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I'm in the process of switching from Chrome to Firefox. When I go to Default Applications, both are listed under Web, but only Chrome is listed under Mail - no Firefox. So "mailto:" links open Chrome. I thought maybe I should extend /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop but the value of "Categories" there already includes everything that google-chrome.desktop has. Running Ubuntu 20.04.2 and Gnome. Suggestions welcome - thanks.

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    I am not aware that Firefox has any kind of mail client in it. Chrome does. If you do not want Chrome to capture the mail to install a mail client and make it the default.
    – David
    Aug 27, 2021 at 12:34
  • @David Are you sure Chrome has a mail client? I can't find any (although I use Chrome only in Windows, in Ubuntu I have Firefox and Chromium). I am pretty sure that Chrome is just a browser, like Firefox.
    – raj
    Aug 27, 2021 at 13:06
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    Chrome calls the api for gmail when its used.
    – David
    Aug 27, 2021 at 13:13
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    This info from the chrome web site might help. Open Chrome settings. Select "Show advanced settings" and click on "Content settings" under "Privacy." Scroll down to "Handlers" and select "Manage handlers." Select "mail.google.com" as your mailto site.
    – David
    Aug 27, 2021 at 13:19

3 Answers 3

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Open Firefox and set Settings > General > Applications > mailto to Use Gmail for example.

Then edit ~/.config/mimeapps.list and add or replace the following line in the [Default Applications] section.

x-scheme-handler/mailto=firefox.desktop
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The mail client by Mozilla is called Thunderbird, Firefox itself is only a browser.

So if you want a Firefox-ish experience, just use Thunderbird.

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    Ah OK - thanks for the clarification. This does seem like a hole that Mozilla should plug though. I use gmail like half the world's population, and when I click on a "mailto:" link in Chrome, it opens a gmail "New message" popup in Chrome. From Firefox, this works when the "mailto:" is in a gmail message, not from any other page. Starting up Thunderbird every time is a bit clunky - I might as well have Chrome come up after all, at least it's the same interface! Except now I find that having switched to Thunderbird to try it out, Chrome is no longer offered as a mail application :-(. Aug 29, 2021 at 10:11
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xdg-mime default firefox.desktop x-scheme-handler/mailto

running this command is the same as editing the config file ~/.config/mimeapps.list mentioned by Igor

P.S. On Debian you might need to use firefox-esr.desktop instead of firefox.desktop

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