Problem starting Thunderbird 45.8.0

[OZO]

Every time I reboot W7 computer I always have problems with launching TB v45.8.0. When I try to launch it, it exits immediately, just flashing its frame... I tried to launch it in its Safe Mode and play with options (Disable all add-ons and Reset toolbars and controls) and it didn't help. In its Safe Mode TB was just flashing its frame and exited immediately too.

How to troubleshoot and eventually fix that?

There is one way that I know and have to apply every time:
1. Rename folder "D:\Sys\bin\ThunderbirdPortable" to "D:\Sys\bin\ThunderbirdPortable.4580"
2. Rename folder "D:\Sys\bin\ThunderbirdPortable.3851" to "D:\Sys\bin\ThunderbirdPortable"
3. Launch ThunderbirdPortable
4. Exit ThunderbirdPortable
5. Rename folder "D:\Sys\bin\ThunderbirdPortable" to "D:\Sys\bin\ThunderbirdPortable.3851"
6. Rename folder "D:\Sys\bin\ThunderbirdPortable.4580" to "D:\Sys\bin\ThunderbirdPortable"

Then I can launch TB 45.8.0 just fine ... until the next reboot. As you see it could be pretty annoying to do all those steps after each and every reboot of W7...

Folder "ThunderbirdPortable.3851" I keep only for the purpose to jump-starting / launch TB 45.8.0.

[tanstaafl]

Perhaps this is a problem with Portable Thunderbird. Does the same problem occur if you use a Mozilla Thunderbird build instead? You can pass a command line argument to specify the profiles location, rather than having to update profiles.ini to point to it. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Running_from_ ... hunderbird

[OZO]

Perhaps, it is. But I never use actually portable launcher itself. I just launch TB directly. Here is my command line:

Code: Select all

"D:\Sys\bin\ThunderbirdPortable\App\Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -profile "D:\Sys\cfg\TB\profile"

Is there any way to troubleshoot it? E.g. to get a log indicating, where and what the problem is...

[OZO]

I've just installed TB 52.0 from file "ThunderbirdPortable_52.0_English.paf.exe" and after reboot it worked OK. So, I think we can postpone the troubleshooting of 45.8.0...

Meantime
1. It would be very helpful to know how to troubleshoot TB when it refuses to launch (even in its Safe Mode).
2. I'm afraid to run regular setup instead of portable as I presume it sets some values in registry and adds files/folders. Is it correct?

[tanstaafl]

1. There is no log file capability for that unfortunately. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use for the most common cause.

2. It adds a few keys to the windows registry but that is mainly glue to support MAPI, drag and drop of attachments from windows explorer, spawn a browser when you click on a link and became the default handler for for HTML Mailto: links. It is not to store its data/settings. It stores its data/settings in the profile (just like Portable Thunderbird) and creates a profiles.ini file that points to whatever profiles you have. That is it, a lot more self contained then most Windows applications. The biggest difference is that Portable Thunderbird doesn't support a profile manager, so it has no need for a profiles.ini file. Unless you're a roaming user (even if its just between the same two machines all the time) its not clear to me what is the benefit of using Portable Thunderbird. If anything I'd argue its safer to stick with the Mozilla Thunderbird build.

The portable Thunderbird web site mentions:

I made some modifications to the official version of Thunderbird to make it more USB key friendly (decreasing total install size and the number of writes to the drive, which will increase drive life). These changes are listed here so you'll know what they are, and so you can recreate the process, if so desired.

Extension-Friendly Launcher - PortableThunderbird Launcher is included by default. It will alter the paths to any extensions you install to work relatively. Just be sure to close/restart Thunderbird before switching PCs.
Default Profile - A default profile exists within the thunderbird directory.
No Email Address Saving - Thunderbird won't automatically save addresses to the address book.
No Default Mail Client Check - Thunderbird won't check if it is the default mail client and the registry key it updates will be reset on exit.

https://portableapps.com/apps/developme ... m_launcher has more information about the portable apps.com launcher. Its not clear to me whether there is still a difference between it and "Thunderbird Portable Launcher" since I haven't used Portable Thunderbird for years.

[OZO]

Thank you, @tanstaafl

> 1. There is no log file capability for that unfortunately. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use for the most common cause.
Yes indeed, it unfortunate. Especially in case, if TB exits right at its start and there is no traces left to troubleshoot the problem. In its Safe Mode dialog TB could include an option to make a temporary log file (specifically useful to troubleshoot tough issues, like in this case), or it can create a core dump (to troubleshoot by checking its stack), or, at least, not to interfere Dr.Watson trying to do its job...

> 2. It adds a few keys to the windows registry...
That's what I'm trying to avoid. You've mentioned default handler for HTML. I'm using EditPlus as my default HTML handler and I'm sick and tired of MS Office programs trying to reset it back to themselves every time I use them . Having yet another participant in this war will not make it easy for me... Moreover, I don't want to have extra files in "C:\Users\..." folder and I don't need Profile Manager, as I use profile directly (as you can see in my post above).

Also, you mentioned, that Portable TB differs from regular build in decreasing total install size and the number of writes to the drive, which will increase drive life. Both two differences are welcome in my laptop, using SSD So, I'm going to continue using Portable as long as I can...