List the 11 add-ons here so we can say if updated or alternate versions are available.

Hello sfhowes

I will have to try to see for myself but the attached image shows them all.

I'm fed up with TB anyway. Mozilla goes on about how big companies want to take over the Internet and our computers but I don't remember giving them permission to annihilate my add ons and this is not the first time either.

This is my work computer and I handle hundreds of emails per day on it.

I need it to be organized with coloured folders, automatic filters, warnings if big clients email me, coloured appointments etc.

All that seems to have been wiped out tonight

THANKS A BUNCH MOZILLA

ps Can you pass on this message to them?

Hello sfhowes

I've just stopped my automatic PayPal payments to Mozilla.

mozilla doesn't develop Thunderbird

Some of your add-ons have stopped development, while others have TB 68 versions under development.

https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/colored-folders/

https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/highlighter-222207/

https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-us/thunderbird/addon/shrunked-image-resizer/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/manually-sort-folders/ compat. with 68

Alternative for Theme font & Size Changer: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1269361

Hello sfhowes

I managed to update a measly 1/11 of the add ons.

And I've now noticed that I can't even minimize or close TB easily as the icons in the top right hand corner are invisible (yes, I've changed the theme but it makes no difference)

Thanks for your help anyway. I'm not ungrateful but I'm so pissed off with TB developers.

SafeTex

Wayne Mery said

mozilla doesn't develop Thunderbird

Gee, that was a useful reply. So who develops it in your opinion and why can I see Support Moz://a in the top left hand corner while on the Thunderbird forum ???

It's not terribly complicated. It's been in the community's hands for several years. https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/get-involved/#opensource

We get the frustration. We'd love for every addon to be compatible for every user. That just isn't possible.

Something to consider - it should not be a surprise that one of the biggest factors in determining whether an addon is successful or compatible is whether and to what extent the author of that addon is still around, and engaged. More than half of addon authors abandoned their addons many years ago. That is not the fault of the Thunderbird project or the volunteers that are involved.

And for those authors that are still around, we cannot force them to update. Consider the following - version 68 beta was announced in June, almost 5 months ago, and addon authors informed that the version was stable and available for them to update add-ons.

As to your specific addons, to add more detail to what Steve provided, I checked the first 6 and here is their status:

• Account colors - the author DW submitted a version 68 update for review on Oct 30 and I would expect it to be reviewed within a week or two
• Auto Resize JPEG - last updated 8 years ago - I'd say it has likely been abandoned
• Calendar tweaks - the author DW (nee Account Colors) hasn't yet submitted an update
• Color Folders - last updated 5 years ago and wasn't working in v60 (i.e. abandoned by the author) - we can find in github that someone made a version 60 - more recently someone (perhaps the same person, I cannot tell) forked it https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/colored-folders/ and said they are working on version 68
• Highlighter - https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/highlighter-222207/ "I am working on a version for Thunderbird 68"
• Keep in taskbar - https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/keep-in-taskbar/ submitted by author for review on Oct 20, probably should be reviewed soon, but no guarantee it will pass review

I don't really have time to research the rest but judging by the above I'd say you will soon be in much better shape.

I know it is frustrating especially when it is hard to track down information, but the source code of many of these addons are hosted on github and details can often be determined as to their status. If you see an author isn't engaged in their own support site that's a good sign that THEY, not the project, have left you in the dust. Whether an author stands behind their code is a risk you take for using an addon, whether you realize it or not.

Often by the generosity of kind souls who fork the code or volunteer to take over abandoned addons (something we project volunteers work hard to make happen) we often see worthy addons revived - please take the opportunity to thank them (at least one example above).

SafeTex said

And I've now noticed that I can't even minimize or close TB easily as the icons in the top right hand corner are invisible (yes, I've changed the theme but it makes no difference)

This is perhaps https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1590851 which will be fixed in 68.2.1 in the next few days

Thanks Wayne for the replies

This is much more helpful and at my level.

I don't know how much work it takes to write and maintain add ons, but I'm not surprised if the writers "drop out" if the workload is high and they need to continually update their add ons; As I'm not a programmer either, I can only wonder what you do to TB at the time of each update to knacker the add ons. I remember the outcry when the font size changer stopped working and many people could no longer easily read their messages. The thing is that when you take the add ons out of the picture, TB remains a good email client but somewhat basic at times (like changing font size)

The developers need to understand how vital add ons are to some of us and that the updates are not worth the hassle for us if the add-ons fail, especially when updates have such visible flaws like close and minimize buttons disappearing.

Finally, Mozilla and TB seem to have become nebulous clouds of communities without anyone responsible for them, with "geeky" group names (no disrespect intended)

It reminds me a bit of the free O/S like Linux that should have conquered the market as they were free but failed miserably to do so for similar reasons to what I'm trying to explain above.

I feel that TB can go the same way if developers don't take all this on board

Regards

SafeTex

SafeTex said

The developers need to understand how vital add ons are to some of us and that the updates are not worth the hassle for us if the add-ons fail, especially when updates have such visible flaws like close and minimize buttons disappearing.

Jeez, did you even read the bug report? It was a recent regression opened 8 days ago and quickly fixed. Not everything can possibly be found in testing, unless we have testers who can test every combination - in which case please consider joining beta testing.

I absolutely understand how developers of add-ons are responsible to update their products -- but I didn't expect the add-ons to be disabled with the update and then not have the ability to return to the previous version.

When I opened the new version of Thunderbird without those add-ons, I tried everything I could think of to go back a version, and keep everything intact. (System Restore and downloading & re-installing a previous version.) They were all gone, along with their customizations. Now I don't know which ones I am missing. I thought that by having a Thunderbird account that data would be retained.

I am just about sick right now. All those mail filters, the customized reply template, the calendar sync, the contact sync -- they are all gone. This will be hours of work.

I really thought all this was backed up with the account or at least left on my hard drive.

Hello A Knight

It would be very interesting to have the opinions of some add on developers. How much time does it take to write an add on and then maintain it?

And maybe the comments of some TB developers as to why each new update seems to "destroy" so many add-ons.

I just don't see it at present

The TB developers seem to be "destroying" the work of add on developers.

I see TB updates as a regression each time and fear them almost as much as Windows updates.

It surely should not be like this !!!

a knight said

When I opened the new version of Thunderbird without those add-ons, I tried everything I could think of to go back a version, and keep everything intact. (System Restore and downloading & re-installing a previous version.) They were all gone, along with their customizations. Now I don't know which ones I am missing. I thought that by having a Thunderbird account that data would be retained.

There is no such thing as a "Thunderbird account". There is a Thunderbird profile https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data And like most things on your computer, it is the user's responsibility to backup the profile data on the computer.

Sometimes things go wrong and the correct profile is not being used - a symptom is things are "gone". Go to Help > Troubleshooting > about:profiles and at the very top see if you have a "Profile: default" that can be launched with "launch profile in new browser". Typically this is the profile most users should be running, not other profiles.

Hello I found this tonight on one of the sites where I was hoping to find an updated add on for version 68.?

TB v68 compatibility note: There is no plan to move the addon to the TB v68 "standards", and here is why: - Mozilla itself has decided not to work on compatibility developments and leave "that" to the addon developers. I don't know how much a mozilla developer is paid, but speaking for myself the sum of the contributions i have ever received for 6 free addons during almost 10 years are a figure with 3 digits max... - Besides the fact Mozilla leaves us doing the "dirty work", they are not even able to provide detailed information about how to make the old addons compatible with their new standards. I mean a relevant guide, not an information note explaining that the addons should be restartless, turned into webextensions and so on, and not even giving an example. - That is not the first time that Mozilla is acting as if addons developers and the community was not important. I have had already several bad experiences in the past when my addons got broken just because Mozilla changed something which used to work without even thinking about compatibility or giving information. - I'm tired of all this, and as i have another real job to afford my bills, i'm not ready to make all that effort for so few consideration. - It already took me thousands and thousands and thousands of hours to develop my addons, working everyday on making them the more stable and practical possible. Why would i do twice something which worked pretty well? - All my addons are Mozilla-licensed (~ free softwares), so sources are open for all developers which would be interested to follow the new Mozilla standards. I think i made this work the best professional i could, so my code is well structured and full of comments. If you do so, sending me a simple "thank-you" email would be greatly appreciated. - All my addons are already compatible with TB v60. Are there so much interest to move to TB v68? Do you change your toaster every year just because there are new ones on the market? I don't. - The choice is between v68 without addons or v60 with addons. Your call.

I suspected as much if you look at my own earlier posts and here is the confirmation from the horses mouth.

Sad that TB has fallen into the hands of a group of developers that have so little respect for other developers and the users.

As you can see from that quote, there are many people who like to use an addon but fail to support that addon with donations. So it becomes an expensive exercise that the author cannot always bare the costs and time, especially more so when they have created several addons over the years. Addon developers have a thankless task providing countless hours of unpaid code writing work so others can benefit from the ability to modify Thunderbird in various ways.

Thunderbird have produced various documents etc to help people who need to update or create new addons. But the work, time committment and update of knowledge required to modify again is understandably too much for some.

Unfortunately, Thunderbird did not have a lot of choice with regard to webextensions. Best read that info for yourself, so you understand why it occurred in the first place. https://blog.thunderbird.net/2017/05/thunderbirds-future-home/

Hello Toad-Hall

The article does not make too much sense to me on the technical side.

We could discuss the ins and outs of things for ages but the bottom line is that I moved over to eM Client yesterday for my two work accounts.

I'll still run TB and see how things pan out in the future.

Regards

SafeTex

Hello all

Coming back to this problem some 5 weeks later, I've managed to get updates for a couple more of my lost add-ons but major damage still persists. The add-on extension page has pretty much nothing for my latest version of TB if you take dictionaries out of the equation. Obviously, lots of add-on developers have thrown in the towel. The TB developers have destroyed TB for me!

Regards

SafeTex

SafeTex said

Hello all Coming back to this problem some 5 weeks later, I've managed to get updates for a couple more of my lost add-ons but major damage still persists. The add-on extension page has pretty much nothing for my latest version of TB if you take dictionaries out of the equation. Obviously, lots of add-on developers have thrown in the towel. The TB developers have destroyed TB for me! Regards SafeTex

You have been restating the same thing in this thread for what? A month or more. Do you really think anything is going to change?

On the 3rd of November you were still posting things about Mozilla, you apparently have still not managed to establish they have been uninvolved in the continuing existent of Thunderbird since 2012.

Sure their decisions impact on Thunderbird, but really as they are uninvolved in the project, having finally had their name removed from the product. It is not really their responsibility and has not been for years. Over a similar time frame volunteers have kept the project afloat and worked tirelessly to keep the old add-on environment alive, even if not thriving. The changed that Thunderbird 68 brought in the shared code from Mozilla left no alternative to making wholesale changes to the add-on environment. Or we could have just pulled the plug and said the project is dead and it could have lingered in poor health for a decade like Eudora did after that project died on the vine.

I have installed em client in the past trying to help people migrating from it in these forums. I found it imported mail and contacts nicely. Unfortunately I found the product limiting and the long term options to leave it were very limited as there were no non proprietary export formats that is supported. Basically it is a one way decision with your data. If you are not happy with the Windows 10 mail app, you are unlikely to be happy with emclient in a couple of weeks either.