Thunderbird has an inbuilt calendar and lightning is no longer supported. That is how long you have been out of the update circuit. Opting out of updates is no longer possible without great effort (and pretending to be a corporation) because of the issues late updates cause.

Will the update work without a hitch for you. I seriously doubt it. You will as a minimum loose all of your passwords. (That was an update in the 68 series)

You might try updating to V68.5, then 78 then the current release as changes to the addons permitted and the address book along with password storage should be covered by going through those versions.

Every version of Thunderbird is available on this link. http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/ Pick a version and then an operating system (win32 is windows) then a language and the install download will be shown. (each selection is a double click, not a single one.)

BTW Google calendars is now managed via oAU2.0 and caldav. So unless you actively use the google tasks that is far simpler and compact than using the provider for google calendar addon which many used 10 years ago and some still do.

To add a Google calendar you Select new calendar on the network and enter you gmail email address and follow the prompts.

Note: Your current version of Thunderbird will not work with Google email within a couple of months at the most. Not upgrading is not really an option.

Matt: Thank you for your reply, but it was kind of depressing. If I am going to lose everything on Thunderbird, I might as well bite the bullet now and move everything over to my secondary Gmail account. I can keep the Google calendar and most of my contacts are already moved to Gmail. I started this process years ago when I was going to move my Internet provider from Cox Cable to Century Link. I never switched Internet providers, but I am certainly glad that I started the move when I did to Gmail. Thunderbird was great for a lot of years and I will miss it, but like the dinosaurs just saying good-bye and good luck with be about all I can do. Just as an experiment I will try to updates as you've suggested, but I am not very optimistic, I am much more of a realist. Jim

I have no idea what you think is depressing.

You have chosen not to update. There is a cost to everything. The inconvenience of upgrading is yours, because of your choices. You are going to have to do it about three times in short succession in an attempt to get all the years worth of upgrades out of the way including the changes to your profile in a single setting.

You had issues last time you updated, but they were with lightning. One of the reasons it is no more is because every update was an issue because lightning as specific version compatible. Sure this is not as simple as point and click. You chose not to go that route some years ago when it was.

You might want to know that Thunderbird can now natively connect to the Gmail address book, just as it does for google calendars and load it in Thunderbird.

Use Google if that is what you want to do, it matters not to me. But you are choosing an even more difficult path for yourself as there is no migration path from Thunderbird to Google for existing data. Something you will have found out already probably.

Matt: I'm an older man that has been retired for a number of years. I liked things the way that they were, and that is true of many people who are reluctant to change. What is depressing is that you took the time to tell me that my issues are all my fault for not keeping up, and knowing that people like you are making decisions for me. I was happy and successful in life and I don't like your attitude.

I have a terrific idea, since Thunderbird has to go to the Cox.net servers to retrieve my email, I can just use Cox webmail and Gmail for all my email needs and Thunderbird can sit in archives for eternity.

Thank you for your smug replies, but I have my own solutions and yours stink.

Congratulation. You say it is me, if that is what you want to believe. Go right ahead. Please blame me.

Really, enjoy your life and enjoy your choices. I know I enjoy mine.

Matt, apparently English isn't your first language, because you don't understand well enough to realize that isn't what I said, or meant, at all. You have proven my point exactly, you are an extreme narcissist with no consideration for viewpoints of anyone other than yourself. Case in point substantiated. It's a good thing you're a volunteer, because anyone paying you a salary would fire your thick head in two seconds if you can't take consideration for legacy customers with over 23 years of continuous usage of your product. I'm sure you work for yourself.

Back to the original issue: Google calendars work just fine in Thunderbird 91.8.0.

Thank you very much!

Can I update to Thunderbird 91.8.0. or do I have to go through several updates beforehand as Matt instructed me to?

If you want to update, you have to do it in steps, as described above. There is no direct update path. Personally I'd recommend a fresh 64-bit install, but I don't know how many settings you would need to set again.

Balázs, thank you again for your kind responses. I think I will use Cox Webmail to retrieve my email. Most all of my data has been constantly saved on the Cox server, and if I start saving any other important data perhaps I won't lose much when Thunderbird takes a dive. I don't know how to do the steps you've mentioned, but, perhaps the techs at Data Doctors can help me through it. I have a service contract with them so it's worth asking/paying for their help.