Category Manager not working in Thunderbird 102

[GraTim]

I have been using Category Manager for some while with Thunderbird 68 (I think it was). The Thunderbird update procedure was too involved, so I stayed at that version. Recently, Thunderbird decided to update to version 102 (I had the choice of 102 or 115, but decided to play it safe). Category Manager claims it is also updated to the most recent version (I didn't see it update separately, so assume it updated along with Thunderbird update). Anyway, Category Manager doesn't now work. The button on the main menu is present but, when clicked, it opens a window of my emails contacts, but allows me to do absolutely nothing. Completely unresponsive. I have read that if I remove Category Manager, then all my categorisations will be deleted, which I would rather not happen. Since it claims I have the latest version of Category Manager, I would think it would not allow me to follow any update procedure. I don't know what to do to get this very useful tool working again. Please help!

[jobisoft]

Your categories are stored in your contacts, not inside the Category Manager. So removing this add-on will not remove your categories.

What type of address book are we talking about? CardDAV or local?

What does unresponsive mean? Can you still work with Thunderbird? Can you see the extracted categories in the popup? Clicking on a category should Show you the contacts of that category.

How many categories do you have roughly?

[GraTim]

Hi. My address book is local to Thunderbird. Thunderbird itself seems to work OK. When I say it is unresponsive, I mean Category Manager is unresponsive. The CM window that opens just lists my contacts. I can do nothing with it. There are no categories visible. All I can do is click away from the CM window to close it. I should have nearly a dozen categories and sub-categories. I have a couple of hundred contacts.

[jobisoft]

Huh, that indicates, that CatMan did not find any categories in your contacts. I did drop support for the old category storage of the long gone MoreFunctionsForAddressBook add-on. Are you a former user of that add-on?

[GraTim]

Hi again. I've never head of MoreFunctionsForAddressBook add-on. The add-on I have been using is/was Category Manager that I installed for Thunderbird 68 I think some 2 or 3 years ago.

[jobisoft]

We will have to look at the raw contact data, to see if the data is still there. But first: Do you happen to have a backup of your TB68 profile? Updating in one go from tb68 to tb102 and skipping tb78 and tb91 might have an inpact here.

[GraTim]

Hi John, My recollection as to what my previous version of Thunderbird was is a little hazy. I've been looking at the release notes on the Thunderbird web-site and now think it was likely version 78 (or even 91?). Sorry for the confusion, but I never thought to make a note of it (all these numbers get very confusing). What I do know is that whenever I tried to update, previously, I got the message that I would have to download the new version rather than upgrade, and get the necessary instructions from the web-site. That put me off updating/upgrading. I tried again every few months with the same response, until a month ago when the upgrade proceeded successfully (apparently). Anyway, I don't think I have a backup of the profile - unless there is one done automatically. Is there perhaps some note or footprint left that I could search for, to give a more definitive answer? So far, all I can find is reference to the very first installed version - 60.7.0 in June '19.

[GraTim]

Hi John, Any ideas on where I go from here to get Category Manager working again?

[jobisoft]

I can invite you to join our next add-on developer zoom call and investigate your issue. You screen share and we try to check if the data is still there: https://developer.thunderbird.net/add-ons/community