System updated despite being set to hold updates

You might check to see if you have other software installed that updates applications automatically. That has been occasionally reported. Otherwise, I have not seen any occurrence of this. There is a brute force way to stop updates, but NOT recommended.

This seems to be a Thunderbird problem more than my problem (though, it has been a thorn in my side for a while), but I’ll explain should any one of the Thunderbird tech people happen to see this post.

Attempt 1 – fail. My first attempt was to create a file (policies.json) in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\distribution with the file's contents: { "policies": { "DisableAppUpdate": true } } I got this advice from Gemini, and it seemed very reasonable. I expected the next upgrade process to act on this and bypass me on the update. Wrong! It deleted my newly created policies file and went ahead with the upgrade. Very disappointing.

Attempt 2 – fail. Following advice from this forum, I went into Settings and changed the update section to prevent updates unless I approved the update (words to that effect). The reason I didn’t do this first time around was that I might have accidentally clicked yes rather than no, when prompted. There was never a prompt, and the upgrade process ignored the Setting and went ahead with the upgrade. Even more disappointed.

Note: the reason I was doing this was that I was moving from Windows to Linux. The Windows installation of Thunderbird keeps updating automatically to the latest version, whereas Mint does not. Windows was on v 151, while Mint was on v 140 ESR. I couldn’t transfer my email data from Windows to Mint until both versions were compatible (ie. a version limitation). I wanted Mint to catch up. As it happened (lucky break for me), both Mint and Windows are on v 153. So, I was able to transfer my data.

So, the bottom line for me is that I’m okay, but anyone else who wishes to shift their email from Windows to Linux installations of Thunderbird is going to have a problem unless this issue is resolved or a solution provided.

The json hack doesn't appear to work any more. The Windows registry hack described here does work:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1314978

I have two .reg files that I sometimes invoke to disable/enable updates, but I rarely use them.

I have never seen Thunderbird update itself without "Automatically install updates" being enabled. It has always respected the "Check for updates, but let me choose whether to install them" setting. This is over many versions running on many different platforms. I think there something peculiar about your system and it's not a general Thunderbird problem.

That's interesting. However, the annoying "do you want to update" messages the poster from that old link described were not experienced by me. Not one message. I'd love to have seen them so that I could click no and be reassured the Setting was working.

It's safe to say that aspect of Thunderbird is not working and needs review.

In my case, I installed Windows 10 and have never fiddled with it in any way. I have always been conservative in what I install. I have Kaspersky installed, but would be surprised if it selected Thunderbird and no other to update automatically, and that sort of behaviour seems unlikely. In so far as I'm aware, no other software updates by itself automatically. Most warn you that an upgrade is available, allowing you to decide what to do.

The only thing that I could think of is what you see in Setting is not what Thunderbird "see" internally.

In a different situation ( actual case ) regarding Email signature. In Account Settings, one user set to use Signature and it's shown as it is. However Thunderbird does not use signature. The "fix" was to uncheck the box, restart Thunderbird and check the box. And Thunderbird uses signature from that point on.

Interesting. It seems as though system testing wasn't done fully. Another thing that needs to be looked at.