Cannot install Thunderbird

[astroturf]

So I’ve managed to somehow block myself from installing Thunderbird.

Did not install it as part of pre-installed apps.

Later thought I’d like to give it a try, and tried to download from F-droid. Download was possible, but installing it didn’t work. Then tried from Aurora store, with same result.

Only then realized there might be a way to add those pre-installed apps. Found it in App settings, and enabled it there. Thunderbird still doesn’t show up anywhere. I’ve deleted it and added it again under pre-installed apps, to no avail. The best result so far has been that it appears in the App list under settings, but I cannot launch it from there, and it’s not visible in the launcher’s app drawer.

Thinking it might be a cache that needs to be cleared? I’ve cleared Thunderbird from the app list in Aurora Store but that didn’t help.

Any suggestions on how I might get it to work?

[Lazy]

You restarted after installing from ‘preinstalled apps’?

[astroturf]

Yes, rebooted after every new thing I tried

[MissPiggy]

I read this discussion a few days ago:

@rik

I still am learning on this, but when a “Preinstalled App” is removed, basically a “stub” is kept (you can find the app still under “All Apps > System apps”) but the actual app is gone (and there is nothing in the app menu). This is needed because as the app is part of the system image, if you just simply removed the app it would be restored when a system update is applied. So an empty placeholder identifying itself as the app somewhat prevents this. What I don’t know exactly is if after a new system update is applied if the “first run” then re-removes the app or if it is don’t a bit differently.

Maybe some of the devs can help out?

[Nollie8969]

What abouf K9-mail (thunderbird is a fork).

Although I prefer Fairmail nowadays.

[MissPiggy]

@Nollie8969

thunderbird is a fork

As far as I know, K-9 Mail was transitioned into Thunderbird.
There still is an app called K-9 Mail, but inside it is Thunderbird.

But it could work around the place-holder-stub-problem of Thunderbird Mail app on astroturf’s system - please report back here, if you’ve tried it out!

[rik]

@astroturf

Found it in App settings, and enabled it there. Thunderbird still doesn’t show up anywhere. I’ve deleted it and added it again under pre-installed apps, to no avail.

Can you try again to add it to “Preinstalled Apps” and then reboot? The changes to effectively “swap out” the empty stub app with the actual app from the image can only happen outside the current instance.

UPDATE I see you were rebooting between trials. Just to be certain, remove from Preinstalled Apps > reboot, then add to Preinstalled Apps > reboot.

There are some cases where it is still “stuck” (Preinstalled Apps shows it is installed, but it isn’t but they are a bit hard to reliably reproduce). The developers did make some fixes to this logic a few months back, so it may be worth confirming what iodéOS version you are on as well.