Existing Email Address." "To use your current email address fill in your credentials. Thunderbird will automatically sarch for a working and recommended server configuration." Three fields: Your full name (example: John Doe); Email address (example: john.doe@example.com); and Password. A checkbox "Remember password." Two buttons: continue and cancel. "Your credentials will only be stored locally on your computer." A message at the bottom reads: "Thunderbird is free and open source software, built by a community of thousands from all over the word." A button "Know your rights..." — The first thing that is shown to you when you open Mozilla Thunderbird: a page for setting up your e-mail account.

2: click on the hamburger menu button on the top-right corner of the window to the left of the minimize button to display the application's dropdown menu.

A hamburger menu button with its dropdown menu expanded. In the menu, the options: New Account; Create; Open from File; View; Density; Font Size; Settings; Account Settings; Add-ons and Themes; Tools; Help; and Exit. — Mozilla Thunderbird's hamburger menu.

3: click on "New Account." The menu will change to display new options.

Observation: you don't need an online account to use RSS feeds in Mozilla Thunderbird. The application uses the term "account" to refer to different sources of messages that Thunderbird can handle. The messages that come from e-mail sources are email "accounts," and the ones that come from feeds are associated with "accounts" made for RSS inside Thunderbird.

A menu that titled "New Account." Its items are: Email, Calendar, New Address Book, Chat, Feed, and Newsgroup. — Mozilla Thunderbird's "`New Account`" menu.

4: click on "Feed." A dialog window will appear for creating a new "account."

A dialog window titled "Feed Account Wizard." It reads: Account Name. Enter the name by which ou would like to refer to this account (for example, "Work Account", "Home Account" or "News Account"). A field labelled "Account Name:" wit the value "Blogs & News Feeds." At the bottom the buttons Back (disabled), Next, and Cancel. — Mozilla Thunderbird's "`Feed Account Wizard`" dialog window on its 1st step.

5: you can choose a different account name from the default if you wish, but that's really not necessary and it will make things more confusing, so it's better you leave it on its default value.

The reason it will make things confusing is that the name you type will become the label of the root item in a side pane later. Some actions can only be performed if you select this root item first, so I assume any tutorial written about it will tell you to "click on Blogs & News Feeds, and then do X." If you change it from the default name, you may forget about it later and you'll be searching for this "Blogs & News Feeds" item that you won't have.

It's possible that Mozilla has a different default for each language it's been translated to, which adds to the confusion.

Click Next to continue.

6: the second step of the wizard is to... review the information we just entered??

A dialog titled "Feed Account Wizard." It says: Summary. A summary of the information you entered is displayed below. Please check it before the account is created. Account Name: Blogs & News Feeds. Three buttons: Back, Finish, and Cancel. — The second step of the "`Feed Account Wizard`" in Mozilla Thunderbird.

I'm not sure why this is a step. I'm pretty sure you can rename the account later, so it's not even a permanent action worth worrying about.

Click Finish to continue.

Now that you have created a "Feeds" account, you can click on "Manage feed subscriptions" to start adding feeds to it.

How to Set up Thunderbird as an RSS Reader

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