Hi,

Can you precise which OS you use and wihich version of thunderbird?

Make sure to download the English version. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/all.html

BernardConnell said

I have downloaded Thunderbird in British English (which I prefer as I am Australian) and also American English but as soon as I begin the installation it reverts to Chinese which I cannot read. I can guess what is said in most instances but not all. It makes use of the program extremely difficult.

I repeat I downloaded TB in GB-En and US-En with the same result. I am using Win 7 sp1 64 bit Prof English Version.

May be you can uninstall the previous version and even remove the folder of thunderbird located in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\ by default in windows 7.

Then you can go there http://download.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/31.4.0/win32/, choose your language, en-GB or en-US, and download the install.

I have done this many times and just did it again. As far as I know I have deleted all trace of thunderbird on my system and redownloaded from the link to En-US version but as soon as it extracts it immediately becomes chinese characters

You can download the language pack here : http://download.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/31.4.0/win32/xpi/.

To install it, find the menu boutton, then the add-ons button ( which is indicated by a piece of puzzle ). Here you can click on the wheel on the left of the search bar and select the third option. Indicate the location of the package you downloaded.

Thanks to all who tried to help but as I cannot seem to solve this I have decided to use emclient instead

Ok. I make a new post to clarify what i said before. I linked some pictures to help too.

step 0 : first, you have to download your language pack at this address http://download.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/31.4.0/win32/xpi/.

step 1 : open thunderbird. Find the icon of the menu (1), click on it, then click on the add-ons icon (2). It will open a new tab.

step 2 : Find the icon which looks like a wheel and click it (3). Then select the third option (4). Select the language pack you downloaded at step 0. A popup message should appear.

step 3 and 4: click on in the left button (5). A message should appear on the top of the window. Click on the button at the top right corner (6).

step 5 : At this moment, you should see the name of the language pack you installed. Close thunderbird (7) and restart it.

step 6 : Thunderbird should be in your language.

I hope it will be useful.

PS : The link in step 0 is for thunderbird 31.4. If you have a different version, please click on parent directory until you find the folder of your version.