For the Thunderbird snap, we would like to use latest/ for ESR releases for some time and so will need monthly/ for monthly releases. The esr/ track would eventually be closed.
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I noticed that latest/candidate went backwards from 141.0-3 to 128.13.0esr-3 and I was wondering what was going on.
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That sounds like a practical plan to separate stable ESR and monthly release cycles. +1 to creating the monthly/ track for clarity and better user targeting.
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the candidate change bit me slightly: Thunderbird 141 snap and candidate - profile not compatible anymore
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Same here, I did a snap revert and then set a hold on thunderbird until the new track becomes available.
I hope a decision is made soon. Right now we have a rather confusing situation:
latest/stable: 128.12.0esr-1
latest/candidate: 128.13.0esr-3
esr/stable: –
esr/candidate: 140.1.0esr-1
I see the reasoning (default should be ESR), but for completeness, why use latest for ESR releases instead of continuing to use the esr track? I think it would be semantically clearest to just have monthly and esr tracks, and either not have latest or have latest be the same as monthly.
Yay for monthly/ track 
Did you consider setting the default track to esr instead of using latest? In that case people would follow the esr branch if they do not specify a track manually.
Usually with snap packages, in latest/stable I would expect the latest release if that exists and latest/edge being the master branch/nightly build.
ESR and monthly tracks clearly communicate the release schedule/policy.
The main problem boils down to: Although the default track can be changed, it doesn’t effect any change for existing installations. So ‘latest’ we need to keep as a sort of compatibility measure.
We will however not close the esr branch because Thunderbird is recommending this schedule for the “default” track:
Now August 2026
128ESR 140ESR Monthly releases
and it will be easier to give the users the choice to track ‘monthly’ or ‘esr’ releases, or just let us and upstream steer the boat in ‘latest’.
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Hey, my last response is also applies to yours, just wanted to address this remaining point:
Usually with snap packages, in latest/stable I would expect the latest release if that exists and latest/edge being the master branch/nightly build.
That makes sense but we’ll need to ignore the semantics of ‘latest’ and focus on its functionality for now. For semantics we will use ‘monthly’ and ‘esr’, which we will keep by the way. I hope that is a good compromise.
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Could you please provide a link with the thunderbird schedule information (I checked the firefox release train schedule, the thunderbird roadmap, and the thunderbird releases and did not find it.
So latest will be default track with auto-upgrade, sounds reasonable.
One last question for my understanding: you will not use the snap default track feature at all then, right. So basically in 2026 all users which did not explicitly subscribe to the ESR releases will be auto-upgraded to the monthly releases.
Does creating the monthly/ track need another vote? I am not allowed to vote, but anyway +1 from me 
Could you please provide a link with the thunderbird schedule information (I checked the firefox release train schedule, the thunderbird roadmap, and the thunderbird releases and did not find it.
Sorry, I do not have a link and I do not think there is one, that was in direct conversations with upstream, but @hellsworth1 could kindly provide one such reference, if it exists.
So basically in 2026 all users which did not explicitly subscribe to the ESR releases will be auto-upgraded to the monthly releases.
Yes, that’s the plan.
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Yes i noticed that too. On my Ubuntu currently version 140.1.0esr is installed. Today Snap want me to agree to update to version latest/stable 128.13.0ers-3? I am reluctant to do that. I want to keep the current version and do not want to run into trouble when updating to an older, possible incompatible, version.
Please advice what to do.
Thinks are more complicated i see now. In /var/lib/snapd/snaps I see two entries: version 737 and 751. In my home directory i have a .thunderbird and a .mailErik directory with all my mail. The server settings refer to that directory. It seems that i am running that version. When i check the Thunderbird about it says “You are currently on the esr update channel.”
I uninstalled the Snap version of Thunderbird, after making a backup, and all is working fine.
Um. No need to panic. Refresh to channel esr/stable (which is a thunderbird 140). Or latest/beta if you want to track the montly releases (currently at 142.0b2-1). But you said you removed the snap version; so where does your current thunderbird originate from?
Having multiple versions of your snap on your system is a feature (in order to revert to the previous version if you need that), it is completely normal.
@A333 Thanks for your reply. I moved Thunderbird from Windows to Ubuntu following the instructions i found on the Internet. I noticed Thunderbird has improved a lot recently. As i understand it updates it self with new versions. I do not see the added value of Snap for this application.
I am just confused how you installed thunderbird. You said you are on Ubuntu, but as far as I know there is no *deb package from Mozilla or Canonical.
Flatpak and snap are the non-deb options, but those (and apt as well) do not use the integrated updater. The added value of snap in the Ubuntu case is for the maintainers mostly, not for the users.
The value for the users is: it is a current, tested and officially maintained thunderbird build for your Ubuntu.
Are you using the windows version with wine? Or did you compile yourself?
No, i do not use Wine, nor did i compile myself. I can’t remember exactly but when i moved from my old PC 3 years ago, to my new PC i downloaded Thunderbird from https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/download/esr or the like. In https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/installing-thunderbird-linux#w_installing-thunderbird-manually-for-a-specific-release-channel-for-advanced-users you can find instructions to install the .tar file. Then i just copied my profile and mail data from Windows over the created profile and mail data in Ubuntu. See moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer in mozilla support.
Please kindly refrain from having off-topic discussions in this thread, it is only for discussion about around the inclusion of a new ‘monthly’ track. Feel free to open another one or a bug report.
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@ocalder, do you agree with my response to your question? I still need one +1 as far as I can tell.
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