Mozilla Thunderbird

Question

Anybody out there use Mozilla Thunderbird as their email client? Are you having any issues with the latest Thunderbird version 102.2.0, which was updated a few days ago?

I tried to download emails tonight from Gmail using the POP3 protocol, as normal, on my Win 10 (21H2) desktop via FiOS Ethernet with no router. So it's not on a local network.

I'd cleared out the cache, cookies, etc on this PC yesterday, so Google asked me to log in again, BUT the log-in screens are in Chinese for all 3 of my Gmail accounts! I don't use a VPN and Location is disabled in Windows.

google chinese 2.jpg

Suspecting malware, I scanned with Windows Defender, Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware. Nothing was found by any of them. Ran ccleaner to clean out everything again but the log-in screens are still Chinese.

Switched over to a Win 10 (21H2) laptop that uses a WiFi router and gets it's own independent IP address. The laptop has never been on any network with the desktop.

Don't have TB on the laptop so I logged into Gmail using Firefox. The log-in was entirely in English. When I looked at the account's log-in history, a single log-in is shown for the laptop/Firefox with an IP address in USA. There are multiple POP3 (desktop) log-ins over last few days, all with the same IP, different from the one used by the laptop.

Google says the desktop's IP is in Hong Kong, but I don't use a VPN. HK might explain the Chinese log-in screens, but why does Google think the IP is in HK?? FWIW, the site iplocation.net correctly identifies my ISP and correctly locates the IP address to a city in USA.

To be safe, I changed passwords, but I can't figure out why this is happening...

Suggestions?

RoHe · Answer

Update: I disabled the Ethernet adapter and connected via WiFi to the router.  Gmail log-ins are in English again and the IP geolocates correctly according to Google (and iplocation.net). I'm baffled why the Ethernet connection geolocates to Hong Kong. I sent email to my ISP and filed a report with Google too.

ky331 · Answer

Ron, I see there's a 'minor' Thunderbird update 102.2.1 Thunderbird 102.2.1 - Neowin Update from your preferred/usual site (or internal updater, if that's an option), and see if it makes a difference.

RoHe · Answer

@ky331 Thanks for pointing out the TB update..

When I booted up today, I was able to use the Ethernet connection with TB to log into some of my Gmail accounts with log-in screens all in English. Thought it was fixed, but then another Gmail account's log-in came up in Chinese.

It's better than yesterday since a few accounts got English log-ins today vs none yesterday, but I don't know if those same accounts will get English log-ins next time.

I don't get it...I'm using the exact same PC with same Ethernet connection and IP address, in the same boot session and, as I far as I can see, the TB settings are identical for all Gmail accounts, but the result isn't the same for all accounts today.

I suspect this has to be on Google's side but they haven't responded to my support request.

I'll give that TB update a try next...

RoHe · Answer

@ky331 - I've held off on installing that new TB update because the listed fixes didn't seem to address my issue.

And now, suddenly the problem seems to have gone away on its own. I rebooted several times and logged in/out/in to all my Gmail accounts last night and again this morning. The Gmail log-ins are coming up in English again for all my accounts.

Since yesterday, the only updates that have been installed were two Windows Defender definitions updates.

I'm still getting the same IP address from my ISP at every boot. So unless the ISP did something to fix this IP address, I have no inkling of what caused or fixed the problem.

Going to hold off on the new TB update for a few more days, until I'm convinced it's really fixed. Don't want to introduce another new variable into the mix.

Thanks for you help!

Virus & Spyware

Mozilla Thunderbird

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