QR-Code doesn't work

[batty-h]

Checklist

• I have used the search function to see if someone else has already submitted the same bug report.
• I will describe the problem with as much detail as possible.

App

Thunderbird for Android

App version

8.0

Where did you get the app from?

Google Play

Android version

15

Device model

Google Pixel 7

Steps to reproduce

Start Thunderbird for Android for the first time
Choose "Import Settings" via QR-Code
Scan QR-Code from the Desktop computer

Expected behavior

Thunderbird for Android import the settings via QR-Code

Actual behavior

If the destktop settings include an POP3-Gmail-Account with a "recent:" in front of the name ("Recent Mode"), Thunderbird for Android want read the QR-Code (no reaction / Information / Failure code)

note: The QR-Code is readable by another QR-Code-Scanner

Logs

No response

[TerryJColes]

I too have this problem on two Android devices. Some additional details:

1. Desktop TB version 128.4.1esr (64-bit) on Kubuntu Linux.
2. Android OS Version 13 on OnePlus Nord2 phone and Blackview Active 8 tablet.
3. After the step 'Select Import settings' the camera opens, with no opportunity to 'Tap Scan QR code and hold your phone over this code'. The image is not recognised.
4. Also, normal QR Code readers do not seem to recognise the image as a valid code.

[umgpy]

Same issue, although I could 'scan' one of the QRs (1 of 2) by simply clicking done button. However, after this step one has to again start the process to read the other QRs following the same method.

Note: it seems one does not have to align the code instead take it from a little bit far.

[MartinMaier]

I too can't import via QRs.
TB Desktop 128.4.2esr (64-bit) with 44 mailaccounts (IMAP/POP3 mixed) running on Windows 11 Pro (build 22631.4317).
The generated QRs are not recognized by Thunderbird for Android Version 8.0 running on

1. Samsung Galaxy S24, Android Version 14, One UI-Version 6.1
2. Lenovo Yoga Tab 13 , Android Version 13
   note: The QR-Code is readable on both devices by another QR-Code-Scanner -- text will be shown

[Bungeefan]

I noticed a similar problem while exporting an Outlook account from desktop, the resulting QR Code contained the following snippet:

[[[0,"smtp.office365.com",587,2,6,"XXXXXX@outlook.com",""],[null,""]]]

I compared it with similar accounts and noticed that this seems to be the sender name and email address.
After filling these empty fields in Thunderbird Desktop, I was able to import it without problems on mobile.

[ecollart2]

Same for me using Fairphone FP4 with e-OS 2.4.1 and TB Desktop 128.4.2esr on Ubuntu 24.04...

Scanning starts but doesn't scan the QR code (being 2 QR codes or 1 displayed by TB Desktop)

Another QRcode scanner can read the QRcode (QR scanner from Privacy Friendly Apps using ZXing library)

Eric Collart

[gitrazorhub]

Same issue for me on Android.

-Desktop TB version 128.4.1esr (64-bit) Ubuntu Mate.
-Android 14
-Pixel 5

After the step 'Select Import settings' the camera opens and a DONE button is shown but pressing it does nothing but move to the next page without any settings transferred.

[TerryJColes]

I'm not sure what resolved this for me, but I was notified by my Linux desktop of a Thunderbird update (together with quite a few possibly unrelated updates), and subsequent to this I was able to export / import my settings to my phone.

[TerryJColes]

Just tried to import settings onto my Blackview Active 8 tablet, this time with no success.

So it's not all good news.

[Ghosty01]

same

[ironhak]

Temporary fix: switch to light theme on the desktop application.

[MartinMaier]

hi ironhak .. same behaviour as with dark theme .. no import!

[ironhak]

hi ironhak .. same behaviour as with dark theme .. no import!

Did you set desktop thunderbird app to light theme?

[MartinMaier]

Yes .. but this doesn't change the colors of the QR-Code and it's background.

[ironhak]

Yes .. but this doesn't change the colors of the QR-Code and it's background.

I know background color of the QR does not change, but to me setting Thunderbird desktop theme to Light fixed the import. Other than that I'm afraid I can't help

[weslleyramos]

changing app to light theme fixed for me also

[ironhak]

I learned that this is not a problem of thunderbird, but most qr codes wont be read properly when the background (not just the background of the code, i mean the vast majority backlground of what the camera see) is dark. An easy fix would be to let have thunderbird page background to white on the qr code section, even if the app is in dark mode.

[MAWSpitau]

Same here - would be great to have that issue fixed.

[manikandancode]

Not Working in light mode also.

[kewisch]

The QR code spec defines a "quiet area" around the QR code where we're already using the recommended amount of white. There are a number of reasons scanning could fail, it is hard to focus on them all in this issue.

• Make sure you are on the latest Thunderbird Desktop version
• Check if it work in light mode
• Scan the QR code with another app, view the text. If it contains a null anywhere we'll want to know some more details about that account. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1934323 which has some troubleshooting steps from our Desktop developers.

For this issue let's maybe focus on the original reporter - @batty-h is this issue resolved for you?

[mikaelfritts]

Updated desktop client, set everything to light mode and no results. I cannot scan the QR codes.

[kewisch]

We're going to need a little more detail to be able to reproduce or troubleshoot. That third bullet point above is the next step for you.

[MartinMaier]

After spending a lot of time in tests, I've recognized that a QR transfer of data is only possible with a maximum of three email accounts ( only 1 QR code). In my case I have 55 accounts. So In my case I would have to select the transferpage, deselect 52 accounts manually (a deselect of all isn't possible) and do the transfer. That's not the way to transfer many accounts especially considering that the export/import in the android-app also doesn't work.

[cketti]

Please consult the support page for details on how to import accounts from Thunderbird for desktop: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-android-import

@MartinMaier: Exporting 55 accounts at once should be possible, although it will lead to a lot of QR codes being generated. You'll have to press the "Next" button to display the next QR code in the sequence.

If there's a problem with one of the accounts, the QR code containing the data for that account most likely won't be recognized by the Android app. In that case we need a dump of the data in that QR code (the QR code scanner "Binary Eye" works well for this) or a screenshot of it. Make sure to disable exporting passwords when generating the QR code to be shared for debugging!

[MartinMaier]

As I already described ... as soon as the export QR exeeds the quantity of 1 .. the app will not start to import. What I can do is ... select 3 accounts then export ... import will be ok ... select another 3 accounts then export ... import will be ok .... and so on ... and so on ...

[cketti]

As I already described ... as soon as the export QR exeeds the quantity of 1 .. the app will not start to import. What I can do is ... select 3 accounts then export ... import will be ok ... select another 3 accounts then export ... import will be ok .... and so on ... and so on ...

Each QR code contains information about how many QR codes are part of the series. The app will automatically start the import once all of the QR codes in a series have been scanned. However, you can also trigger the import with the data from the QR codes scanned so far by pressing the "Done" button in the Android app.

[kewisch]

For those of you who are having issues where it works in light mode but not in dark mode, could you install this extension and see if it works better? It increases the quiet zone around the QR code, though as a side effect the QR code also gets a bit smaller.

mobile_export_qr_tweak-1.0.0.zip

[cketti]

@MartinMaier: The data for the outgoing server mx2ef6.netcup.net with the usernames amazon@mmaier…, aqara@mmaier…, blink@mmaier…, broadlink@mmaier…, delonghi@mmaier…, and disney@mmaier… all use an authentication type of null. This is not allowed and probably a bug in the desktop app. Can you please take a screenshot of the outgoing server settings for one such instance in Thunderbird desktop?

[MartinMaier]

Hi cketti,
so ... I've added all missing authentication types. After that the import of all acounts are Ok.
by the way .... is it possible to remove my zip file?

[kewisch]

I've removed the comment with the file, though GitHub may still retain the file information separately which we cannot control.

[cketti]

@MartinMaier: It's great that export and import now works for you. But it would help other users if we could track down the bug in Thunderbird desktop. Do you remember what the authentication type was set to before you changed it?

[MartinMaier]

@cketti : the authentication type was "empty" .... blank

[Yuniac]

Hello everyone. Is this an issue on our ends or is it the android app? the desktop client? this doesn't work at all. I have tried since the android app first became available a while ago, I scan the QR code and nothing happens even if I hold my phone a whole minute scanning the code.

My desktop client version: 128.6.9esr 64bit on Win11

My android app version: 8.2

[Yuniac]

The QR code spec defines a "quiet area" around the QR code where we're already using the recommended amount of white. There are a number of reasons scanning could fail, it is hard to focus on them all in this issue.

* Make sure you are on the latest Thunderbird Desktop version

* Check if it work in light mode

* Scan the QR code with another app, view the text. If it contains a `null` anywhere we'll want to know some more details about that account. See [bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1934323](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1934323) which has some troubleshooting steps from our Desktop developers.

For this issue let's maybe focus on the original reporter - @batty-h is this issue resolved for you?

I just followed your advice and scanned using a different application (Phone's native camera app) and I got a text that my emails in a certain format but no null anywhere. I suppose this means the issue is from the android app that cannot scan the code or process the text? it just does nothing :)

[Yuniac]

For those of you who are having issues where it works in light mode but not in dark mode, could you install this extension and see if it works better? It increases the quiet zone around the QR code, though as a side effect the QR code also gets a bit smaller.

mobile_export_qr_tweak-1.0.0.zip

Sorry that I keep replying to you but I just want to say that I have downloaded and installed the extension, no difference.

And I'm not sure if you work on the app or not but I just want to say that the text is really not clear, the description text next to the button: Align the QR code provided from Thunderbird Desktop < fair, but then the button says Done, Are you expected to press it? when? usually, QR codes once scanned your phone automatically interacts and does something, so the mobile app should respond and close the scanning screen or the desktop app should say something, the done button is confusing. Maybe this is just me misunderstanding or being confused but just wanted to share

[cketti]

@Yuniac: Can you post the text retrieved by the QR code scanner here? Make sure to not include passwords when generating the QR code. Feel free to redact email addresses and server names.

[Yuniac]

@Yuniac: Can you post the text retrieved by the QR code scanner here? Make sure to not include passwords when generating the QR code. Feel free to redact email addresses and server names.

Sure, here it is for 2 emails:

[1,[1,1],[0,"[imap.gmail.com](http://imap.gmail.com/)",993,3,6,"[yyy@gmail.com](mailto:yyy@gmail.com)","[yyy@gmail.com](mailto:yyy@gmail.com)",""],[[[0,"[smtp.gmail.com](http://smtp.gmail.com/)",465,3,6,"[yyy@gmail.com](mailto:yyy@gmail.com)",""],["[yyy@gmail.com](mailto:yyy@gmail.com)","Yusuf Sabbag"]]],[0,"[imap.gmail.com](http://imap.gmail.com/)",993,3,6,"[xxx@gmail.com](mailto:xxx@gmail.com)","[xxx@gmail.com](mailto:xxx@gmail.com)",""],[[[0,"[smtp.gmail.com](http://smtp.gmail.com/)",465,3,6,"[xxx@gmail.com](mailto:xxx@gmail.com)",""],["[xxx@gmail.com](mailto:xxx@gmail.com)","Yusuf Sabbag - Work"]]

I had to scan with my camera app to get this text as scanning with thunderbird does nothing

[cketti]

@Yuniac: The text you posted contains Markdown-style links that shouldn't be there. There's also two closing square brackets missing at the end. Those errors might have been introduced when you redacted and/or copied the text. With those errors fixed the data validates and a QR code based on the fixed-up data scanned fine for me. That makes a problem with how the app is using the camera the most likely suspect. Can you provide the make and model of your Android device? Do other QR code scanners (not the one in the camera app that ships with the phone) also have problems reading QR codes?

[Yuniac]

@Yuniac: The text you posted contains Markdown-style links that shouldn't be there. There's also two closing square brackets missing at the end. Those errors might have been introduced when you redacted and/or copied the text. With those errors fixed the data validates and a QR code based on the fixed-up data scanned fine for me. That makes a problem with how the app is using the camera the most likely suspect. Can you provide the make and model of your Android device? Do other QR code scanners (not the one in the camera app that ships with the phone) also have problems reading QR codes?

The syntax errors are likely me copy-pasting/marking my emails but other than that thats the output given the thunderbird's QR code.

As for my phone model: Galaxy A25 5G - SM-A256E/DSN

Reading the QR code using an app I downloaded form the app store yielded the following (I didnt change anything in it this time so you can see it as is):

[1,[1,1],[0,"[imap.gmail.com](http://imap.gmail.com/)",993,3,6,"[sist.heb@gmail.com](mailto:sist.heb@gmail.com)","[sist.heb@gmail.com](mailto:sist.heb@gmail.com)",""],[[[0,"[smtp.gmail.com](http://smtp.gmail.com/)",465,3,6,"[sist.heb@gmail.com](mailto:sist.heb@gmail.com)",""],["[sist.heb@gmail.com](mailto:sist.heb@gmail.com)","Yusuf Sabbag"]]],[0,"[imap.gmail.com](http://imap.gmail.com/)",993,3,6,"[yusuffathisabbag@gmail.com](mailto:yusuffathisabbag@gmail.com)","[yusuffathisabbag@gmail.com](mailto:yusuffathisabbag@gmail.com)",""],[[[0,"[smtp.gmail.com](http://smtp.gmail.com/)",465,3,6,"[yusuffathisabbag@gmail.com](mailto:yusuffathisabbag@gmail.com)",""],["[yusuffathisabbag@gmail.com](mailto:yusuffathisabbag@gmail.com)","Yusuf Sabbag - Work"]]]]

[cketti]

This contains the Markdown-style links again. Can you take a screenshot of the "Export for mobile" screen in Thunderbird with the QR code? Just to rule out those are actually part of the data in the QR code.

[Yuniac]

This contains the Markdown-style links again. Can you take a screenshot of the "Export for mobile" screen in Thunderbird with the QR code? Just to rule out those are actually part of the data in the QR code.

Yeah it does but unfortunately that's what I keep getting when I scan thunderbird's QR code.

If I include a screenshot of the export for mobile section with the QR visible, wouldn't anyone be able to scan it and access my emails?

[cketti]

Only if you include the passwords. But since these are Gmail accounts that use OAuth, the passwords wouldn't be included even if you accidentally left the password checkbox enabled.

[Yuniac]

Only if you include the passwords. But since these are Gmail accounts that use OAuth, the passwords wouldn't be included even if you accidentally left the password checkbox enabled.

< Removed the QR code image >

I hope this is the correct place I was meant to screenshot. I select 2 emails from my 5 and click export, I get this QR code.

[cketti]

The data in the QR code is properly formatted. The app scans it fine on my device. So there seems to be a problem with Thunderbird for Android using the camera on your device. Does the camera preview on the phone look blurry? Have you tried moving the phone closer to the computer screen or farther away?

[Yuniac]

The data in the QR code is properly formatted. The app scans it fine on my device. So there seems to be a problem with Thunderbird for Android using the camera on your device. Does the camera preview on the phone look blurry? Have you tried moving the phone closer to the computer screen or farther away?

I will try to reinstall the app I guess...

It looks fine the camera, I held it still for like a minute, moved it closer and farther away, etc., but I will try to reinstall the app and test again and report.

[Yuniac]

This never worked so I just entered my emails info manually.

[hellsworth]

A friend reported having this issue on his pixel 7. He gets the QR code generated from the desktop app just fine. And on the mobile side, when he clicks Import Profile > Scan QR code , the camera just does not register that it is looking at a QR code. He checked the applications permissions and it does have permission to use the camera. His TB for Android version is 8.2.

[GloriousEggroll]

The QR code spec defines a "quiet area" around the QR code where we're already using the recommended amount of white. There are a number of reasons scanning could fail, it is hard to focus on them all in this issue.

• Make sure you are on the latest Thunderbird Desktop version

• Check if it work in light mode

• Scan the QR code with another app, view the text. If it contains a null anywhere we'll want to know some mor

This bug was the cause of my problem.

I generated a QR code from desktop app version 128.

I tried to scan the QR code to import settings into the thunderbird android app version 8.2

it would not register the QR code, it just stayed stuck in camera mode.

I scanned the QR code with another QR code app and found that one of my email accounts had a 'null' value for it's authentication.

In my cause it was an imap account for incoming mail, which i also paired with an smtp account using oauth2 authentication for outgoing mail.

So, in the thunderbird desktop app I changed the imap account's authentication type to Oauth2 -- oddly enough once I did this I no longer had the option to set it blank again.

After that I generated a new QR code and the android app picked it up just fine.