Latest update to Thunderbird 60.2.1 on 18.04 - Lightning calendar missing

Question

After completing an Ubuntu automatic software update (15 Oct 2018) that included Thunderbird 60.2.1 the Lightning calendar is now missing. When I click on Thunderbird's Add-On tab to see if there's an update for Lightning I'm told that all the versions of Lightning available there are not compatible with the updated Thunderbird release. All my calendar data is no longer available to me - HELP!!

Solution 1

Same here, on (Ubuntu based) Linux Mint 19. It seems to be a thunderbird issue but the update should not have been passed through when it breaks what many regard as core functionality.

A solution is posted on the Linux Mint forums:

I ran into this problem today in Mint 19 when Tbird 60.2.1 was installed through the Update Manager. Removing the Lightning add-on from Tbird and installing the "xul-ext-lightning" package allowed me to recreate my calendar and connect it to Google Calendar.

So the solution is:

1. remove the lightning add-on in Thunderbird;
2. exit from Thunderbird;

3. install xul-ext-lightning package with

   sudo apt install xul-ext-lightning
   

   (it will pull more packages in).

4. restart Thunderbird.

My previous settings had been retained and I did not need to recreate my calendar.

If calendar tab is missing: watch out for the mini "switch to calendar tab" icon on the very right of tab bar:

If still you can't see any calendar, try (after following steps 1...4 above) to follow the instructions in this calendar troubleshooting article published on the Thunderbird Release Notes.

NOTICE that this seems to fail if the calendar is configured with a language different from English. There is an extended discussion, with links to bug reports, on the mozilla help forums.

Solution 2

I did not try xul-ext-lightning package but the following solution worked for Thunderbird 60.2.1 on Ubuntu 18.04:

1. Go to https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/60.2.1/linux-x86_64/ (or i686 for 32-bit)
2. Click the link for your language (I picked en_GB)
3. Download thunderbird-60.2.1.tar.bz2
4. Open the archive.
5. Navigate to /thunderbird/distribution/extensions/
6. Extract {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}.xpi (This is the Lightning extension)
7. Drag it from wherever it was extracted to onto the Thunderbird Add-ons manager.
8. Lightning should install.

All the previous settings are retained and lightning is updated to version 6.2.2.1

Thanks to reddit user palordrolap for the solution (written for Linux Mint 17.3).

Solution 3

You can install the Lightning beta extension from xpi file for Thunderbird 60. You can download the latest Lightning here.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Thunderbird/comments/9gt80n/lightning_does_not_work_on_thunderbird_60/

This worked for me perfectly. Mint 17.2 64 bit

Comments

[Rmano]

Probably it's more a packaging issue than a thunderbird problem. They passed to bundle lightining from version 38, it seems... support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/…

[Rmano]

Yes, it would work, but I am not sure that, this way, you'll have the sync update of TB and the lightning extension next time there is an update. Most probably not...

[Rosika]

Hi. Tnx for your soulution. The way you suggested was the only method that worked for me (Lubuntu 16.04.5 LTS, 64 bit). Rosika

[Rosika]

@Rmano: What exactly do you mean by sync update of TB and lightning? TB will still be updated, right?

[Matthew]

The release notes for this version of Thunderbird had a link to a calendar troubleshooting article that was supposed to address this issue. It did not work, but the instructions here fixed it right up. I'm on LinuxMint 18.3 x86_64

[Rmano]

@Rosika yes, but the next update to TB, you will have to re-do the thing for lightning --- it's no more in the "add-ons cloud", so the auto-update will not trigger. While if you install xul-ext-lightning (which will provide exactly the same file for now) I suppose that when TB is updated, Ubuntu will take care to update also xul-ext-lightning. Disclaimer: this is a guess --- based on my partial understanding of the matter.

[Rmano]

@Matthew the linked article did not work because (for what I can understand) while mozilla distribute the lightning extension bundled in TB, for whatever reason the debian packages are separated. So the workaround there will work if you install the xul... packages and still you don't see the calendar (I think; I can be wrong).

[Rosika]

@Rmano: Tnx for the info. xul-ext-lightning didn´t work with me. Still no lightning. But the extraction-and-dragging-it-over-method did the job. Greetings.

[sxc731]

Worked fine for me on stock Ubuntu 18.04. Before installing, I used apt policy xul-ext-lightning to check that the version about to be installed (1:60.2.1+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.2 at time of writing) was in-line with the TB version...

[etrimaille]

On Ubuntu 18.04, I had to first remove the plugin Lightning from Thunderbird, then install it using APT. Then it's working. It was not working when the previous plugin version was in Thunderbird.

[Rmano]

@Gustry --- it's written quite clearly in the answer, I think... step 1. ;-)

[Cedric Knight]

Same experience as Rosika, also on Lubuntu/LXDE. Installing from ftp.mozilla.org/pub/calendar/lightning/candidates/… also works for me though (If it's the wrong architecture it won't install.)

[s.d]

Great early contribution, @tim! I can confirm that this works on Ubuntu 16.04 with Thunderbird 60.2.1. And saved me a lot of trouble.

[Zeta]

@Rmano I doubt that. The automatic update mechanism looks for extension IDs. You can try it yourself: take any extension, check its version history, and download an older .xpi. Install it in Thunderbird and look for updates. Thunderbird will update the extension to the newest version. So as long as the .xpi is distributed by Mozilla there should be no future drawback to this variant. Unless, of course, Mozilla doesn't provide the newest Lightning version on their site, ever (but then Ubuntu should fix their packaging, since they don't include localization in xul-ext-lightning…)

[Rmano]

@Zeta, the problem is that now lightning is distributed togheter with thunderbird but NOT in the extension repository --- so there is no update available with the automatic method, because in principle is bundled. Only thing, Ubuntu (and/or Debian, I do not know) decide not to bundle it and to distribute it in a separate package. So if you do not have the two packages, you'll have no updates... until the new version lands on the extension page, that is.

[FairMiles]

@Rmano But do you know which is the way (add-on vs xul-ext) that Mozilla/Ubuntu/Debian are supposed to distribute future updates of Thunderbird+Lightning? I am still not able to find a bug for the package to ask Ubuntu maintainers what system they pretend to follow [and I prefer to wait for the add-on/bundle directly from Mozilla if they are going to fix it rather soon…]

[FairMiles]

@tim But do you know if this is supposed to be a short-term workaround or the proper way that Mozilla/Ubuntu/Debian are supposed to distribute future updates of Thunderbird+Lightning? [I am not finding a bug for the package to ask Ubuntu maintainers what they pretend to do]

[Rmano]

@FairMiles, situation is... confused. Look for example bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/+bug/1798034 and the one-decade-old bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/+bug/545778. Also interesting the discussion here: support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/…

[DJCrashdummy]

this only works for english language, since ubuntu sadly does not have lightning-l10n-... like debian. if you want lightning in you native language this is the way to go for now, unfortunately lightning won't get updates via this solution. -- so it is ubuntu who should fix its packaging and/or mozilla who should release recent versions of lightning on their addon-site to easily update/download it (as it worked until 5.4).

[DJCrashdummy]

@Rosika @Zeta sadly lightning will definitively NOT get automatic updates (via addon-manager), as you can proof it by having a look at your profile (resp. backup) before fiddling around: your lightning-version will be 5.4 because it is the latest version published via the addon-site, although you can easily verify here, that the latest <60-compartible version is 5.4.9.1. - so you already missed a bunch of updates in the last ~1,5 years.

[DJCrashdummy]

@FairMiles @Rmano although this is a really bad practice by mozilla and i see no reason why to stop publishing lightning via addon. but it is ubuntu whose packages are "broken" and need to be fixed, because on debian there are lang-packs for linghtning (lightning-l10n-...) and so this in hardly a topic there.

[FairMiles]

Thanks @Rmano. Indeed, I've been reading those conversations, so I think I will spend some time now turning this into a proper question in this site so anyone informed of the future plan for Ubuntu (and derived) can comment…

[FairMiles]

@Rmano Done now

[tim]

Thanks @FairMiles. I don't know about the long term - I found this fix / workaround int he linux mint forums, but looking through Thunderbird forums suggests there have been both ongoing problems with the lightning addon and an intention to make it a core part of Thunderbird. It would be good to know one way or another.

[Andy Turfer]

@tim - Thank you! This worked perfectly for me on Kubuntu 18.04.

[user43326]

I lost all my calendars, is there any way to recover them? (I don't remember the paths to various ics files and url for online calendars, but they should be saved somewhere in a config file, right?)

[user43326]

Another problem: with xul-ext-lightning I can no longer sync calendars with nextcloud.

[joris]

Worked for me & is probably the easiest solution... Will this update when it comes out of beta?

[kukulo]

I am not sure. But will work even on Windows...

[Danfro]

Thanks for that post. You saved my day! Worked great unter ubuntu 18.04 with TB 60.2.1

[mondjunge]

Worked, but now the calender is english, while the rest of Thunderbird remains german. Where do I get the locales for lightning?

[tim]

@mondjunge - see the answer by dmishra below using the mozilla archives as an alternative for non-english language versions. I am an english speaker so haven't tried it out.

[Martin R.]

Question: Does anyone know the preferred way to keep lightning more up-to-date? As most ubuntu packages, the official package lacks behind by quite a bit.