A Ghacks reader recently posted a comment asking whether it was possible to download old releases of Thunderbird. The situation was that he switched to Thunderbird 3 beta 3 and noticed that some of the add-ons that he had installed were not working anymore. The official websites that provide downloads of Firefox and Thunderbird only offer the latest version of the software programs. This is done to protect the users from downloading outdated, insecure or unstable versions of a software.
It is therefor usually not a good idea to download and install an old version. It might be different during beta testing but it is generally recommended to figure out other ways of coping with a problem.
There is however a very easy way of downloading old versions of either Thunderbird or Firefox. Just point your web browser to ftp.mozilla.org and visit the ftp repositories for either program. The ftp server not only lists the latest version but also all other releases that have been created in the past. Here are the direct links:
- ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/
- ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/
Again: It can be highly problematic to install old releases. Make sure you backup the data before installing an older version of Thunderbird or Firefox.
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Excellet piece of info. Thank you.
If you need older version of Firefox or Thundrbird or many other popular software, you can check http://www.filehippo.com/
Using (and installing) older versions can be problematic, as you pointed out. Instead of *installing* them, simply use the *portable* versions.
Click on the desired program (i.e., Mozilla Firefox) at this page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/portableapps/files/
Thank you very much ! I’m looking for Firefox v2
You can also download it from http://www.oldapps.com