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Recently installed EarlyBird. Each time it is opened it waits and installs updates. Is this normal?

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  • Last reply by Wayne Mery

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Went looking for Thunderbird after computer crash. Site offered EarlyBird or something else (I forget) but not Thunderbird. Downloaded, successfully installed. Works fine EXCEPT that each time I open it, it apparently installs new updates for about 15 seconds. EACH time, even multiple times in same day. Are you really updating this often, or is this a bug specific to me?

Went looking for Thunderbird after computer crash. Site offered EarlyBird or something else (I forget) but not Thunderbird. Downloaded, successfully installed. Works fine EXCEPT that each time I open it, it apparently installs new updates for about 15 seconds. EACH time, even multiple times in same day. Are you really updating this often, or is this a bug specific to me?

Chosen solution

BuckDeke, Are you back on a regular version?

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Earlybird is kind of an Alpha version of Thunderbird (not even Beta) and should never be offered by any website - instead you should choose to install it yourself when you know where to find it. Also, updates for it only appear once a day - I would not know of any software updating itself every 15 seconds, which would make no sense at all. Since all this happened after a crash, chances are you may have been infected by some malware.

I’d stop using Earlybird (or what claims to be Earlybird) rightaway and then do a proper system scan for malware and viruses. You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista if you don't already have one. Windows 8/10 have antivirus protection built-in.

Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

  • Next, make a back-up of your Thunderbird Profile Folder, just in case. Do not start Thunderbird to find the profile, but find it using a file explorer.
  • Now have a look at your Windows Programs listing (installed programs) and see if there is anything referring to Thunderbird or Earlybird that looks suspicious and remove it. You can or maybe even should also uninstall Mozilla Thunderbird from there - your data (email) and settings should be retained.
  • Reinstall Thunderbird from here.
  • If you are sure there is no mailicious software on your system, it should be safe to start up Thunderbird, and everything should still be there. In case any mail content was removed by antivirus or antimalware products, let us know so any additonal steps may be needed to restore mail.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

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Earlybird is one of the four main development channels of Thunderbird. It does not refer to a version of Thunderbird.

Release < Beta < Earlybird < Daily

Firefox is Release < Beta (b#) < Aurora (a2) (developers edition) < Nightly (a1)

If there are checkins on a channel that day then there is a update however there should not be multiple updates except for maybe a respin build.

Earlybird and Daily channel builds are for Testers and not for regular users.

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Chosen Solution

BuckDeke, Are you back on a regular version?