The white arrow on green background icon is not one I've seen before, so I wonder if it's due to some 3rd-party updater that is built into some security programs such as Kaspersky. Where does the 'Learn more..' link take you?

Yes, a 3rd-party updater may be in play. I'll explore "Learn more" next time it pops up. (Once the idea entered my mind that this could be malware, I could barely force myself to press "Not now"!)

Hmmm... If you google '"can't update" "we'll help you to install it"', you'll get several hits, mostly in Mozilla forums and mostly regarding Firefox, not TB. One of those links identifies this as related to malware in Yahoo mail. The link to the SearchFox.org site gives javascript that I don't fully understand, but seems apropos. Here's that link: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central.../appMenuNotifications.ftl.

"Learn more..." takes you to: https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/releases/. "Download Thunderbird" takes you to: https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/. So it looks like the pop-up is a legitimate Mozilla thing, but I still don't understand why it is nagging me to update when I'm already running the latest version. Any ideas?

The links are legitimate, and I have seen a similar notification on Firefox, but still not sure this is part of TB. Do you have any other TB installations in Program Files (x86) for 32-bit or Program Files for 64-bit TB? If you only have one TB installed, uninstalling it and deleting the Program Files folder for TB, then reinstalling 68.1.1, might eliminate the notification - as long as there's no updater utility present. Uninstalling doesn't affect the profile folder with your data.

I only have the one TB installation (see attached screenshot). I will try uninstalling/reinstalling and report back when I know the outcome.

Previous discussion here. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1269500

I dont see any bungling,

However the update notifications in Thunderbird have changed in 68 to something similar to those used in Firefox. This is what you are seeing here. In my case it appears on the tab bar, not the toolbar. Do you have some modified interface items? like an add-on or user chrome settings.

My guess is that the operating system is 64bit and the Thunderbird version is 32 bit so a more appropriate version is available, but it is my understanding that all updates are turned off at the moment due to issues which the migration from 32 bit to 64 bit Thunderbird.

Hopefully Wayne will track this topic back from your old thread. He is particularly involved in this updates being offered while they are disabled on the update servers thing.

If I understand the terminology correctly, the icon does appear on the tab bar. That may be hard to see since I photoshopped the screenshot to blur out the tabs, due to my outsized concern for privacy. (The internet used to be much more useful and fun than it has become recently!) In any case, the answer is that I do not have any add-ons or funky settings, that I'm aware of. None of the add-ons I used to employ have been updated to work with the newer TB releases. :-(

I uninstalled both TB and Mozilla Maintenance Service and verified that all corresponding folders under ...Program Files and ...Program Files (86) had been deleted (they were deleted by the uninstall, that is; I did not manually delete those folders). I then installed TB 68.1.1, which also installed Mozilla Maintenance Service. Just now, I got the same pop-up warning shown in the base post of this thread. Could the problem be related to my security app? Password manager? Is TB checking for updates and being somehow blocked from even determining whether there is a new update?

As mentioned above, check your security program. Avast and Kaspersky, to name two, have software update utilities. There are also stand-alone update utilities.

If you have TB 32-bit, one of these programs might 'think' you have to update to 64-bit TB, which is not necessary.

Sorry, I neglected to report what I found regarding updaters: Kaspersky software updater reports that all applications are up-to-date. Dell Updater reports the system is up-to-date. Windows Update found and installed an update to the .NET framework. The dashboards for various devices (printer, graphics card, external/portable drives) have update capabilities, but I presume they are not relevant in regard to this issue. I don't know of any other software updater on my system.

Just for interest, what is on the Startup tab in Task Manager? Right-click the Start icon, Task Manager, More details.

See attachment. Lookie there... There's an Adobe Updater! Could that be the culprit? The only reference I see to Adobe in the TB options is that the Action for incoming Adobe Acrobat Docs is "always ask". I can't be sure I've found all the nooks and crannies of TB options, though.

As far as I can tell, the Adobe Updater only applies to Adobe products, such as Elements. The setting for Acrobat in TB relates to pdf attachments, and isn't connected to TB updates. So, it's a mystery to me why you still get notifications.

See this article about update issues:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Updates_reported_when_running_newest_version

The updates folder is in C:\Users\<windowsuser>\AppData\Local\Thunderbird

Note that the Local folder is different from the Roaming folder where TB stores the profile folder.

The updates folder for Thunderbird is empty atm...

I have the same issue for the last two weeks.

TB 64-bit 68.1.1 notifies about an update almost every day. The software is updated to the latest version already. Installing over the top didn't help.

Windows 10 Pro.

Qrzysio said

I have the same issue for the last two weeks. TB 64-bit 68.1.1 notifies about an update almost every day. The software is updated to the latest version already. Installing over the top didn't help. Windows 10 Pro.

Uninstall TB or delete the Program Files/Mozilla Thunderbird folder, and the Program Files (x86)/Mozilla Thunderbird folder if it exists, then restart the computer. Download and run the 32-bit installer from here.

Is the 64-bit version broken?

Seems to be a Thunderbird problem. I have automatic updates set and was on 68.2.0, despite the update record showing only 68.1.0.

I kept getting these messages and when I checked, TB said it was up to date, so I tried to install an older version, which didn't work. I was looking at setting up a new profile, which I didn't want to do. Somehow or other I managed to update to the Beta channel 71.Ob.1 version - but I still get the same messages to update. I went to TOOLS OPTIONS Scrolled down to UPDATES, which says that I have 71.Ob.1 installed and that TB is up to date. However, when clicking "SHOW UPDATE HISTORY" it tells me that update 60.8.0 is the latest update.

It appears that there is a discrepancy between the latest version recorded and the Update History. Is this what generates the can't update message? If the latest version is installed, yet the update history lists a previous version, it's no wonder that the auto update won't work and the "can't update" messages are generated.

I run win10 PRO and kaspersky.