I hope I've been nice enough. All other people working on Thunderbird I love you. Except that person who decided to change my 10 year database without asking. How difficult is to put the warning before installing new version. Ucheck is to blame, since he urged me to upgrade and myself, but this is major fuckup, considering all the changes you are making are constantly losing the best extensions. Why such a harsh language ? Because I want you to understand how stupid was this decision to make such a change to users database without asking or warning. Who ever made this decision works for microsoft and should be fired.

You might complain to Ucheck who messed you up https://www.adlice.com/ucheck/ because THEY did not properly check whether users should be updated to version 78. If you would have used only the Thunderbird supplied updater you would not have gotten 78.

We have a) CLEARLY publicized in multiple places [1] that we are not updating our users to version 78 at the present time, b) we have publicized to linux distributors that they should not update users to 78, c) as with many prior releases of Thunderbird (going back at least 5 years) we are following past practice of updating current version users (i.e. 68) for the next couple months to the SAME version, and not updating them to 78 until more bugs are fixed and more add-ons are available (from authors who we do not control), including the import export tools addon which very likely will be available in the coming weeks.

[1] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2020/07/whats-new-in-thunderbird-78/ https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/78.0/releasenotes/ etc

Thunderbird downloads: https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/ Only version 78 ! No warning, no link for 68. (Plus version 79 beta). I read up this some time ago and didn't upgrade, but I thought that now it's fine to do so, since that is the only version available to download on website. I've warned Ucheck to fix this. I'm also happy to help and recreate the old png icons in color vector format if that helps. I also admit it's my fault that I did the upgrade, but my point is that warning should come before 78 installation occurs, please add this.

Thunderbird downloads: https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/ Only version 78 ! No warning, no link for 68.

Nor should there be. The project is not updating existing users. That is the stated position. Onlt new users should be downloading Thunderbird from the web site. New users get Thunderbird 78.

I've warned Ucheck to fix this.

I also admit it's my fault that I did the upgrade, but my point is that warning should come before 78 installation occurs, please add this.

A warning of what exactly? I have just read this entire thread, and I see you complaining about changes to "your database" whatever that is. Do I take it your issue is something about the changed icons based on your last post about "the old png icons". Never would I expect a new version of an application to warn users of changes to icons. Microsoft did not do it when they foisted that god awful ribbon on us. They certainly did not do it when they changed all the icons to glyphs. Wayne mentions add-ons but warnings about add-ons are simply not relevant to new users. The folks that would be expected to be installing, while a warning to add-on users might be useful, it has been a long standing Mozilla policy to update regardless of addon comparability. I can not see the Thunderbird project changing that any time soon.

Downgrade protections have been in since the release of Thunderbird 68 around a year ago now, so it is not new really. Just that you were not aware of it. These knowledge base article refer https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/dedicated-profile-thunderbird-installation

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/unable-launch-older-version-profile

Personally I wonder why the import export tools could possible be a mission critical addon for day to day use, other than it's profile backup feature. It take over 3 hours to backup my profile so I tend to ignore that as useful really.

"Onlt new users should be downloading Thunderbird from the web site" That doesn't make sense to me at all. It's just an excuse. If I have a new computer and want to install old version on it with all database, it makes sense to download version from the website. Specially if some extension is needed, or it's bug free and reliable version. Instead of providing service or being helpfull, you are brainwashing me. That is ms attitude. You can state it is to complex to keep old versions or such explanation, which is fine, but not you don't need it. Ucheck should be working with you not with me to fix this, but I made them aware of this issue. Database is obviously mail. I uninstalled v78, installed 68.3.1 and it said that database is changed. Warning should be there if I'm not making a fresh install of thunderbird. What's odd about that ? Yes, it should have ring a bell that this version is 78 !?! instead of 70 or something, but I will not go into that. This is obviously another mind numbing policy so let's not discuss that.

Again, if you are writing software for users, then you should listen to them and help them out. You are not writing this for yourself, but for others. This kind of attitude will get my kind of frustrated complains. I've been using Thunderbird for such a long time, there was a good reason for that. Same with Firefox, those add-ons are crucial things which made big difference. I'm aware that programming is difficult, and you have to make decisions, but you should also put few safety things so users wouldn't make I mistake I made. I admit it's my mistake, but changing database is not right. Maybe I could find a way around it, but still that part is certainly wrong. I'm an old user and I recommended Thunderbird to many, many people over the years. In a recent years I lost so much functionality in Firefox, due to people who just can't keep up with changes. This addon is excellent, because it can export email in various formats. It's needed and it's brilliant feature. Not sure what takes 3 hours to backup, that addon is to export in different format, not for backup. Which solution would you suggest to backup emails ? Thanks for taking time to reply, I've seen similar issues and people asking for help about this upgrade, so I'm not the only one. Do you have more new users per month or old users who upgrade their versions of TB ?

What changes? I can't see nothing but the Contacts DB changes to SQLite in the What's new section.

I completely agree. I posted my own comment about how broken this is. I was pushed to upgrade as well and yes if it's not the version people should be using DON'T MAKE IT THE ONLY VERSION YOU CAN GET TO ON YOUR SITE.

And it's absolutely true--the upgrade makes permanent changes--I tried to reinstall 68.10 and as indicated it says you can't use that any more because the underlying data has been changed permanently. No backup, no un-break my data. I'm now on a completely unusable product. How unusable? I literally can't send email. New email, reply, the send button is grayed out either way. Entering an email address for the To field--it considers it invalid (red) but address books doesn't show my directories and doesn't return any search results.

As icing the headers (From/Subject/To/CC/etc) are all blank in the email pane even though they're fine in the listing pane.

I agree with the original poster--this is unusable, and if you don't want people going to it when it's not ready, then don't make it available without taking EXTRA effort to get to it, to confirm you know it's broken and that yes you still want to install anyway.

If you make me switch to Outlook because this product is unusable now, don't expect I'm going to come back. Please don't make me do that.

> I'm also happy to help and recreate the old png icons in color vector format if that helps

Thanks for the offer, but the patch would not be accepted because one of the reasons for the change is so the icons work in dark and light modes - color icons would not.

I'm not totally unsympathetic to your plight now that you have unfortunately updated. In fact we are very much interested in your case so that we can resolve it. Please make sure you copy your profile to a safe back up location. It would also be helpful to know what you see in tools > error console.

As for going back to 68, it's not a straight shot back but it is not overly complex. I doubt you are seeing a message that "database is changed." - you probably seeing https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/unable-launch-older-version-profile right ? Follow those instructions. Also, to get your addressbooks back in version 68 rename the .bak files in your profile (which were kept when the upgrade to 78 occurred).

Oh, finally helpful reply. But please send direct link to which instructions you mean. I've uninstalled 78, then reinstalled 68 and it didn't work. Opened error window, it's full of stuff.

I cannot tell you how ticked off I am TOO about this change / version 78.0.

On MacOSX, I use MacUpdater such that I can relatively automate for changes not covered by Apple's update procedures - means, MacUpdate collects all updates from all non-Apple SW in a database and scans my/your installed versions against this db. And guess what - it proposed to install Thunderbird 78.0 - and which I did, because new SW is always nice. And of course without reading the warnings.

The new Thunderbird would not let me send unencrypted eMails, although I have opted for sending unencrypted. It always acts as if I would like to send encrypted and asks for passwords for keys that either don't exist or were not imported from Enigmail properly.

Trying to reinstall old 68.xx would also not work straight away. NICE. Now I am in deep shit and need to figure out how to make it all work again. As if I had nothing else to do...

To test a fix: 1. download and extract https://firefox-ci-tc.services.mozilla.com/api/queue/v1/task/WAxn9pUkSVix7EHar9_6PA/runs/0/artifacts/public/build/target.zip 2. Navigate to the Thunderbird directory and run thunderbird.exe directly from there 3. Please post your results.

After testing, at the point where you want to get back to version 78 or 68, you'll need to use --allow-downgrade at the dos command prompt.

results ?

Hi, I have the same problems like @astiglic :

Now I'm having a Profile Folder which is "overwritten" with TB 78.0 and which doesn't start.

After deinstalling TB 78 and installing 68.10 again, the profil does not start even.

Now: What can I do exactly, to make it run again under 68.10. ?

I completely agree. I posted my own comment about how broken this is. I was pushed to upgrade as well and yes if it's not the version people should be using DON'T MAKE IT THE ONLY VERSION YOU CAN GET TO ON YOUR SITE. And it's absolutely true--the upgrade makes permanent changes--I tried to reinstall 68.10 and as indicated it says you can't use that any more because the underlying data has been changed permanently. No backup, no un-break my data. I'm now on a completely unusable product. How unusable? I literally can't send email. New email, reply, the send button is grayed out either way. Entering an email address for the To field--it considers it invalid (red) but address books doesn't show my directories and doesn't return any search results. As icing the headers (From/Subject/To/CC/etc) are all blank in the email pane even though they're fine in the listing pane. I agree with the original poster--this is unusable, and if you don't want people going to it when it's not ready, then don't make it available without taking EXTRA effort to get to it, to confirm you know it's broken and that yes you still want to install anyway. If you make me switch to Outlook because this product is unusable now, don't expect I'm going to come back. Please don't make me do that.

Completely agree with this. This happened to me - my version 68 was automatically upgraded to version 78 by a software manager tool. Extensions not compatible, reinstalled old version and could not open my mail databases, ended up losing everything and having to re-install from scratch. Awful decision to make version 78 the only branch available on the website, as sysadmins will assume this is the only supported branch. Wastes a lot of time for a lot of people and hurts the Thunderbird project overall.

Sorry that this is posted as a reply. I can't fathom how to start a new thread. I am now three hours in to trying to send mail with TB 78. Did succeed in sending a simple test message to wife (adjacent, then using TB 68 but now a restart away from 78) but my message to a list of 20-odd people has created a number of error messages and apparently intermittently broken my internet connection. First I got "unable to connect to (IMAP) address btinternet.com" Then I got " An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: We’re sorry but we can’t send your email. Either the subject matter, a link, or an attachment potentially contains spam, or phishing or malware. Please check or edit your message and try sending it again (6-1-2-2) ID (5ED9C74D0972AEF3). Please check the message and try again ..." The message then landed in my Sent folder. Why not in Drafts so I could easily edit it??? This message is of a type that I send weekly to myself and to the list via Bcc. Never had a problem before. This particular message contained a URL terminating with .gov.uk. Shouldn't have been a naughty site??? I tried to resend without the URL but no progress. After a while, I opened the original message in my Sent folder an forwarded it to me. I don't know why I thought of this, but it was delivered!!! Then I checked my wife's Inbox - her address is in my list - but nothing has arrived. For the record with the original message I did: address the item to Me, click the Bcc button and in that field enter the name of the list, in this case Covid19 team, enter the text as usual and click send. I can't put my finger on the offending component and I am worried. I've just tried to prevent the update on my wife's computer but I was too late. She'll not be turning off her PC today, if ever, so as to stick with 68.

Bad Bad Bad ... 15 years of emails gone. Walked into the office this am ... started Thunderbird .. asked me do a new account .. WTF ... I use remote profiles.ini folders for 15 years .. will not allow me to connect to recover ... I had hundreds of folders that are gone ... client logins .. FTP ... all sorts of info. HELLLLLLLLP

Bad Bad Bad ... 15 years of emails gone. Walked into the office this am ... started Thunderbird .. asked me do a new account .. WTF ... I use remote profiles.ini folders for 15 years .. will not allow me to connect to recover ... I had hundreds of folders that are gone ... client logins .. FTP ... all sorts of info. HELLLLLLLLP

A. First, you have a backup, right? If not, see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data#w_backing-up-a-profile B. Seconds, what exactly do you mean by "remote profile"? C. Version 78?

Yes it took me a week to realize this, but 78 wasn't working out for me. Had all the issues pointed out in this thread.

Here is what I did to successfully downgrade to 68 and retain my emails, address book, etc. (I am a relatively simple user and use email only, no news, no chat, no add-ons, etc.

I am on Windows 10 and downgraded to 68.9 32-bit Japanese. (I am fairly sure this would work for any 68.x.)

- Just to be safe, go to your Thunderbird profile folder (%APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles) and make a backup. (We will be renaming some files in it and it would be wise to have something you can fall back on.) - Uninstall Thunderbird (78) using Windows Control Panel; (This will NOT delete your current profile.) - Download a 68 version of your choice. (From https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/) - Install Thunderbird 68. - Fire up Thunderbird; you can cancel the profile setup and integration. (All we need is the new profile subfolder.) - Go to the profile folder and observe the filename of the profile subfolder create by 68. - Rename the new profile to something else (e.g. xxxx.bak) and rename the "old" profile to the new name. - Go into the profile subfolder, and rename any *.bak files (I had two of them, I think) to its original name. For example, if you have "abook.mab.bak", rename it back to "abook.mab".) - Move out of the subfolder. (Probably this is not necessary. Just being cautious not to interfere.) - From Windows command prompt, execute "thunderbird.exe --allow-downgrade"

This worked for me and my wife's account.

brandon12 said

Bad Bad Bad ... 15 years of emails gone. Walked into the office this am ... started Thunderbird .. asked me do a new account .. WTF ... I use remote profiles.ini folders for 15 years .. will not allow me to connect to recover ... I had hundreds of folders that are gone ... client logins .. FTP ... all sorts of info. HELLLLLLLLP

A. First, you have a backup, right? If not, see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data#w_backing-up-a-profile B. Seconds, what exactly do you mean by "remote profile"? C. Version 78?

@brandon, I just discovered you posted in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1297206

Let's please continue with your issues in that topic. thanks

Many good postings here, but the thread is getting quite large which eventually makes it difficult to address individuals' problems. So we are locking this topic, but everyone can still refer to it, and can certainly post new topics as needed. Thanks.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/new/thunderbird