Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[tiffy]

Have used Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client on my desktop PC for many years under quite a few Windows operating systems, currently on Win 10 Pro, using multi accounts of my own and the wifes, always found the program to be very stable and reliable until a major update took place a few months ago.
Have encountered quite a few very annoying issues which I can't fix and have never been resolved with subsequent updates.

Such as:
Some account folders/sub-folders randomly fully expand when starting the program.
(yes, I have tried all the listed fixes for this issue)
Some account folders/sub-folders won't open, requires a program re-start to fix.
Some e-mails won't delete, requires a program re-start to fix.
Some e-mails colour tagging disappears, has to be re-applied then usually disappears again.

While reluctant to move away from Thunderbird where I have a lot of history, the random issues were becoming so annoying I decided I had to investigate migrating to another e-mail server application.
I use MS Office Pro Plus 2021 so have MS Outlook available, however it's not a straight forward conversion from Thunderbird to Outlook for all my archieved e-mail files, reluctant to go down that path.

Discovered "Betterbird" which is a free non supported (by Mozilla) off-shute of Thunderbird.
Have been running this for a few weeks now, looks exactly like Thunderbird (without the recent issues), once the existing Thunderbird accounts have been set up again within Betterbird all data migrated automatically, very painless.
Betterbird just creates a new profile in the same area as the Thunderbird profile leaving the TB profile intact.
I have retained the Thunderbird installation just disabled mail collection for all accounts.
I use "Backup4all" and the existing Thunderbird BU profile works perfectly for Betterbird without any changes.
So far so good, time will tell 

[broadstairs]

Interesting.... I've been using TBird for years now. Started on my PC some 25+ years ago on Windows (yuck  ) and now for the past 20 years or more on Linux and never had any of these issues. That said my main install is still 60.9.1  and yes I do have Betterbird installed but not currently my main email program mainly because I have TBird configured how I like it and not yet bothered to see if BBird can be configured the same way 

Stuart

[tubaman]

Have you checked if you are fully up-to-date on Thunderbird as I did have various issues following the big update some months ago but it all seems ok now, and I'm using it on Win10, Win11 and Linux platforms.

[tiffy]

@broadstairs:
Yes, like yourself, a very long term TBird (Windows) user going back to Win 7,8 etc., never any issues until the relatively recent major update.
On checking my TBird version it's showing 115.14.0 (32bit) and indicating current.
Perhaps the issues are peculiar to my specific Win 10 Pro installation running on my Ryzen-5 DT PC, neither Mozilla, members forum or myself could resolve hence the migration to Betterbird.

Migration was absolutely painless as mentioned earlier, just had to re-enter the account details, data migration occured automatically.
I had a number of old reduntant ISP specific e-mail accounts which I didn't bother to re-configure in Betterbird just retained inTBird for future reference.
I have kept TBird installed and can fire up if ever required.

@tubaman:
Yes, as mentioned above, TBird indicating fully up to date.
I was hoping for a fix in subsequent program updates post the major revision but for me never happened 

[Alex Atkin UK]

On checking my TBird version it's showing 115.14.0 (32bit) and indicating current.

Why 32bit?  I can't imagine that build getting as much testing given 64bit has been standard for so long now.

[tiffy]

Why 32bit?  I can't imagine that build getting as much testing given 64bit has been standard for so long now.

TBH don't really know, current program has been installed since I upgraded from Win 10 Home to Pro and that's certainly a few years ago, as said, never had any issues until the relatively recent major program revision 
Program updates were still at very frequent intervals so definately still supported.

The Betterbird program I'am now running is v.115.14.0-bb31 (64-bit) and it interfaced with existing TBird program during installation and initial configuration, happy with my current setup so will leave well enough alone at present.

[banger]

I am glad I read this thread as I am now trying Betterbird and it seems quite good once setup. 

[tiffy]

I am glad I read this thread as I am now trying Betterbird and it seems quite good once setup. 

TBH it looks and acts exactly the same as TBird but in my case without the many annoying anomalies that had crept in since the previous major program update that I was unable to remedy, glad it's working for you.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Personally not had any problems but I discovered my mum had all her folders wiped somehow, but her inbox is 8GB due to bad management of the huge number of mailing lists shes ended up on.  I'm amazed it opens at all.

I have to admit, I find absolutely no benefits to the UI overhaul they did, it just seems worse all around to me as I can just fit a lot less on screen due to excessive padding.

[tiffy]

Anyone found an easy way to update Betterbird program version running on Windows 10?

The update process doesn't seem to be as straight forward as Thunderbird, ie., just run from within the existing program, seems to require a complete re-install.
Some users have reported that installing the update on top of the existing installation causes issues and requires re-configuration of existing e-mail accounts.
Deleting the current program and installing the new revision (after backing up profile) would I imagine require e-mail account re-configuration and profile restoration.

Really like Betterbird and have not had any of the issues I experienced with Thunderbird to date but would obviously like to be able to update as required with the minimum of hassle.
Have not tried any updates as yet, trying to establish the best method first.
There are some suggested update methods and scripts on github but all appear to be aimed at Linux installations.

[Chrysalis]

Personally not had any problems but I discovered my mum had all her folders wiped somehow, but her inbox is 8GB due to bad management of the huge number of mailing lists shes ended up on.  I'm amazed it opens at all.

I have to admit, I find absolutely no benefits to the UI overhaul they did, it just seems worse all around to me as I can just fit a lot less on screen due to excessive padding.

Ahh so they have gone down that route.

For some reason modern developers seem to love adding loads of padding in UI, as if they think we all using touch screens or something.

I wonder if there is a hidden compact UI option, Firefox has a hidden compact option, the dev's wanted to remove it but due to backlash they relented but still hidden the option by default.

Had a quick look at betterbird, that does seem the sensible way to go if using thunderbird, it tracks ESR also instead of mainstream which should help stability a lot.

[Alex Atkin UK]

This IS in compact mode, lol.

[Chrysalis]

It isnt the worst padding I seen, but I think the email padding would annoy me, shrink the stars and fit more emails in that viewing area.

I still use outlook on office 365 and thankfully Microsoft havent gone down this route on that.  That is still really compact on the email lists (when using use tighter spacing option).

I am deliberately using an old build of k9 mail on android to avoid some regressive UI changes.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Its annoying because I upgraded to a 4K screen explicitly to fit more on my screen, then they change the UI effectively downgrading it back to how much would fit on a 1080p screen.

Absolutely fair to have that much padding on default, but Default actually is mad and Relaxed I just can't understand the point of it even existing!

[Chrysalis]

Wow those are crazy, what are they thinking especially on that last one.