Gmail extension disappearing

[petersemple]

The gmail extension keeps vanishing for me.  This is the sequence I have to go through every time I start Thunderbird

1. start Thunderbird

2. Get error message about gmail being an unsupported domain - clear error

3. go to add-ons and install gmail extension from file

4. restart Thunderbird

5. everything works until next time.

I am currently using Thunderbird Portable 17.0.8 with Webmail 1.5.1 and gmail 0.7.7

When Thunderbird starts up and the extension is not available, this error is in the error console:

Timestamp: 16/09/2013 11:42:10 AM

Warning: WARN addons.xpi: Add-on is invalid: Error: Directory F:\PortableApps\ThunderbirdPortable\Data\profile\extensions\{860a7040-44a3-11da-8cd6-0800200c9a66} does not contain a valid install manifest

Source File: resource:///modules/XPIProvider.jsm

Line: 903

That error is not present when it works properly 

[petersemple]

Just in case this helps, I just started it again.  This time, the gmail extension exists in the add-ons page, but does not seem to work (gmail is an unsupported domain).  The gmail icon beside the extension name is not there.  This time the errors are:

No chrome package registered for chrome://gmail/skin/GMail-SmallIcon.png

and 

Could not read chrome manifest 'file:///F:/PortableApps/ThunderbirdPortable/Data/profile/extensions/%7B860a7040-44a3-11da-8cd6-0800200c9a66%7D/chrome.manifest'.

There is no file or folder with that name (%7B860a7040-44a3-11da-8cd6-0800200c9a66%7D) in the extensions folder, and as far as I can tell there never has been.

I should have also mentioned that I also tried doing this with a new installation of Thunderbird just in case something had become corrupted, and I had the same trouble with the gmail extension needing to be reinstalled every time.

[KE4AVB]

I had this problem several years ago I was having the same problem and probably still do with a Linux based system.I just have been for year due my mother healths at the time. A work around that I found was to install the extension. Exit TB. Goto directory where the extension was install and make it a read only directory. When I restart TB it can not erase the installed files. I posted about it here but nothing was ever done about it.