can't read old emails after update
Several months ago, I began receiving a message 'do you want thunderbird to make changes to your computer' everytime I clicked on the desktop icon or read an email moved to a Windows 7 documents file. Each time I clicked 'no'. Finally I clicked on 'view details' and saw it seemed to be a valid Mozilla message and clicked 'yes'. After something was done to my computer and I got the desktop screen back, I clicked on the Thunderbird icon shortcut and received the message 'short cut not valid (or some such) since thunderbird.exe has been changed or moved'. With a search I found a second .exe file with the correct date (the first was in the program folder) in 'downloads' with '/update', which is how I know that what I had agreed to was an update. Once I could access the Thunderbird inbox again; I pinned the icon to the task bar and Thunderbird is working normally again as far as receiving and sending emails, except the message 'do you want thunderbird...' continues to appear, which is very annoying. My main problem is that I can't open (and read) the old emails in my Windows 7 documents files, which are now denoted with a different icon. Has anyone had a similar experience or have ideas about what is going on. thank you.
Chosen solution
When Thunderbird start it check to see if it is the default mail client. If it is not it prompts you to allow the necessary changes to your system to make it the default.
Uninstall Thunderbird and reinstall from thunderbird.net That will reset your default mail program, get you back the the correct EXE location and reset the icons.
Clicking yes in the first place did not cause the program to be moved. My guess is your anti virus program blocked the update for whatever appeared important to it and left you with no Thunderbird program. You should not execute any program in Windows that is not in the program files or program files 32 directory. It is not safe, and most programs do not work properly if they are not installed. Thunderbird included.
It looks like you are using windows 10. If you opened the mail app that comes with it, even in error it will changes the default mail program to it. So in future read the message and if you do not understand it ask for assistance. Clicking no is usually safer than saying yes, but blindly doing either is not a good way to go. In this case you were being asked to change it back how you wanted. If you had done it the first time the update would not have interfered and you would not have thought your clicking caused the program to go away.
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When Thunderbird start it check to see if it is the default mail client. If it is not it prompts you to allow the necessary changes to your system to make it the default.
Uninstall Thunderbird and reinstall from thunderbird.net That will reset your default mail program, get you back the the correct EXE location and reset the icons.
Clicking yes in the first place did not cause the program to be moved. My guess is your anti virus program blocked the update for whatever appeared important to it and left you with no Thunderbird program. You should not execute any program in Windows that is not in the program files or program files 32 directory. It is not safe, and most programs do not work properly if they are not installed. Thunderbird included.
It looks like you are using windows 10. If you opened the mail app that comes with it, even in error it will changes the default mail program to it. So in future read the message and if you do not understand it ask for assistance. Clicking no is usually safer than saying yes, but blindly doing either is not a good way to go. In this case you were being asked to change it back how you wanted. If you had done it the first time the update would not have interfered and you would not have thought your clicking caused the program to go away.
thank you Matt for the prompt response. I'm writing to you on win 10, but computer in question has win 7 (not enough RAM to support 10) I had to manually uninstall all the TB (program) files. Download took 2 tries. Reinstall said it didn't work, but then after I gave permission for making changes the inbox appeared, the program was listed everywhere, I could read old emails and they had the icon. I hope I wasn't wrong in assuming that everything is ok. I didn't make TB the default email until afterwards, but there are no competitors on the win 7 machine as far as I know. thank you, thank you, thank you
It was to fix all the system integration that I said reinstall, so if it is fixed you should be right now.