After upgrading from Eoan to Focal, I receive the error: "A newer version of Thunderbird may have made changes to your profile which are no longer compatible with this older version. Use this profile only with that newer version, or create a new profile for this installation of Thunderbird. Creating a new profile requires setting up your accounts, calendars and add-ons again."

[Sean Sosik-Hamor]

I've only ever used the default Thunderbird that came packaged with Ubuntu. After upgrading from Eoan to Focal I receive the following popup error dialog:

"A newer version of Thunderbird may have made changes to your profile which are no longer compatible with this older version. Use this profile only with that newer version, or create a new profile for this installation of Thunderbird. Creating a new profile requires setting up your accounts, calendars and add-ons again."

The only options are "Create New Profile" and "Quit" with no option to continue using my old profile.

I tried running thunderbird -ProfileManager to force my current default profile but it continued to give me the same error.

I'm assuming this is a bug as it's a major inconvenience to have to reconfigure Thunderbird from scratch after an upgrade.

Terminal shows:

JavaScript error: resource://gre/modules/XULStore.jsm, line 66: Error: Can't find profile directory.

And after clicking Quit:

JavaScript error: resource://gre/modules/AsyncShutdown.jsm, line 694: Error: Phase "xpcom-will-shutdown" is finished, it is too late to register completion condition "UserInteractionTimer 1 for document 7f645eb33000"

See attached screenshot: focal-thunderbird-profile-bug.png

Thanks, Sean.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: thunderbird 1:68.4.1+build1-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: User Name 5.4.0-9.12-generic 5.4.3
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-9-generic x86_64
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu15
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ubuntu 2592 F.... pulseaudio
BuildID: 20200110122930
Channel: Unavailable
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon Jan 20 14:43:03 2020
DefaultProfileExtensions: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
DefaultProfileIncompatibleExtensions: Unavailable (corrupt or non-existant compatibility.ini or extensions.sqlite)
DefaultProfileLocales: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
DefaultProfilePrefErrors: Unexpected character ',' before close parenthesis @ /usr/lib/thunderbird/omni.ja:greprefs.js:1141
DefaultProfilePrefSources: prefs.js
DefaultProfileThemes: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
ForcedLayersAccel: False
IfupdownConfig:
 # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-06-06 (593 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180426)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Profile1Extensions: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
Profile1IncompatibleExtensions: Unavailable (corrupt or non-existant compatibility.ini or extensions.sqlite)
Profile1Locales: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
Profile1PrefErrors: Unexpected character ',' before close parenthesis @ /usr/lib/thunderbird/omni.ja:greprefs.js:1141
Profile1PrefSources: prefs.js
Profile1Prefs:
 extensions.lastAppVersion: "68.4.1" (prefs.js)
 security.sandbox.plugin.tempDirSuffix: "18138464-d6cb-4282-a9d4-88ab6acfec88" (prefs.js)
Profile1Themes: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
Profiles:
 Profile1 - LastVersion=68.4.1/20200110122930
 Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=68.4.1/20200110143530 (Out of date)
RunningIncompatibleAddons: False
SourcePackage: thunderbird
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-01-20 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 09/05/2018
dmi.bios.vendor: System76
dmi.bios.version: 1.05.12-0
dmi.board.asset.tag: Tag 12345
dmi.board.name: Galago Pro
dmi.board.vendor: System76
dmi.board.version: galp2
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: System76
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnSystem76:bvr1.05.12-0:bd09/05/2018:svnSystem76:pnGalagoPro:pvrgalp2:rvnSystem76:rnGalagoPro:rvrgalp2:cvnSystem76:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.family: Not Applicable
dmi.product.name: Galago Pro
dmi.product.sku: Not Applicable
dmi.product.version: galp2
dmi.sys.vendor: System76

[Sean Sosik-Hamor (sciri)]

I see to have found a workaround:

ubuntu@friendly:/usr/bin$ ./thunderbird -allow-downgrade

Users shouldn't need to manually run this. Chatter from the below Web pages says:

mahmacc said:
> The instruction to change to the Thunderbird installation directory and then run the command as ./thunderbird.... is not necessary for Linux users whose paths are set up so the command above will work.)

Matt said:
> Hmm, and who has their path set correctly. My experience is that the more people need help the less likely they are to even know what a path is. That is certainly the case on Windows where very few appear to even have heard of the path. It is still there and works like it always did. But the user base of windows has no idea.

References:

 * https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1276736
 * https://thunderbirdtweaks.blogspot.com/2019/09/i-lost-my-profilemail-on-update-to.html

[Michał Sawicz (saviq)]

A little more details in bug #1851936, which was originally a Firefox problem.

[Iain Lane (laney)]

Cheers. Saviq found this earlier, and Olivier (Thunderbird maintainer) suggested to use bug #1851936 to track the problem. Firefox had the same issue recently, and he fixed it there - probably the same fix needs to be applied to Thunderbird too. It's being worked on :-).

I'll mark this bug as a duplicate.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.