thunderbird and gmail, revisited

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karenanne
Posts: 630
Joined: September 18th, 2004, 5:16 am

thunderbird and gmail, revisited

Post by karenanne »

Awhile back I was in here asking for help with changing my thunderbird/windows setup to run with the gmail upheaval of 2-3 months ago, when gmail upgraded its security,

I decided it was a rats' nest, and I would take the easy way out and use my ISP, Cox's, email instead of gmail, but that was a mistake because Cox loses some email. They deny it, but I have seen it and numerous other people have said so also.

So I am back trying to get thunderbird and gmail to work together. I would appreciate any info or problems pointed out, thanks. I did try to find my old thread, but got "SQL error."

My most recent laptop is Windows 7, so I need a version of thunderbird that runs on Windows 7. That seems easy, as it seems it has done that for a long time and currently.

I need a version of thunderbird that has OAuth which is what gmail requires. I know nothing about security, but I did find that out. I am unable to determine when OAuth went into thunderbird, i.e. which version?

I do not want thunderbird to update without my okay. I am not even happy with thunderbird asking me every darn time I start it, like firefox does. I would prefer to say No once and have it never ask again. I think this means I need a version earlier than 68.x, as I read an update was forced on that version and later ones.

Is there is a version or range of versions of thunderbird that has OAuth and can be set to not update? or at least OAuth and ask me if I want to update?

Apparently old versions are here https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/ But once I determine which version I need, how do I build? install? it.

Also I don't know how to set up stuff once I have thunderbird installed so that OAuth, POP, and friends work, as I want to keep my email on my laptop. Port numbers, server names, etc.

Any help is very appreciated.
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tanstaafl
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Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: thunderbird and gmail, revisited

Post by tanstaafl »

What version you need depends upon whether you use a POP or a IMAP account. If you're using POP you need version 68.5 or later. https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/ has copies of every setup program. You don't need to build anything.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14921807

There are several ways to prevent Thunderbird from updating without your okay that will work with recent versions. You can either add some entries to the windows registry or add a small policies.json file to a distribution directory in the Thunderbird installation directory. I recommend the later.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... icies.json

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/649 ... uto-update
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tanstaafl
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Re: thunderbird and gmail, revisited

Post by tanstaafl »

See http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3078542 for a workaround (and explanation of why it occurs) of the SQL error.
karenanne
Posts: 630
Joined: September 18th, 2004, 5:16 am

Re: thunderbird and gmail, revisited

Post by karenanne »

Thanks very much, I will read those links.
karenanne
Posts: 630
Joined: September 18th, 2004, 5:16 am

Re: thunderbird and gmail, revisited

Post by karenanne »

Ref https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird ... es/68.5.0/

So I find this directory for version 68.5.0, with a bunch of files of some sort in it, how do I install it on my Windows laptop. do I pull down some particular file and double click on it?

Are there directions somewhere also about how to set things up for POP (the thing my old thunderbird calls tools, account settings, server settings, i.e. server name, port, etc.

Thank you.
karenanne
Posts: 630
Joined: September 18th, 2004, 5:16 am

Re: thunderbird and gmail, revisited

Post by karenanne »

Perhaps I should be more adventurous. What version magically sets things up to keep gmail happy? Then I would assume the changes I need to set to get POP are minor? And also I could munge to stop updates. (Does that version ask for update permission, or does it just force them?)

I keep a string of daily backups, so presumably I could recover from a bad update.
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tanstaafl
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Re: thunderbird and gmail, revisited

Post by tanstaafl »

karenanne wrote:Ref https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird ... es/68.5.0/

So I find this directory for version 68.5.0, with a bunch of files of some sort in it, how do I install it on my Windows laptop. do I pull down some particular file and double click on it?
Go to the win64 directory. Then choose a child directory based on your language/culture such as en-US. It will have a *.exe program that is the setup program.

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird ... 68.5.0.exe
karenanne wrote:Are there directions somewhere also about how to set things up for POP (the thing my old thunderbird calls tools, account settings, server settings, i.e. server name, port, etc.
If you have an existing profile it will try to use that. Otherwise it will automatically run the new account wizard. It knows what configuration settings to use for major ISP and free email providers and will default to them, after asking you for the email address and password. Otherwise you will need to search online for what settings to use with your email provider.
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tanstaafl
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Re: thunderbird and gmail, revisited

Post by tanstaafl »

karenanne wrote:Perhaps I should be more adventurous. What version magically sets things up to keep gmail happy? Then I would assume the changes I need to set to get POP are minor? And also I could munge to stop updates. (Does that version ask for update permission, or does it just force them?)

I keep a string of daily backups, so presumably I could recover from a bad update.
The main reason to use 68.5 would be if you really wanted to keep using some legacy add-ons. Otherwise I suggest you install 91.11.0 . I suggest you avoid 102 (what's available from thunderbird.net) until its a lot more mature.

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird ... 1.11.0.exe

A Gmail POP account nowadays requires you either enable OAuth2 support or you enable two step verification and then create a application password. Most people do the former. Thunderbird needs to be able to create a cookie for the google.com domain (its enabled by default) for the popup to create the token for OAuth2 to do anything useful.

See http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... olicy.json for how to stop Thunderbird from checking for updates by creating a policy.json file in a distribution child directory in your programs installation directory. Otherwise the best you can do is configure Thunderbird to check for updates and ask whether you want it to install them.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/649 ... uto-update
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