How to disable thunderbird notification

Question

I run Ubuntu Hardy and Thunderbird version 2.0.0.23 (not tagging for linux/ubuntu since I think is a Thunderbird thing, but you can re-tag if appropriate).

I am really tired of the email notifications, which appear in the right bottom corner of the desktop, often (but not always) covering the desktop switch panel, which I often need to click right when the notification appears (and instead I click the notification by mistake and I become very angry!)

Is there a way to disable the notifications altogether? I don't care about them, in my workflow I just switch to Thunderbird every once in a while when I have a minute or two to read/reply the emails (of course I've searched and RTFM, without any success)

Answer 1

Edit -> Preferences -> General -> "When new messages arrive:"

Unchecking the "Show an alert"-Box should do the trick.

Answer 2

Go to Tools->Options, then on the general tab, there should be a section at the bottom titled "When a new message arrives". Uncheck the box next to "Show an Alert".

See if that does it for you.

Answer 3

This has changed in TB 3 and is now a bit trickier to turn off. You now need to set mail.biff.show_alert to false in the Config Editor as described at http://www.upfrontsystems.co.za/Members/izak/sysadman/that-annoying-thunderbird-notification-window. For Windows folks do "Tools/Options" rather than "Edit/Preferences" for the first step.

To turn off the notification sound, change mail.biff.play_sound to false. You can also get rid of the system tray icon by changing mail.biff.show_tray_icon to false.