using Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
I have decided to re-install thunderbird. I have been looking around. Apparently there are two options. The first is to use snap and the other one install as a deb app. I need to know which one is the best way to do it.
What is the purpose of reinstalling Thunderbird?
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There isn’t a universal answer.
Snap or deb are the most typical ways to install Thunderbird in Ubuntu, but they are not the only options. Have you considered and ruled out any other options?
A partial list of things to consider when choosing which installation method to use:
- As ian-weisser asked, why did you decide to re-install Thunderbird?
- How did you have Thunderbird installed before?
- What packaging-related features would you like for your Thunderbird installation? (particularly related to security)
- How would you prefer to keep Thunderbird up-to-date?
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Because it was not working correctly. I have spent a lot of time on it and bad things continued so I deleted it and now need to re-install…
The problem is referring to “bad things” does not help contributors analysing forensically the discussions. I have used Thunderbird for decades without issues, other than perhaps bridging to Proton Mail recently. I can research Thunderbird archives using indexing engine such as Recoll. So try to be specific about these bad things. Start with one example.
[quote=“drufus2002, post:1, topic:58703”]Preformatted text
using Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
[/quote]
Pre formatted textWhen I upgraded from 22.04.5 to 25.04 my thunderbird got moved to snap and was no longer working correctly. I tried to get it fixed but no matter what I did something else went wrong. I have finally deleted the snap thunderbird. Now I am going to have to re-install. I am a bit concerned about taking all the stuff from another machine, which also has thunderbird on it and that thunderbird is running just fine and was not a snap thunderbird which is why I am being careful this time around and asking questions.
I don’t know about packaging-related features. When I installed thunderbird on other systems I usually just used ap to install it.
I have usually assumed that the software updater took care of that.
My main concern is moving the settings from a 22.04.5 system to a 26.04.2 system will work. I am not really sure about how the two will work together. In the good old days, when i moved stuff from one system to another (using same systems) I could just move the stuff from one system to another and update their titles with those being used with the other. I mention this because when I tried that with the 2 different systems my new, upgraded, system’s thunderbird just ignored them. I was able, however, to move all my address book by copying them into a file and then import them.
using Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
I used bad things because they were. I deleted the entire mess which is why I am re-installing. I too have been running thunderbird for a very long time. Things, however, are changing. The jump from 22.04.5 to 25.04.2 was a real change and I had problems moving stuff from one system to the other. For instance the 25.04 installation got automatically moved from a non snap to a snap installation.
I have no idea if you are using linux or whatever - anyway…
When I upgraded from 22.04.5 to 25.04 my thunderbird got moved to snap and was no longer working correctly. I tried to get it fixed but no matter what I did something else went wrong. I have finally deleted the snap thunderbird. Now I am going to have to re-install. I am a bit concerned about taking all the stuff from another machine, which also has thunderbird on it and that thunderbird is running just fine and was not a snap thunderbird which is why I am being careful this time around and asking questions.
I don’t know about packaging-related features. When I installed thunderbird on other systems I usually just used ap to install it.
I have usually assumed that the software updater took care of that.
My main concern is moving the settings from a 22.04.5 system to a 26.04.2 system will work. I am not really sure about how the two will work together. In the good old days, when i moved stuff from one system to another (using same systems) I could just move the stuff from one system to another and update their titles with those being used with the other. I mention this because when I tried that with the 2 different systems my new, upgraded, system’s thunderbird just ignored them. I was able, however, to move all my
address books with no problems, for instance.
If you have any other question feel free to ask and thank you for the reply!
Hmmm.
To get back to your original question, the recommended way to install Thunderbird is using the snap package.
On Ubuntu 24.04 and newer, the Thunderbird deb package is merely a transitional stub that installs the snap. So apt install thunderbird runs a script that installs the snap anyway.
It is possible to install Thunderbird without any packaging at all, the binary is available from Mozilla…but it’s not as simple to install (that’s why packaging exists). It is also possible that a PPA for a Thunderbird deb is available somewhere on Launchpad…but there are potential drawbacks to that approach, too.
I’m sorry to read that you had some kind of problem with Thunderbird…or perhaps with the transition from deb to snap. A reinstall might indeed fix some kinds of problems. It might not fix others.
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Fair point … I am on Ubuntu 22.04 and Thunderbird 115.18.0 is also in dual boot Windows 10 (rarely visited). I have ImportExportTools NG installed. I have not ventured into 26.04 territory.
One post by @ardvark71 deleted. It introduced FUD from 2016, long irrelevant.
25.04? 26.04.2? or 24.04.2?
On 24.04 Thunderbird is preinstalled as snap. If you find problems please document it.
to reinstall it: sudo snap install thunderbird
Refreshing Thunderbird doesn’t necessarily require you to reinstall Thunderbird.
You can instead create a new profile,
then configure it to add your email/contacts/calendar accounts.
In fact, even if you do re-install Thunderbird,
but don’t create a new profile,
you will carry forward legacy settings.
I had been carrying forward my Thunderbird profile for about 10 years
with each new version of Thunderbird, and abandoning the old profile
and creating a new one improved performance.
though if you have been upgrading Ubuntu rather than doing clean installs
when you upgrade your ubuntu version
it would be best to also reinstall thunderbird itself as well as re-creating profiles.
The details of the issues are important so that people replying here can get some idea about:
- To what extent were these issues related to some aspect(s) of snap packaging?
- If it’s related to aspects of snap packaging, in your case is it better to try to work out the issues with the snap or is it better to just try a different installation method?
Assuming you accounted for differences in where the snap stores user data vs. where your other system’s non-snap Thunderbird stores user data, one possibility is that this could be due to the absolute path of the Thunderbird installation directory being different on the new system, in which case the information here might be useful.
Since the move of Thunderbird to snaps and the latest 24.04 and 25.04, I too have had all sorts of issues with Thunderbird.
The various changes and updates of Thunderbird itself seemed to coincide with the move to snaps further complicated an already complex issue.
I have been using Thunderbird since 2005 and so have 20 years of accumulated emails which I have put into a local folder structure on my data drive in yearly folders.
For Thunderbird and/or the latest Ubuntu builds to choose to mess around with the default locations for its data is just a recipe for disaster for long-term users. That is the main issue for long-term users.
The added complication of changing the layouts and format of the interface from (I seem to remember version 102) is yet another issue.
These are the issues to which I believe the OP refers, and for which @dragonfly41 requires more information. I do not believe there is anything that can be done about it except the work-arounds I have instigated for my own system.
I have gradually got used to the newer format and although nowhere near as easy to navigate as the old format it is still streets ahead of any other mail programme I have tried. The snap version just does not work for me at all. I have spent hours trying to get it to recognise my data source and profiles to no avail, so I have removed the whole snap ecosystem from my machine and use the .deb install for Thunderbird.
May I add that I fully understand the reasons behind Canconical’s and the Ubuntu developers move to snaps as an ecosystem with its emphasis on security, an email programme is a valued target for hackers so understandable they would want to move the data into a secure place.
It just won’t work for long-term users like myself.
Cheers Tony
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This is why I decided to migrate from previous mail service providers (I will not name them) and turn to Proton Mail which offers a Bridge to import encrypted Proton Mail accounts into the Thunderbird environment.
Proton mail provides end-to-end encryption using PGP. On your machine - in your email client - received mails will be decrypted - at least temporary. So you depend on security of your email client, too.
When I installed Ubuntu 24.04 I put my previous .thunderbird folder in ~/snap/thunderbird/common and Thunderbird didn’t work at all. Can’t remember exactly what happened. I do remember trying it from the command line and got some nondescript message but the program didn’t open.
The solution was to put the .thunderbird folder in it’s usual location of $HOME and open Thunderbird as usual. Then the snap Thunderbird migrated the profile into it’s snap location and it then worked. I can’t speak to whether this worked long term because I’m on Debian. But I did try it.
Before this gets out of hand:
There will be no posting here just to complain about how Thunderbird changed to a snap. That discussion has been done ad-nauseum, and this is not the proper place for it. It does not help the OP’s situation, so please refrain from going down this path if that’s where your thoughts lead you.
Further posts doing that will be summarily deleted.
There is one on Sourceforge that I have been using literally since 2007 without issue and whose support forum was once hosted on the old UF.Still use this PPA to this day for both FF and TB and would have no problem recommending this to the OP but refrain from posting it unless asked by the OP as not to run afoul of any posting guidelines as now set forth.