Thunderbird Community Forum

Good morning, I had asked a question early on Saturday, but was unavailable the rest of the weekend so just now responding to associate Corey Bryan's answer. I had gotten a message that I am using an unsupported version and they recommend downloading the latest stable version.

He said it appears that I'm on the "Release" channel and most likely want to be on the ESR channel. I also mentioned that I am a cave-man when it comes to anything computer and am very skittish about making any changes as I don't how to straighten out any errors that might occur.

He asked me where I installed Thunderbird from and the answer is that I don't know. It was an IT guy that did it many years ago.

So I guess my questions are, if I've been using this version for years, do I need to or should I update it? If so, if I click on the latest stable version of Thunderbird, will that change anything on my computer, aside from getting the newer version of T-Bird? And will my e-mails in Thunderbird look any different?

Thanks very much for the help. Tony

I just upgraded to 128.2.2esr and cannot receive or send messages after the update. I have restarted the computer and tried again - still nothing. I'm unable to use a tool that is critical for my daily needs.

Trying to send just says "Connected" or "Sending" but never completes. Worked fine before the update which was just in the past hour or so.

Same issues with downloading new email or sending email for all accounts. :(

Anyone else having problems? Ideas?

Thank you!

I understand that Postbox, based on Thunderbird, will never be updated to become compatible with Apple silicon chips. Therefore Postbox will cease to work when Rosetta will be deprecated on macs. Consequently my question is where can I find directions to import messages, filters, and preferences from Postbox to Thunderbird?

A few weeks ago after an automatic update I ended up having Thunderbird version 131.0.1 installed, I have no idea how this happened. On opening I get a message telling me I shouldn't be using a beta version and that I should revert to the latest general release version (128.4)

Today when I had some free time I downloaded 128.4 and installed it. On opening it it says that I can't use a profile file from a later version with the earlier version. Is there a way to recover from this WITHOUT having to set up the whole profile again from scratch.

Meanwhile I have done a system restore so I am back with 131.0.1 It has not given me any problems so far. Is there a new general release version imminent that will get me back on track?

I would appreciate any help I am not a computer expert, just a user, and find Thunderbird a very good email client.

David Gould

Outlook says that it will no longer let third party mail apps like Thunderbird to access Outlook email as of September 16, 2024? What do you recommend?

"Action Needed – You may lose access to some of your third-party mail and calendar apps

Update your sign-in technology before September 16th, 2024 to maintain email access.

The safety and security of your information is top priority for Microsoft. To help keep your account secure, Microsoft will no longer support the use of third-party email and calendar apps which ask you to sign in with only your Microsoft Account username and password. To keep you safe you will need to use a mail or calendar app which supports Microsoft’s modern authentication methods. If you do not act, your third-party email apps will no longer be able to access your Outlook.com, Hotmail or Live.com email address on September 16th.

What do you need to do?

If you are receiving this email, you are currently using an email or calendar app that uses a less secure authentication method to connect to your Outlook.com email account. You will need to upgrade your third-party mail and calendar app to a version which supports modern authentication methods.

Microsoft provides free versions of Outlook for your PC, Mac, iOS, and Android devices which can be easily downloaded and connect to your email account. Using an updated version of an Outlook application will ensure you are connecting in the most secure way.

How can you set up your Gmail, Apple Mail, or other third-party mail application?

Various non-Microsoft applications will have their own steps for connecting to your Outlook.com email account using modern authentication methods. See our help article - Modern Authentication Methods now needed to continue syncing Outlook Email in non-Microsoft email apps. However, you may need to contact the creators of those applications to provide you with instructions. In many cases, simply removing and re-adding your account with the latest version of that application will configure it to use modern authentication methods.

Privacy Statement

Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 USA"

I had to restart my Mac. When TB restarted during relaunch of the Mac, it was like TB starting fresh. It didn't display my email accounts, or my folders with saved emails, etc.

I quit TB and looked for it in my Applications folder - and I found two versions of TB. Inside the Thunderbird folder was version 140.9.0esr. Outside the Thunderbird folder was version 150.0. See attached screen grab.

I thought I should try launching the newer version (which was outside the folder). So I moved the 140.9.0 version to the trash, then launched the newer version – and it had the same problem. It looked like I was starting TB from scratch.

Next I quit TB (the newer version) and moved the older version out of the trash and back into the TB folder and double-clicked on it. A dialog box popped up saying that the file is damaged and can't be launched.

So I tried launching the newer version again, and it still looks like starting from scratch.

I really hope somebody can help me solve this. I can't access any of my email accounts or any of my stored emails. I use email for work (as most of us do), so this is crippling me.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I downloaded Thunderbird 120 and installed. All I get is error message saying windows is searching for thunderbird.exe and nothing else. Old version has disappeared and I can not uninstall - get same searching for uninstall.exe. I have tried re-downloading it and re-installing it 4 or 5 times, still nothing. help please.

Can current Thunderbird (52.5.2) still import old mail from Outlook Express (on Windows XP SP3)?

Or should I try to install an older version like v38.5.0?

I also have my mail in Outlook 2003 & 2007, but I read Thunderbird hasn't been able to import from a .PST for a long time (since v.17 or so). Let me know if I'm on the right track (and which track is best). I stuck with Outlook far too long. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm running Windows 10 Pro (64-bit). I have two different versions of Thunderbird installed on my system; one is installed in Program Files (64-bit version 125.0.0.0 dated 04/23/2024—old version) and the other is installed in Program Files (x86) (64-bit version 115.12.2.0 dated 06/25/2024—the current version). The shortcut icon on my desktop (which I never use) runs the older version located in the Program Files folder while the shortcut icon on my taskbar (and also the one in my Start menu) runs the updated version located in the Program Files (x86) folder.

As an aside, there are 21 .dll files in the Program Files (x86) folder (all starting with api-ms-win and dated 09/27/2023) while none of those files are in the Program Files folder.

FYI, I have been using Thunderbird on this PC for almost five years.

How do I fix this problem so that I have only the current version of Thunderbird run from the proper folder, Program Files?

Help! TB 60 continuously crashes on all of our machines so we're using 52.9 until the bug is figured out, BUT TB insists on auto-updating to version 60 despite turning off auto-update settings. These are the exact non-default update settings we have. Can you help me figure out why TB continues to auto-update?

user_pref("app.update.auto", false); user_pref("app.update.channel", ""); user_pref("app.update.enabled", false); user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.addon-background-update-timer", 1536598499); user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.background-update-timer", 1536598626); user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.blocklist-background-update-timer", 1536598371); user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.search-engine-update-timer", 1536599735); user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.telemetry_modules_ping", 0); user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.xpi-signature-verification", 1536599607); user_pref("app.update.migrated.updateDir", true); user_pref("app.update.service.enabled", false); user_pref("app.update.showInstalledUI", false);

The latest update of Thunderbird somehow made this message appear "This is an unsupported version of Thunderbird!!" (see attached picture). Is this a bug? I've checked the version on the homepage and it's the same that's running on my PC (Windows 11).

I've - I hope! - followed all the Thunderbird Support instructions on moving a Profile from one computer to another with a different OS (save a copy of the profile file from the first computer, download and install TB on new computer, locate its "Profile" folder, and then either paste the contents of the former profile file into the new profile file [thus overwriting the latter]), then open TB . . . but it didn't work.

I then tried the same, but with a slightly different method: I copied the name of the new profile file, gave it to the old computer's profile file, then renamed the new profile file, and pasted the old profile file -- now with the proper new name -- into the new directory. . . that, too, didn't work.

I've spent a few hours trying to get this to work, and am nearing the point of giving up on TB as an email solution.

Any help would be very welcome!

I am having trouble manually configuring an AOL email account (username@verizon.net). AOL's instructions say to manually configure the account. I tried to do that twice, once with IMAP and the other with POP.

Now, I have two email folders in Thunderbird that I cannot use. They are both empty because I get a message box that says "Login to server imap.aol.com with username@verizon.net failed." when I try to use them. When I use the same login credentials to login to the website mail.aol.com, they work.

I have to contact AOL as to why when I try to access the account with an email client (Thunderbird and Outlook) I'm getting password errors. In the meantime, how do I delete the two email folders created incorrectly in Thunderbird?

Thanks for your help.

hi i'm at my whits end trying to get my data across from windows mail. I paid someone to sort this, and he said it will continue to say the connection is lost while getting data across from windows mail. its been a week now. i cant get it to work properly. none of my addresses are there, mail continues to not arrive at my PC (when I've got it on my phone), it just keeps saying loading message 1 of 3457. but never gets to the total. the number has remained the same for many days now so obviously its loaded all the emails, but it still appears stuck. also the preview window seems to not work (has worked once or twice). frustrated...

dont want to buy stupid microsoft products but i just cant work this way?

I run Mac OS X version 10.11.6, El Capitan. I have used Apple's Mail.app for many years. I'm trying to convert to Thunderbird, version 52.5.2. I have successfully created a TB account, but I have not been able to create usable copies of any of my Mail.app mailboxes in TB.

I have faithfully followed "Importing Apple Mail messages" in the page titled "Switching from Apple Mail to Thunderbird". That method thinks it works, but imports exactly 0 mailboxes.

I also went through all of "Install, Migrate and Update" multiple times, but nothing there helps.

Finally, I tried TB's Events and Tasks --> Import... path, but that processes only files of types .ics (for calendars) .csv "Outlook Comma Separated Values (*.csv)" (or .ics for calendars).

I did discover that Mail.app has an "Export Mailbox..." option, which will produce a mname.mbox directory for each exported mailbox. I've tried getting TB to use that as input by copying it to the Local Folders directory before starting TB. TB somewhat recognizes the .mbox folders that are there, but it doesn't show the mail to me when I select them.

So the question is: How DO I get my current mail copied to TB?

I made a mistake. I had 128 and went up to 140. It pretty much looks the same, but a big difference is an extension I always use says it will not work with 140. I don't care how good 140 might be; if I can't use my app, QUICKTEXT, then I don't need this. How do I go back to 128 or to a version that works with my extension?

i have an old win10 machine with a huge thunderbird profile - 37.9GB size / 75.2GB disk. i'd like to move it with Tools Export / Import to a new win11 machine.

on win10 i click thru tools > export > open profile folder

and in ...\thunderbird\profiles i select yhcc00j7.dan and export it to an external ssd.

it runs for hours and then a number of these appear: "Are you sure you want to copy with file without its properties? The file %2B...." has properties that can't be copied to the new location.... Type WDSEML file size 1.02KB....".

so i check "Do this for all current items" and hours later it finishes.

on win11 i click thru tools > import > import from another thunderbird profile > choose a profile and select the folder yhcc00j7.dan on the ssd and import everything > start

for a minute or so it says "importing .... 0%" but no new profile shows up in ...appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles\ and then "import failed unexpectedly" is displayed.

i've tried this twice. both machines have version 115.11.1 "esr update channel". what am i doing wrong?

I have installed and am running Thunderbird on my new laptop, and would like to use the profile from my old computer. I have followed the instructions provided, and copied the profile (renamed) into the folder on the new laptop. When I run "thunderbird.exe-p" I receive a message "cannot find Thunderbird.exe-p" and asked to try again, but without success. I would be grateful for help on this problem. With thanks Alan