Remove Anti Spam Toolbar in Thunderbird

justfiona

Hi - this has been asked before but nobody has posted a working solution. I'm using Thunderbird 102.3.1. I have disabled the Bitdefender anti spam toolbar in settings, but the toolbar returns when I restart. Please help! It's a big, annoying toolbar and I don't need it. Thanks.

Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/93701/remove-anti-spam-toolbar-in-thunderbird

Generate bitdefender support tool logs (https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/1733/)

Generate bitdefender connectivity logs (https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/9689/)

Share the logs & your query with bitdefender support team by dropping them an email at [email protected]

The support team will reply back to your query within next 24-48 hours excluding weekends.

Regards

justfiona

Thanks! I actually did contact support and sent them the logs. They told me to use the uninstall tool and it failed and told me to contact support for help removing the rest of the program. Live chat has no agents available and the phone number doesn't work for me, so I have emailed and am waiting for a reply.

Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/316870#Comment_316870

Kindly perform below steps & see if this helps you in anyway.

1) Uninstall the bitdefender product with add/ remove programs option in windows

2) To remove the remaining files download and run Bitdefender product uninstaller (https://www.bitdefender.com/files/KnowledgeBase/file/Bitdefender_2022_Uninstall_Tool.exe)

3) Restart PC in safe mode (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234)

4) As soon as desktop opens, assuming your windows drive is C, open below things in run (windows icon + R) command one by one :

C:\Program Files (delete any folder with name bitdefender)

C:\Program Files (x86) (delete any folder with name bitdefender)

C:\ProgramData (delete any folder with name bitdefender)

C:\Users\{your pc name}\AppData\Local (delete any folder with name bitdefender)

5) Open run command again and run below command one by one :

temp ,delete all the files in the folder

%temp% ,delete all the files in folder

prefetch ,delete all the files in folder

6) Open registry editor through run command (windows icon + R) and then type regedit. Once registry editor opens, click on edit -> find, make sure to tick mark match whole strings only. Type bitdefender in search box and click find next. If any file or folder under name of bitdefender is found, delete it. Continue searching the registry and deleting until the search will report no registry keys found.

7) Restart your PC in general mode by unticking the option that you selected to run the system in safe mode and then click apply.

8) Remove devices from online bitdefender central (https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2795/)

9) Download online installer for your respective bitdefender product from below stated links

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: https://download.bitdefender.com/windows/installer/en-us/bitdefender_antivirus.exe

Bitdefender Internet Security: https://download.bitdefender.com/windows/installer/en-us/bitdefender_isecurity.exe

Bitdefender Total Security: https://download.bitdefender.com/windows/installer/en-us/bitdefender_tsecurity.exe

Once your respective bitdefender product is installed, a bitdefender dialogue box will open where you will need to login with your registered bitdefender online central details and after a successful login, your product will be synchronized with your online bitdefender central account. Henceforth, your product will get registered & activated with online bitdefender central automatically.

Regards

justfiona

This doesn't work. Bitdefender support told me it's a known issue with no fix, and they are working on it. If it's not fixed by the time it's time to renew, I will look for another anti-virus solution.

Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/318405#Comment_318405

Then in that case you will have to keep in touch with the support on the ticket.

Additionally, @Alexandru_BD or @Mike_BD can check on the status of the issue from the developers.

Regards

Alexandru_BD

Hi,

Unfortunately, I don't have any news here. The remediation process is in its debugging stage.

Regards

MCush

Having the same problem, how do I watch (follow) for a solution notification?

bekado

For me the "stubborn" toolbar in Thunderbird is also a very annoying problem, it keeps coming back no matter what I do, I hope that a fix will be in place soon. The re-installation of Bitdefender described in the thread above did not make any difference. It is an embarrassment when users are apparently not supposed to decide which parts of a software they're willing to use

MCush

This is a very serious privacy issue and must to be escalated to management.

MCush

Not sure why this is so complicated for BitDefender to resolve, here is how you fix this privacy issue in Thunderbird if you have DISABLED anti-spam in your configuration.

1. Close Thunderbird
2. Open file explorer and navigate to: %APPDATA%/Thunderbird/Profiles/<your profile>/extensions/
3. Delete the "[email protected]
4. Open Thunderbird, the extension is no longer present.

I encourage you to check for the extension periodically, they have been known to put them back in without the users knowledge during an upgrade/update.

MCush

See my last post, I restarted Thunderbird a second time and the Anti-Spam toolbar is back. This is getting even more concerning.

tihabil

Hi everybodi,

This is a working solution, not a clean one. Until Bitdefender provide us a profesion solution I will use this:

0 -Tb must be closed

1 -go to the extension folder "...\profile\extension"

2 -copy the name of extension file including its filename extension "[email protected]" and then delete the extension file.

3 -create a folder or a text file wit no information and rename it with the name of extension file you have. For me, now the file name is "[email protected]"

4 -right-click on it and change NTFS permission there will be 4 groups of users. You must deny permissions to 2 of them: -"Authenticades Users", "Administrators" . DO NOT TOUCH "SYSTEM" permissiones.

After this last step, no BD Anti-Spam Toolbar wil be installed/reinstalled...until Bitdefender wil be upgraded and probably change the name of extension. If this will happend must repet these 4 steps using the new name of extension-file.

Salutari

Alexandru_BD

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/321421#Comment_321421

Hi @tihabil,

Thank you for sharing this workaround with the community, it is much appreciated!

Regards

Foxfan100

Thanks @tihabil for that.

I see that there is also a folder in Program Files\Bitdefender Security for the bdthunderbird78 xpi, which, is of course undeletable.

Quite frankly, the clutter from Bit Defender Total Security is a disincentive to me, to buy it again. When I turn OFF the email Antispam option, nothing from Bitdefender should then affect the Thunderbird email client. As a note, when I have tried turning this BD feature on, it does nothing at all, least of all worthwhile.

Long before I started using (and paying for) Bitdefender I had the Premium version of Malwarebytes. I am frankly tired of having to uninstall BD to do any major updates on this machine e.g. BIOS, which it may cause to break, and then being forced to uninstall Malwarebytes before putting BD back.

This Tbird/BD toolbar isn't consistent, either. We have another laptop machine running TB with the current BD TS, and, looking at it, I see that the BD toolbar is enabled in TB, but doesn't appear. Why?

Bushy

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/321421#Comment_321421

Just moved to Bitdefender and running on a trial. I have purchased a licence but think I can get that refunded.

The Thunderbird toolbar is very annoying, particularly as the anti-spam function only works on POP3 accounts and we run on IMAP.

I followed @tihabil instructions on my computer and it seems to have worked.

I repeated the procedure on my wife's computer but BD created a file with the same name as the dummy text file in the profile/extensions folder. I have hidden the toolbar using the TB toolbar customisation and that seems to have worked but I really would like to get rid of the extension.

Both machines running:

Windows 11 Home v. 22H2 build 22621.1413

TB 102.9.0

tempsdropz

how do I watch (follow) for a solution notification?

Alexandru_BD

@tempsdropz you can bookmark this thread to receive updates on the topic.

tempsdropz

I see that there is also a folder in Program Files\Bitdefender Security for the bdthunderbird78 xpi, which, is of course undeletable.

edit: spam links removed.

tihabil

Hi everybodi,

Im just a user and have a working solution, not a clean one. Until Bitdefender provide us a professional solution i will use this because it's working:

-Tb must be closed

-go to the extension folder "...\profile\extension"

-copy the name of extension file including its filename extension "[email protected]" and then delete the extension file.

-create a folder or a text file wit no information and rename it with the name of extension file you have. For me, now the file name is "[email protected]"

-right-click on it and change NTFS permission there will be 4 groups of users. You must deny permissions to 2 of them: -"Authenticades Users", "Administrators" . DO NOT TOUCH "SYSTEM" permissiones.

After this last step, no BD Anti-Spam Toolbar wil be installed/reinstalled...until Bitdefender wil be upgraded and probably change the name of extension. If this will happend must repet these 4 steps using the new name of extension-file.

Salutari

tihabil

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/323177#Comment_323177

You can delete any file/folder on Windows following this steps:

-Take ownership

-grant inheritance permission to the same (new owner) user

-delete the folder/file

ssmitt

From support on May 5, "...the situation is caused by an issue that has already been acknowledged by our development team. We are currently working on a fix that will be done by means of an automatic update and won't require any additional action on your end."

From support on May 16, "We do not have an estimated time for the release of the fix yet, but we will contact you as soon as it's implemented by an automatic update of Bitdefender. Please keep in mind that all reported bugs require investigation time. Since product updates are usually released once a month it may take at least 1 month until a fix is implemented in the product - this does not include the debugging period."

From what I can see in this thread the issue appears to have been in play for at a minimum six months. The lack of a development timeline suggests that this is not a priority.

As a paying customer this is unacceptable. I will not be kludging files and NTFS permissions to get rid of a product feature that is poorly implemented, poorly supported, and invasive, and that I do not need. My spam filtering is all handled server-side and it really works quite well.

There appear to be plenty of alternatives on the AV Comparatives list. When my subscription anniversary arrives I will be switching to something else.

MCush

@ssmitt - nicely worded! Agree 100%.

Tourmalin

Hi Everybody,

It's rediculous this problem still has not been solved professionally by Bitdefender themselves.

I had this problem lastt year on a computer with Windows 11 en Thunderbird. I used tihabil's solution and it worked.

Yesterday (!! a year later) I updated my Bitdefender on my other (W10) computer and what do you think happened? In TB that stupid bar turns up again. Even though I switched off the extention IN Bitdefender itself AND within TB beforehand. Of course again tihabil's solution worked again, but it's been 3 or 4 years that this problem first turned up in this forum.

I'm an IT person and brought like 150 people to use Bitdefender becaus on the whole I think it a good antivirus program (and I'm not even a Bitdefender sales partner). A lot of which I helped get rid of that stupid bar lately when they didn't want it either as it is pretty intrusive. Thanks to an ordinary user (thanks tahibil!!) and no thanks to Bitdefender.

In the future I might advise my customers get a different Antivirus programm after their subscriptions ends. Because I DO take my customers seriously.

Tourmalin

Hi,

Sorry, I said "it's been 3 or 4 years that this problem first turned up in this forum""

Of course I meant a year.

But still .....

ssmitt

@Tourmalin, this has been in play for a full year? Seriously?

Here's what this suggests to me.

The company is perfectly willing to let paying customers debug incompetent developers' half-baked shiny objects. Which leads to the question, what ELSE is busted under the hood that I can't actually see?

I bought this at Newegg. I will be posting an appropriate review. I also bought it on the strength of a review in PC Magazine. I will be writing to the author.