Auto updates are secretive and allow computer to be turned off in the middle of the process leaving the email account inaccessible Why?
This question is to help my wife. She is travelling and tried to access her email account with Thunderbird and could not. I discovered that no emails were downloadable since she left. Eventually my ISP support was able to tell me that Thunderbird was secretly updating the programme and my wife had turned off her computer. Why is there nothing that stops this?
Knowing how to stop it only works if you are informed beforehand that is the way the programme operates. If it is kept secret the ordinary person has no way of knowing. Convenience and secrecy are not necessarily one and the same.
Is it not possible to prevent this? Other programmes warn about powering off during upgrades.
Thanks
Krejt Përgjigjet (5)
Thunderbird does NOT require the user to switch off. Just restart.
That was not quite right. First off the real owner of the computer was not in the country. So could not switch on. I as understudy switched on, but still it did not work and I had to reboot the computer and start all over again. This is not possible remotely. So if it happens and you are not directly in front of the machine it is a real nuisance. I appreciate it is not necessarily the usual way people handle their computer but it is a significant difficulty which seems not to have been properly addressed. Or maybe I am missing something?
Software cannot stop users pressing buttons. And Thunderbird does NOT switch off the machine, nor does it ask the user to do so.
I am sorry but I do not seem to be able to describe clearly what the problem is. The updated software was proceeding when my wife switched off her computer. The update did not complete. She went abroad. The programme locked up and would not allow any new emails to download. When I switched on the computer for my wife it still would not update and the computer had to be rebooted. My wife was unaware of the update proceeding because she was not told. I was unaware of this too. My switching on did not help to complete the upgrade which required a reboot. All of this was avoidable in my opinion. Do you follow me, if not please ask. Other software does not allow the computer to be turned off without a warning. That would be one preventative action that could be taken. It is too much to expect the average user to know all this without some kind of information provision. I have fixed the problem for now, but it will happen to others if it has not already.
I have never closed down my Windows machine and not been warned that programs are active.