Upgrade from 60.5.3 to 91?

[dworsky]

I have been using Thunderbird forever but turned off automatic updates years ago. I currently have version 60.5.3 32-bit using Windows 10 on a 64-bit PC.

I understand that there is no automatic upgrade path from versions before 78 to the current version 91.

How can I safely upgrade to the current version without losing all my old profiles (probably 10 accounts) and old emails?

I don't mind having both old and new versions on my computer if that will protect my old emails... but I would rather not have to recreate each account manually.

Thanks in advance,

Edgar

[tanstaafl]

Normally you store all of your accounts data in one profile. Do you really have 10 profiles or do you have one profile with 10 accounts?

There is a difference between automatic updates and manual updates. I suggest you double check that manual updates are disabled by selecting help -> about Thunderbird. That used to force an update regardless of the automated update settings. But its quite possible that has no effect nowadays.

Uninstalling doesn't delete your profile unless you explicitly check the checkbox to delete the data. A new installation will automatically find your old profile and try to use it. However version 68 added a "dedicated profile per installation" feature which will make Thunderbird complain your old profile doesn't support that version. Its lying. You can work around that.

Install version 91.8.1 using the setup program available on thunderbird.net (abort the new account wizard if it runs it) and go to help -> more troubleshooting information. Click on the about:profiles link. Look at the list of known profiles, find your old one, and click on the associated "set as default profile" button. Exit and restart Thunderbird. It should use your old profile.

Version 78 switched from using *.mab files to using *.sqlite files for address books. Later versions converted the address books too as long as there were no existing *.sqlite address books. However, as a precaution export your address books as .csv files (use the tools menu in the address book window) beforehand as a precaution.

If there are any other problems edit the target in the shortcuts properties to add a --allow-downgrade
command line argument. That tells it to ignore any files or schemas that aren't supported anymore. But I don't expect you need to do that.

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" --allow-downgrade

[dworsky]

Thanks for the advise. I doubt I have multiple profiles, probably just one.

I turned off all upgrades years ago because it always changed the look and feel (font size etc).

Do I have to uninstall 60.5.3 before installing 91 or just let the install program do its thing?

Edgar

[tanstaafl]

If it defaults to the same location you can just let it overwrite the existing installation. That will prevent you from removing the existing entry in windows setting's list of installed apps later on, though you might not care about that.