This got fixed by Thunderbird 31. Great! See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/+bug/1347124/comments/5
** Changed in: thunderbird (Ubuntu) Status: Confirmed => Fix Released -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to thunderbird in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1004841 Title: Thunderbird Icon set is broken (ugly, black and white icons) Status in “thunderbird” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released Bug description: Since Oneiric the standard theme in thunderbird is broken. In Oneiric (and Precise) some of the coloured Icons were replaced by black&white pictograms, but not consistently all. For example the Lightning Icons still remain coloured, as they were before. I don't know why some Icons were replaced by pictograms (is this because of a new GTK-Theme?) , this is only in the Linux version of TB, the Windows version still has the coloured icons. It would have been better if the old standard theme remains untouched, and a new theme would have been created for the new black&white pictograms. See attached screenshot for the weird icons. Possible work-around: Download Thunderbird from mozilla, extract a file called omni.ja and overwrite the copy at /usr/lib/thunderbird/. Not sure if this has undesired effects (it may delete all your email, so be careful!), but it works for me. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/+bug/1004841/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp