The problem:
Thunderbird tries to open .doc attachments in KWrite and I cant figure out how to get it to open in LibreOffice. I 100% caused this issue but I can’t figure out how to correct it.
How it happened:
I got an email with a .doc attachment but I didn’t have LibreOffice installed. When Thunderbird asked how to open it I selected default system handler and xdg? asked how to open it. I was in a rush and rather than install LibreOffice I thought I’d see if KWrite would open the file. It did, but not correctly. So I closed out Thunderbird and installed LibreOffice. I went back into Thunderbird to open the attachment and again chose defualt system handler. Instead of asking what to open it with it just automaticaly opens the file in KWrite. The odd thing is that it will now open other LibreOffice file types correctly (docx, xls, xlsx, etc.) but not .doc files. I’ve tried a lot of things to figure this out but so far I’ve had no luck. Below is as detailed a description of the issue and the troubleshooting I’ve done so far.
Background info:
OS: Bazzite 42 Deck Edition
Thunderbrid: 140.2.1esr (Flatpak)
LibreOffice: Version: 25.8.1.1 (Flatpak)
Current Behavior:
Try to open a .doc attachment in Thunderbird, choose the default system handler, it opens in KWrite.
Try to open any other LibreOffice attachment (.docx, .xlsx, etc.) in Thunderbird, choose default system handler, it opens in LibreOffice.
Doubleclicking a .doc (or any other LibreOffice type file) on the desktop or from in Dolphin and it opens in LibreOffice.
Troubleshooting I’ve done:
1.) Removed and reinstalled Thunderbird Flatpak (while also deleting the entire ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird directory, which means I had to fully re-setup my mail account). This does not fix the issue.
2.) Checked with xdg-mime by quering the filetype of the .doc attachment and checking the default system handler (Looks Correct - See below)
bash-5.2$ xdg-mime query filetype ~/Desktop/Example.doc
application/msword
bash-5.2$ xdg-mime query default application/msword
org.libreoffice.LibreOffice.writer.desktop
3.) Checked ~/.config/mimeapps.list (Looks correct - See below)
bash-5.2$ cat ~/.config/mimeapps.list
[Added Associations]
application/msword=org.libreoffice.LibreOffice.writer.desktop;
[Default Applications]
application/msword=org.libreoffice.LibreOffice.writer.desktop;
4.) Checked the behavior of xdg-open (bash-5.2$ xdg-open ~/Desktop/Example.doc) The file opens correctly in LibreOffice.
5.) Checked the contents of Thunderbirds handlers.json (despite having deleted the entire directory and recreating it) (Looks Correct - See below):
bash-5.2$ cat ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/.thunderbird/tt64zo3m.default-esr/handlers.json
{“defaultHandlersVersion”:{},“mimeTypes”:{“audio/mpeg”:{“action”:4,“ask”:true,“extensions”:[“mp3”,“mpega”,“mp2”]},“application/msword”:{“action”:4,“ask”:true,“extensions”:[“doc”]},“application/pdf”:{“action”:4,“ask”:true,“extensions”:[“pdf”]},“application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document”:{“action”:4,“ask”:true,“extensions”:[“docx”]}},“schemes”:{},“isDownloadsImprovementsAlreadyMigrated”:false}
Where I’m at now:
I’ve dumped a ton of time Googling this issue but can’t find anything that helps. At this point I’m completely stumped which is why I’m on the forums looking for help. Any help you can offer would be appreciated.
(Outside of “Just save it to the desktop and and then open it”, which does work, but I would like it fixed for real.)
Thank you for your time reading all this and again any help would be appreciated.