This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Update to 78.1.1

more options

Hi I upgraded my computer to Thunderbird 78.1.1 using Thunderbird Setup 78.1.1.exe on Windows 10. I get a message saying that a new version of Thunderbird made changes to the profile. When I look at thunderbird.exe it says the file version is 78.1.0.7522 though it does say that the product version is 78.1.1.

I tried downloading and reinstalling a couple of times, it hasn't worked.

How can the profile be modified by a newer version than I installed?? What can I do to get it working?

Hi I upgraded my computer to Thunderbird 78.1.1 using Thunderbird Setup 78.1.1.exe on Windows 10. I get a message saying that a new version of Thunderbird made changes to the profile. When I look at thunderbird.exe it says the file version is 78.1.0.7522 though it does say that the product version is 78.1.1. I tried downloading and reinstalling a couple of times, it hasn't worked. How can the profile be modified by a newer version than I installed?? What can I do to get it working?

Chosen solution

The error you see can be avoided by launching Profile Manager from the command line (Windows) or terminal (Linux), with the --allow-downgrade argument.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_manager#Windows

e.g. Windowskey+R, type in thunderbird.exe -p --allow-downgrade

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (4)

more options

The file and product versions are correct. If you ran 78 on a profile that was previously run in 68, the profile would have been modified, e.g. abook.mab replaced by abook.sqlite. What kind of problems do you have? Running 78 on an old profile is not recommended, as some users experience blank messages, missing address books etc. That is why updates to 78 have not been deployed by the internal TB updater. There are a couple of steps that might fix your (unstated) issues, but the best approach is to create a new profile with 78, from Help/Troubleshooting, about:profiles, and transfer data manually from the old profile to the new one.

Re-installing 68 and opening the profile that has been run in 78 is possible, but more complicated.

more options

Unfortunately, I don't remember the exact sequence of what happened. I dual boot Windows and Linux with the same default directory. The Linux repository had a new version available, but I did not install until I booted into Windows so it could update first (easier that way).

I let Windows update, but after it updated, it gave me the message " A newer version of Thunderbird may have made changes ti your profile..." So, I booted into Linux and got basically the same message. Then I used the repository to update Thunderbird. It had 78.1.1 in the repository. After installing, I got close to the same message. So, I went back to Windows and the downloaded the version that was on the website which was 78.1.1 and installed it, but I still get the same message in both Windows and Linux. I don't know what previous version was installed.

It seems strange that both would say that the profile has been updated by a version that is apparently newer than what either system has.

So, I can transfer all of the old messages, etc. to the new profile?

more options

Chosen Solution

The error you see can be avoided by launching Profile Manager from the command line (Windows) or terminal (Linux), with the --allow-downgrade argument.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_manager#Windows

e.g. Windowskey+R, type in thunderbird.exe -p --allow-downgrade

more options

Excellent!! Thanks for your help.

It worked