370191 - T-Bird 2b2 will always Quit when adding and removing the same Add On

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Mike]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1
Build Identifier: Thunderbird 2 Beta 2

If you remove the Lightning Add On, and add a different Lightning Add On (i.e. upgrading to a new version manually), T-Bird 2b2 will no longer launch.  The app will display a message about some preferences incompatibility with a newer version of T-Bird and only offer the "Quit Application" dialog box.

Re-installing T-Bird 2b2 will not fix the problem. T-bird is permanently hosed.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Tools>Add On
2. Select Lightning.
3. Click Remove
4. Click Add New Add On
5. Browse to Add On
6. Click Add
7. Click Re-start Automatically
Actual Results:  
T-Bird 2b2 will only display the "Quit Application" dialog box and will never run again - even after a re-install.

Expected Results:  
T-Bird should launch with the selected Add On.

Comment 1

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

I'm not sure what "quit application" dialog you mean, but I suspect you mean the "already running" dialog that is shown if lock files are left in the profile. 

Remove lock and .parentlock if you find them in your profile folder. 
<http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder> Does that help?

Comment 2

[Mike]

There is a dialog box that appears, prior to launch, which displays a single button "Quit Application".  The text of the message is something about detecting the settings from a prior version.

Every time T-bird is launched, after completing the steps I mentioned, the app will hit this dialog and not launch.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

you know need to restart thunderbird prior to reinstalling the same add on?

Comment 4

[Mike]

An application shutdown should not be needed after an Add On is removed - before an Add On of the same name can be installed.  All applications I can think of that use Add Ons, like Excel, Word, Visual Studio, etc, allow an Add On to be removed and then re-added with the same name, without an application shutdown.

If an application shutdown is unavoidable with Tbird, the user needs to be forced to shutdown, rather being caught in an endless loop, which would undoubtedly inspire the user to stop using the product.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #4)
> An application shutdown should not be needed after an Add On is removed 

this is bug 256509

as for comment 2, can you give the exact text for "something about detecting the settings from a prior version."

Comment 6

[Gary Kwong [:gkw] [:nth10sd] (NOT official MoCo now)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> as for comment 2, can you give the exact text for "something about detecting
> the settings from a prior version."

No information for 7 months since last comment -> incomplete. Please feel free to comment if the issue still occurs in the latest supported Thunderbird version 2.0.0.12 or trunk nightlies.