Links open inside Prospect Mail window, instead of a browser

[SeppoTakalo]

There has been some changes apparently in Outlook Web, as Prospect Mail have not changed.

This week, I started to notice that when ever I try to click any link inside the email, it opens up inside Prospect Mail window. And because there is no navigation buttons, I cannot anymore get back to my email.

[murturn]

I see the same. Using the navigation buttons on the side of my mouse does work to return to the mailbox, but no other way is available as far as I can tell.

[PocketSam]

Did someone find a way to fix this?

[keirak420]

This does not appear to be a "Prospect Mail" issue but rather SnapCraft. I copied the repo, compiled the Debian version, and installed it through the OS. It now appears to be working normally for me. I opted to use https://github.com/kemoycampbell/prospect-mail instead as he has incorporated a "right" mouse click menu that allows you to copy links as well but I did test both.

Test it out, uninstall the SnapCraft version compile your Linux distro version, and try that way. Hopefully, this works for you guys as well. Good luck.

CORRECTION:
I just realized that I didn't have my "settings.json" configured. Upon setting it, now it defaults to the internal browser. I am still troubleshooting this but it does appear to be something with the following settings:

{
    "urlMainWindow":"https://outlook.live.com/mail",
    "urlsInternal":["outlook.com", "live.com"],
    "urlsExternal":["outlook.com", "live.com"]
}

[keirak420]

Ok, so I just reinstalled the SnapCraft version, and changed these lines:

{
    "urlMainWindow":"https://outlook.live.com/mail",
    "urlsInternal":["outlook.com", "live.com"],
    "urlsExternal":["outlook.com", "live.com"]
}

to:

{
    "urlMainWindow":"https://outlook.live.com/mail"
}

I had to quit and restart Prospect Mail as reload didn't seem to change this behavior.
At least for now, the links are redirected to a browser, I am not sure how this will impact other links moving forward. Alternatively, use Kemoy Campbell's version as it at least allows you to right-mouse-click and copy.

Keira

[zeldigas]

I've tried solution from @keirak420 but it does not seem to work. From js logic all is fine, and exactly the branch that should open link in browser is executed, but in fact page is still opened inside prospect's window.

Here is the log that I can see, hope it can help identify issue. Maybe the root cause is ibus connectivity issue as I see some warning about it?

(prospect-mail:123655): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:54:16.798: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:3770:23: 'font-feature-settings' is not a valid property name
Loaded settings {
  outlookUrl: 'https://outlook.office.com/mail',
  deeplinkUrls: [
    'outlook.live.com/mail/deeplink',
    'outlook.office365.com/mail/deeplink',
    'outlook.office.com/mail/deeplink',
    'outlook.office.com/calendar/deeplink'
  ],
  outlookUrls: []
}
[123735:0920/175417.004319:ERROR:sandbox_linux.cc(376)] InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process.
[123655:0920/175417.557710:ERROR:browser_main_loop.cc(269)] Gdk: gdk_window_thaw_toplevel_updates: assertion 'window->update_and_descendants_freeze_count > 0' failed
initialMinimization.domReady false

(prospect-mail:123655): IBUS-WARNING **: 17:54:18.914: Unable to connect to ibus: Could not connect: Connection refused
Open in browser: https://outlook.office.com/mail/safelink.html?....(long url here from email, that should be really matter)

[chahatupreti]

Any update on this?

[DenisBY]

I had to switch to Freelook because of this and Freelook doesn't have this issue.

[adimitr]

Just confirming that I also see the issue, but started seeing it maybe a month ago or so. Not sure why it manifested later than the rest of you. Thanks for the posts. I will try some of the configurations suggested here.

Update: I experimented with the proposed setting and noted that having just
"urlsExternal":["outlook.com", "live.com"]
in the settings.json lead to the desired behavior: external links open in my default browser; internal links, like Calendar, open in a Prospect Mail window. Adding the "urlsExternal" setting caused Calendar changes to also open in the browser window, which worked but was annoying to me.

Cheers

[negesti]

Seeing the same problem, the logs shows "opening in browser" but the link is openend inside Prospect Mail :(

Open in browser: https://outlook.office.com/mail/safelink.html?url=<damnLongUrlNobodyCanRead>

[paulquevedojdrf]

This started happening to me because my company enabled some outlook safelink policy thing which directs all links through https://outlook.office.com/mail/safelink.html?url=<your link>
Given that the common URL prefix https://outlook.office.com/mail is the same to all other internal outlook links, I don't think this can be worked around via settings.json. The best you can do was explained here:

• Links open inside Prospect Mail window, instead of a browser #240 (comment)

I think the regex logic for determining when to open links in a new window needs support for exclusion patterns.

• I tried adding a negative regex pattern to settings.json but as expected that shouldn't work if electron-settings is doing its job.

prospect-mail/src/controller/mail-window-controller.js

Lines 243 to 261 in 04e96a1

	openInBrowser(e, url, frameName, disposition, options) {
	console.log('Open in browser: ' + url)//frameName,disposition,options)
	if (new RegExp(deeplinkUrls.join('|')).test(url)) {
	// Default action - if the user wants to open mail in a new window - let them.
	//e.preventDefault()
	console.log('Is deeplink')
	options.webPreferences.affinity = 'main-window';
	}
	else if (new RegExp(outlookUrls.join('|')).test(url)) {
	// Open calendar, contacts and tasks in the same window
	e.preventDefault()
	this.loadURL(url)
	}
	else {
	// Send everything else to the browser
	e.preventDefault()
	shell.openExternal(url)
	}
	}

[pkeir]

I am also affected by this. Whenever I click on a link, it opens within Prospect Mail. I am then unable to return to Prospect Mail. My best option is then to close Prospect Mail, and click "Quit" via right-click on the unwanted Prospect Mail icon at the top bar of Gnome (Ubuntu).

Is there perhaps a keyboard shortcut for "Back" (previous page), which might already be available?

[dmdalmas]

Best work around I have found is to alt+F4 the prospect-mail window and relaunch the program. This keeps prospect-mail running in the background but seems to reset the session and brings you back to mail.

[pkeir]

Thanks. I tried that, but bizarrely it seems I have to perform those actions twice before it works (using either ALT-F4 or the X at the top-right).

With the method I mentioned, I have now discovered that only the second part is required: right-click on the (otherwise) unwanted Prospect Mail icon at the top bar of Gnome (Ubuntu), and select: Quit. That both closes the window and resets the session.

[negesti]

@pkeir Right click on the top bar icon does not work for my. In my case right click on the icon opens a context menu and enable/disable the checkbox "Window Frame" reloads the prospect mail session and i can access my mails again

[pkeir]

Nice. This does work for me, though I find on the menu that pops up from the top bar icon, the choice is Settings > Show Window Frame.

The only disadvantage is that with Show Window Frame being a toggle, the window then appears without a frame, and so cannot be moved by the mouse as usual.

[pkeir]

Links seem now to be opening correctly in the browser for me.

[micw]

{
"urlMainWindow":"https://outlook.live.com/mail",
"urlsInternal":["outlook.com", "live.com"],
"urlsExternal":["outlook.com", "live.com"]
}

I wonder what the meaning of this setting is, it makes no sense to me. In the code, urlsInternal goes into the "deeplinkUrls" variable. "urlsExternal" goes to the "outlookUrls" variable. outlookUrls are always opened within the application's main window. For deeplinkUrls, the "default bahaviour" is used (I guess either the main window or a new application window).
All that does not match opens in an external browser.

I modified the code a bit locally to allow to force that some URLs are opened in an external browser. This way I can force "safelink.html" to be opened external although it matches the other domains which solves this issue for me. I will provide a PR for testing.

[pkeir]

Links seem now to be opening correctly in the browser for me.

I spoke too soon: YouTube, Github and OneDrive links (at least) are once again opening within Prospect Mail.

[kbuzzard]

Me too (on Ubuntu 20.04). The problem with the "click on top bar icon, quit and restart" is that then I lose my location in the middle of the hundreds of emails I'm trying to deal with. People suggested changing something in settings.json -- where is this file stored on an Ubuntu system? I seem to have installed it via Snap?

By the way, to confirm that this is a work account and now when I click on a link I get a "Verifying link..." page for a second or two, with "Powered by Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection" at the bottom.

Right now to work around this I've resorted to reading emails in a browser window, which is randomly awful for other reasons (I've had issues with emails being spontaneously deleted, for example; this doesn't happen for me with Prospect Mail).

[micw]

can you give my PR #262 a try to check if it solves the issue for you?

[kbuzzard]

I'm afraid that I'm just using Prospect Mail via some package manager and am in no position to compile it myself. Icon click -> settings -> settings file just opens a random folder on my system called .config with e.g. some md5sum files in and a few directories.

Update: the directory is ~/snap/prospect-mail/22/.config and in the Prospect Mail subdirectory there's a settings.json file whose contents until 5 minutes ago just consisted of {}. I changed it to {"urlsExternal":["outlook.com", "live.com"]} and this didn't fix the problem, but for all I know my syntax is wrong.

Final update: I changed the contents of this file to

{
"urlMainWindow":"https://outlook.live.com/mail",
"urlsInternal":["outlook.com", "live.com"],
"urlsExternal":["outlook.com", "live.com"]
}

and this seems to have fixed the problem for me (I had to log in again). Thanks to the people who posted in this thread!

[jclsn]

Any way to force the links to be opened in Firefox?

[kbuzzard]

Oh this is a great question: I've noticed that right now in my set-up the links are being opened in a new window but with no browser buttons (so e.g. you can't go back if you click on a link)

[jclsn]

The workaround needs to be changed to

{
"urlMainWindow":"https://outlook.office.com/mail/",
"urlsInternal":["outlook.com", "live.com"],
"urlsExternal":["outlook.com", "live.com"]
}

now

[pkeir]

I tried the solution above. I edited $HOME/snap/prospect-mail/current/.config/Prospect Mail/settings.json as suggested. Now links open using a new Prospect Mail window (rather than your browser, with your browser settings).

It's certainly easier then to recover, but this is still not a proper fix.

[jclsn]

Yeah, there is another fix in a fork somewhere, but I was too lazy to build it myself.

Here: #262

Since the developer has abandoned this project, someone should maybe build it or create an AUR package

[areyesco]

The problem is in the sniped code by paulquevedojdrf, but understanding the code, you only need to modify the property "urlsExternal" in the settings.json file with a customer random array string, to overwrite the default value. My in case I add this value for "urlsExternal":

File settings.json
{
...
"urlsExternal": ["A"]
...
}

Close and reopen prospect mail, and now all the links are open in a new web browser window.

[kbuzzard]

This opens the links in a new window of some sort but I still don't get the browser navigation buttons such as a "back" button, and I'm not logged into things like github if I click on a github link.

[justinvson-pd]

Still doesn't work with latest main build for me, links still open inside prospect client

built and installed using snap.

Also changing settings.json does not seem to have effect on this, either by setting urlsExternal to a weird value or setting the other suggested values.

[julian-alarcon]

Please try again @justinvson-pd . You could use the beta channel of snap with version 0.5-beta1
sudo snap install prospect-mail --channel=beta

[micw]

It should work. I run a build of that PR since I created it and had no single external link opened in the mail window.