1777691 - TB doesn't auto-update from 102 beta to 103 beta

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: General, enhancement)

Description

[David McDivitt]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/103.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Steps to reproduce:

Installed 102 beta. Discovered 103.0b1 exists. Manually installed 103.0b1 with overwrite.

Expected results:

It should auto update with most current beta version if I am on the beta channel.

Comment 1

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

I think it should, and I think it does.
Have you checked ≡ > Help > About Thunderbird for semi-automatical update?

Rob, any insights?

Comment 2

[David McDivitt]

I have 103.0b5 (64-bit) right now looking at the about screen. From there I clicked download latest version and found 103.0b6.exe. I closed and opened a couple of times and TB did not update automatically. I will of course install the update myself. It would be nice if TB would auto update when on the beta channel similar to what it does when on the release channel.

Comment 3

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

I've had no issues with betas not updating.

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Are you still seeing this?
If not, when did it stop happening?

If yes, are you using Avast? And ...

1. Do Settings > General > type "config" into the search
2. open Config Editor
3. Search for "app.update.log" and set it to "true".
4. Restart Thunderbird.
5. Do Help > About
6. Open Tools > Developer Tools > Error Console
7. Type AUS into the filter
8. Please copy/paste everything starting with "AUS:"

Comment 5

[David McDivitt]

@wayne, I turned on the log as requested. Since I just updated TB manually today will wait until another version is available on the beta channel and post the log then.

Comment 6

[David McDivitt]

Attachment: AUS log created

I am uploading the log generated by following instructions above.

Comment 7

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

The issue is that your logged-in user is not able to write to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\update.test. I'm guessing this is a "Standard" (non-Administrator) user?

The log also indicates that you have the updater background service installed, but it's disabled. The background service runs with Admin privileges so it is able to do the update.

You've got two options:

• Give your user additional permissions so the updater can write to the install directory
• Enable "Use a background service to install updates" in Thunderbird's Settings

Comment 8

[David McDivitt]

I found an option at tools/settings having "use a background service to install updates". It was unchecked. There is a Mozilla Maintenance service in the services list set to manual, but no Thunderbird service. It says the Mozilla service is for Firefox. Would the Thunderbird update service be within that?

When I install or update Thunderbird I do so with elevated permissions. I assume installing a Thunderbird background service, if that happened, would use the same permission.

I have never turned any Thunderbird service off or disabled though I have done others.

How can I get the Thunderbird background service installed?

If necessary I will my user write permission in the Thunderbird installation folder, only.

Comment 9

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

The same maintenance service is used by both Thunderbird and Firefox. It should be set to "manual" in the Windows Services Control Panel.

All you need to do to start using it is enable "use a background service to install updates" in Thunderbird's settings. It's part of both Thunderbird's and Firefox's default install.

Comment 10

[David McDivitt]

I enabled the background service option in Thunderbird. Since the Mozilla service is manual I looked and found two tasks in the scheduler:

Firefox Background Update 308046B0AF4A39CB
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe --MOZ_LOG sync,prependheader,timestamp,append,maxsize:1,Dump:5 --MOZ_LOG_FILE C:\ProgramData\Mozilla-1de4eec8-1241-4177-a864-e594e8d1fb38\updates\308046B0AF4A39CB\backgroundupdate.moz_log --backgroundtask backgroundupdate
in folder: C:\ProgramData\Mozilla-1de4eec8-1241-4177-a864-e594e8d1fb38\updates\308046B0AF4A39CB

Firefox Default Browser Agent 308046B0AF4A39CB
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\default-browser-agent.exe do-task "308046B0AF4A39CB"
in folder: none given

Each task uses my low-privilege user and not administrator or system. Because of that there will be no permission at c:\program_files folder or c:\programdata for either Firefox or Thunderbird.

When installing software I sometimes invoke as administrator by right clicking the exe, but may wait until the install prompts me for permission. I don't remember how I initially installed Thunderbird. When updating I always right click on the exe. Before I went to the beta version it would install updates without intervention. When I installed the beta version I did custom and removed " beta" from the install path, installing over the release version. When updating I continue doing the same thing. This leads to the question, if updates for beta do happen automatically, what would be the install path without prompting the user?

I have not changed anything about the install except removing " beta" from the install path when installing the beta version. I haven't changed any configurations. The only thing I've done other than that is set the "use a background service to install updates" checkbox, today.

From what I've read here I could probably make it work, but instead, please provide guidance and use as an opportunity to review how installations and updates happen. As mentioned the user the update service runs with does not have sufficient permission from errors shown in the error log for AUS.

Comment 11

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

"Firefox Default Browser Agent" - I think this is just checking to make sure Firefox is set as the default browser when appropriate. Unrelated.

"Firefox Background Update" is what updates Firefox when it's not running; Thunderbird doesn't support this at this time.

Neither of those apply to Thunderbird.

If you look at the "Mozilla Maintenace Service" properties in the Services CP, you should see that it runs as "Local System". It's started manually by Thunderbird when needed, same for Firefox, and that's what happens with that "Background Update" scheduled task.

Changing the install directory for beta should not be affecting the updater. I see what you mean when you reinstall about having to change the directory every time. That's semi-intentional; it's like that to make it harder to overwrite a release installation with a beta (and possibly run both).

The updater won't do that, I just verified that it will update into C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird if that's where you installed it with the installer.

I suggest keeping "use a background service to install updates" enabled in Thunderbird. It should work since the service itself runs as LocalSystem. Next beta will hit the update service in the next ~24 hours. If the update fails, we can continue to debug, but I expect it will work.

Comment 12

[David McDivitt]

Attachment: AUS debug log

Comment 13

[David McDivitt]

Comment on attachment 9299396 [details]
AUS debug log

The next beta version is available when I click help, about, did not auto update. I must manually check for updates and click the update button.

Comment 14

[David McDivitt]

When I clicked the update button there were no issues such as needing admin rights.

Comment 15

[David McDivitt]

Thunderbird automatically updated to version 108.0b1 (64-bit) with no user intervention needed, so this is resolved.