Warning about latest ccleaner update

Off Topic Totally Random
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EDITED POST

After doing a bit of googling, the problem wasn’t with TB or FF, as I first thought, but with Ccleaner, or should I say, with its latest update.

5.31.6105

I thought I would do a heads up on the latest update for ccleaner,

the best thing is to uncheck all the boxes in Ccleaner to clean FF and TB settings, until this bug has been fixed. but I’m not going to take my chances and unchecked the lot. I would advise anyone who uses ccleaner to do the same before they update to the latest version.

I have been using ccleaner for many years without issues, but after the latest update, it wiped all account data for FF (tabs, extensions etc) and thunderbird (email accounts) , so all my shown email accounts, emails etc was no where to be found.

The good new is that I managed to recover some of my accounts, by going to

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles(profilename)

and look for prefs-1.js rename to prefs.js (don’t bother trying to use the invalid prefs file, as that won’t work, if you don’t have a backup, then you need to recreate all you email accounts from scratch.

it seemed that my old prefs file, was renamed as invalid, and could no longer be opened. But lucky I was able to rename another profile js folder, which partially restored most of my accounts, then it was the matter of re adding the accounts that were left.

if you use TB, BACKUP your profile folder, and make sure you have a working JS file, so you can easy rename it, and place it back.

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Cheers for the warning indeed :smiley:

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I know what the problem is, it is CCleaner, I recently updated the program, and the new version had a bug with their latest version. I now set ccleaner to don’t touch FF and TB at all.

So if you got ccleaner, don’t update it, until you changed the settings to ignore both of those programs. otherwise, it will wipe the prefs file and muck you up.

4

That’s good to know. Cheers :smiley:

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Is it possible for a mod to change the thread title? as I don’t think it’s possible for me to do so, I think it would be better if the title was

Warning about latest ccleaner update

instead of it been TB.

also this bug also effects the Opera browser as well. so yeah, the latest update for ccleaner wipes far more then it should be doing.

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Done. It’s more likely for us to notice such a request, if you report your post.

You might want to edit your OP for clarity. :wink:

Are “all” the Thunderbird users also using CCleaner? I stopped using it when I switched from Windows XP to 7, as I felt Windows was less of a mess, and I also did not really know, what I was doing there.

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The devs released ccleaner with a serious bug, so yes, it effects everyone who has updated to the latest version, I have edited my original post and stated the effected version of ccleaner.

I think there is a fix in the works, but until then don’t allow ccleaner to touch any of FF and TB settings. as it wiped my email accounts when I first logged into windows again. So at least now, I have restored my accounts and backed up the prefs file in the profile directory, on the safe side this time.

But this bug has been reported both on TB support forums and ccleaner support forums, and has effected everyone who uses the above programs and also anyone who uses Opera, as that is another browser that been effected by this bug.

anyway, my original post has been updated. but worth a heads up.

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Don’t know if all of them are eisprinzessin, but I do because I don’t use Microsoft Office so don’t have access to Outlook for e-mails.

Thank you for confirming this matthewfarmery because I had exactly the same problem as you yesterday just before lunchtime when I updated CCleaner and then ran it. Lost everything in Thunderbird and struggled to access the account because I couldn’t remember which password was the correct one. When I finally found it, TB then proceeded to download my last 5,802 e-mails! Still didn’t have all my folders though.

Luckily I’d had a Windows update yesterday morning which required it to make a new restore point so once the e-mail flood had stopped I went in and went back to the previous restore point which put TB back the way it should have been.

Told my husband about the problem when he got home in the evening and he swore CCleaner couldn’t be the problem, though he did deselect the TB option and one or two others for me, saying he didn’t understand why I had them on in the first place. I can now tell him that it was CCleaner’s fault.

Did you also experience CCleaner going around in circles when you did the download? I got the update notification, clicked to go to the website then clicked again to go to the download site, clicked the download, said run and then install and when I chose run CCleaner it came up saying there was a new update. Went through the whole thing again and got the new update message again so I decided it wasn’t worth it and just ignored the update message and ran the programme and then disaster.

Do you know if any way to back up the folders in Thunderbird? I did have a look at their website and saw mention of the Profile thing, but wasn’t sure it would bring all my folders back so went with the restore point option instead.

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Yep… Go to C:\Users*****\AppData\Roaming, you have to show hidden folders to see this. Then copy the Thunderbird folder and that’s your full backup of everything, all settings, emails, passwords etc, etc. :smiley:

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Thanks Jaknet, I’ll try that. I have several different folders with info I want to keep, some of which I have paper copies of also, but would like to back the folders up as well. :slight_smile:

Any clue as to where Thunderbird puts its folder? I can see an old application file under Program Files\x86, but that’s all.

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The program is installed in Program files (x86) for me, but all your info and data to backup is in the \Roaming folder as posted.

Edit… Just to clarify the Thunderbird folder in appdata\roaming contains ALL your thunderbird folders, sub folders, emails, account settings…everything.

When I do a clean install of thunderbird I place my backup folder into \roaming before installing TB and when it starts after installing it has everything exactly as I left it.

Hope this helps :slight_smile:

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Yes, thanks Jaknet. That’s exactly what I wanted to back up. I’ve found it now and backed it up and will try and remember to do it on a regular basis. :slight_smile:

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I admit I was wrong, its the roaming/TB where your profile info resides. (not local, but I do have a TB folder there as well) I also learned that if you go to the three stripes button, then help, then troubleshooting information

then click open folder besides the profiles folder. that will load an explorer window where your profile is located.

but again, its the

prefs.js

that you really need to backup, as that is where your account folders / emails folders information resides.

Anyway, I have unchecked all the boxes for TB and FF in ccleaner, so this issue should not crop up again.

but its well worth backing up the full folder and putting it somewhere safe (external drive / usb stick) on the safe side.

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Yeah it seems to like having folders everywhere :stuck_out_tongue:

You can also back up Firefox(Mozilla folder), opera, winamp and various others by backing up their folder from Roaming :wink:

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Just an addendum: The pref.js file only contains your settings, nothing else. You need the complete folder to get all of the things from your account.

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I guess I should be more clear, yes the whole profile folder is needed, but its the prefs.js file that gets renamed so that you don’t have any email accounts, when you load TB, if you have a backup of that file, then you are fine, and don’t need to go through the hassle of re adding your email accounts manually.

its that file that the latest version of ccleaner seems to make invalid, and changing it back won’t work. so having a backup of that file at least is a good idea.

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Just an FYI, regarding Hackers hid malware in CCleaner software.

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yea i saw that on a news article too, good thing i dont update the CCleaner that often and according to the devs it only occurs on the 32bit version and the cloud one :wink:

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I am using the 64bit version, so np here, but ran a scan with malwarebytes on the safe side. It’s certainly not been a good year for this program.

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Lo and Behold I ran malware and that shit was on my PC. got rid of it and CCleaner for the time being