Go back to an older version

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This article describes how to go back to an old version of Thunderbird, including how to deal with problems that may occur due to changes to your profile. Whatever version of Thunderbird you re-install, it will automatically find and reuse your profile (it contains your mail, address books, settings, saved passwords, add-ons etc.), which is not deleted when you uninstall or reinstall Thunderbird.

Its also possible to keep the current version, and do a custom installation of a older version in a different directory to see if your problem is due to the latest version of Thunderbird or not. If you set extensions.strictCompatibility false using the config editor to let you install add-ons that don't explicitly state they support version 60 or later that value may get reset to its default value (true). You will need to set it false again when you run the current version of Thunderbird. If you try a really old version its possible you might have the same problems with the settings (mainly gfx.direct2d.disabled and layers.acceleration.disabled) to enable graphics acceleration. Those are the only two sets of settings that you need to worry about being reset due to the default value changing for a different version. If its a frequent problem you could set them in the optional user.js file. Any settings set by that file override the default values and whatever is set using the config editor and/or prefs.js.

Before you do anything turn off the automatic Software Update feature in Tools -&gt; Options -&gt; Advanced -&gt; Update.

Starting with version 35.1.0 you can not install Thunderbird if you are using XP SP2 (rather than SP3) or are using a version of Vista that does not have the KB2763674 patch due to new signing. The workaround is to install version 38.5.0 and then upgrade. However, that does not let you choose a specific version. [1] [2]

Version 68 changed the syntax it used in profiles.ini to specify your profiles location when it creates a new profile, but didn't get rid of any old entries (which still work). It also started testing whether a profile is used by instance of Thunderbird installed in a specific directory. To minimize problems if you are installing version 68 or later its recommended you install it in the same directory as the current version. If you install it in a different directory try going to help -> troubleshooting information, click on about:profiles and press the "Set as default profile" next to the desired profile.

Version 68 added a "dedicated profile per installation" feature. Thunderbird now stores in the profiles.ini file the location of where Thunderbird is stored as a hash string for each profile. If it can't find Thunderbird in the expected location it will complain that you are running the wrong version. For example:

[Install75C51F26560D0CE7] Default=Profiles/i2h0a3a2.default-release Locked=1

If you are using a profile created using version 78 or later with a version before version 68 you might need to add a --allow-downgrade command line argument to the shortcut. Since version 78 switched from *.mab files to a sqlite database for the address books you might want to export the address books as *.csv or *.ldif files beforehand, so that you can import them using the older version. The files used to store passwords have also changed several times.

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Contents

 * 1 Go back to a recent release
 * 2 From 3.x to 2.0.0.24
 * 3 See also
 * 4 External links
 * }

Go back to a recent release
Except for a backend extension in TB 12.0 (see the note below), all changes in 3.1.* and later versions affect just add-ons and the optional useChrome.css file. This makes it easy to reuse the same profile with an older version.

  Download the version you want from either here or here by clicking on the link for the setup program you want, and then pressing &quot;Save File&quot; in the pop-up. Mozilla uses win32, mac and Linux-686 directories to store files for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux respectively. The af, be, bg ca .. etc. directories are locale codes. They specify the language plus what country/region any customizations are for. en-US is the USA version of English, en-GB the British version of English, de is German and nl is Dutch for example. For example if you want the US English version of Thunderbird 45.8.0 for Windows chose the 45.8.0 directory, then the win32 directory, the en-US directory, and finally the &quot;Thunderbird Setup 45.8.0.exe&quot; file. Its directory is here. Some very old versions also have a file with a .asc file extension in that directory, that is a PGP signature that can be used to prove the authenticity of the setup program. 


 * 1) Uninstalling doesn't delete your profile, but you should back it up first as a precaution using something like MozBackup. Mozbackup is no longer maintained. It still works for most users, but test it before you rely upon it. Mozbackup 1.5.2 Beta 1 is safer to use than 1.5.1.
 * 2) Exit Thunderbird and then uninstall it.
 * 3) Install the older version in the same location to minimize any side effects. For example, the Windows registry may expect the default email client to be in that location.
 * 4) If you have a firewall you might need to reconfigure it for the new executable.
 * 5) If Thunderbird disables any of your add-ons you may need to replace them with a version that supports a older version of Thunderbird. Most add-ons at Mozilla Add-ons have a Version Information section at the bottom of the web page. Click on the version you want and it will jump to a download page for it. Lightning for example tends to be very version dependent.
 * 6) If you created a optional userChrome.css file you might have to modify it to deal with different window layout/tree structures.

If you couldn't figure out the right locale go to the download page for the fully localized version of the latest version of Thunderbird, hover the mouse over the download link for your locale and see what lang= is set to. That is the locale code.


 * Note: Running TB 12 with local mail folders and pop3 mail filters may produce summary files that aren't correctly read by previous versions of Thunderbird. If you decide to go back to a previous version of Thunderbird after running TB 12, you should right-click on each of your local folders and pop3 accounts, then select &quot;Properties&quot; and click the &quot;Repair Folder&quot; button, one by-one for each folder to avoid potential data loss.