How to reset Enigmail back to default on Windows?

[Matthew Buxton]

Hi, somehow I've managed to break Enigmail on my Windows 10 x64 machine running Thunderbird 68.1.1. Although the extension is installed, when I go to an encrypted e-mail it just says

"This is an encrypted OpenPGP message.
In order to decrypt this mail, you need to install an OpenPGP add-on."

If I go to Tools->add on options->enigmail I see something else weird. Under "files and directories" it just says (error)

If I try to hit browse to manually point the extension to gpg.exe, nothing happens, no file requester dialogue appears.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the add on several times but it seems to remember my settings when I do this. Is there a way to completely reset the add on back to new so that it forgets all my settings?

[Patrick Brunschwig]

There is no such option or function. Did you already restart Thunderbird?

[Matthew Buxton]

I did restart Thunderbird multiple times lol.

Just tell me where all the configuration files are stored I'll try manually deleting them?

[Patrick Brunschwig]

I suggest you start deleting %localappdata%\Thunderbird\Profiles\<your profile=""></your>

You should stopThunderbird before that. If this doesn't help, your Thunderbird profile is in %appdata%\Thunderbird\Profiles\<your profile=""></your>

[Matthew Buxton]

I have to delete my entire Thunderbird profile and set up/re-download ALL my e-mail again? That would have to be an absolute last resort for me as I have a lot of e-mail and I rely on e-mail for my business. Is there no alternative?

[Patrick Brunschwig]

Ther first path in Local Data simply deletes startup cache files, that are automatically created by Thunderdbird. It's safe to delete these files, as they will be re-created during startup, and I assume that this will solve your problems.

The second path is your "real" profle data, and you'd have to be quite careful if you don't want to re-setup everything.

[Matthew Buxton]

Ok I uninstalled Enigmail, deleted C:\Users(username)\AppData\Local\Thunderbird, re-opened Thunderbird, re-downloaded Enigmal..

Same problem :(

Anything else I can try before the neuclear option?

[Olav Seyfarth]

If you just want Enigmail config cleared, shut down TB, oben prefs.js in your profile and delete every line that contain enigmail or pgp. Verify that Enigmail no longer resides in your extensions subfolder, in my profile/extensions it's the file "{847b3a00-7ab1-11d4-8f02-006008948af5}.xpi".

And I suggest you first start with a test: You can have several TB profiles, create a test profile, minimal setup and install enigmail there. Your keys should be accessible since they aren't in your TB profile but in your user / GnuPG profile. To do so, close TB and start it with command line argument, see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/using-multiple-profiles

[Matthew Buxton]

Ok so I cleared out enigmail from the prefs.js and that made a change but we're still stuck. This is what I now see in Enigmail preferences (see attachment)

I have reinstalled GPG4Win several times still nothing.

The problem is I can't click "browse" and point Enigmail to PGP, when I click override with and "Browse.." nothing happens, no file requester appears.

Setting up a minimal profile and unfortunately I have the same issue, unable to browse to PGP directory and Enigmail not automatically detecting it...

HELP!

[Patrick Brunschwig]

I expect that you will find an error message in the Thunderbird Console (menu Tools > Developer Tools > Error Console).

Can you check the following:

Restart Thunderbird, then check the error console. There should be a message "Enigmail bootstrap completed". If that message is not visible, then there should be an error message.

[Matthew Buxton]

ok this is all I can see relating to enigmail when I do that:-

[Exception... "ServiceManager::GetService returned failure code:" nsresult: "0x80570016 (NS_ERROR_XPC_GS_RETURNED_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://enigmail/content/modules/dialog.jsm :: <top_level> :: line 22" data: no]</top_level>
@chrome://enigmail/content/modules/dialog.jsm:22:66
@chrome://enigmail/content/modules/decryption.jsm:17:36
@chrome://enigmail/content/modules/mimeVerify.jsm:22:40
@chrome://enigmail/content/modules/mimeDecrypt.jsm:15:36
@chrome://enigmail/content/modules/pgpmimeHandler.jsm:28:41
startup@moz-extension://9ddaf112-5e86-48d9-b3db-a226d447d719/bootstrap.js:23:47
startup@chrome://messenger/content/parent/ext-legacy.js:418:11
registerBootstrapped@chrome://messenger/content/parent/ext-legacy.js:287:11

Thanks,

Matt

[Matthew Buxton]

I may have found the issue, it may be a conflict with sticky password manager. Since I have this extension installed on my PC it automatically hooked into my Thunderbird on my blank profile. I will continue testing and let you know.

[Matthew Buxton]

Confirmed, conflict is with Sticky Password Extension, https://www.stickypassword.com/

I will e-mail their tech support team and raise it with them.