Ubuntu – Thunderbird 16.0.1 filling disk space

Upgrade manager running out of space

As mentioned in comment, this is a bug. This isn't supposed to happen. Make sure you have 3GB or more before running the upgrade.

Freeing up space while the upgrade is running

You can't use apt-get since the update-manager is already holding the package locks. You also can't manually delete the package cache since it's probably got all the packages in it you've just downloaded.

All you can do is move personal data and manually delete non-essential files:

1. Move personal data from Documents, Pictures etc. to /host
2. Delete large files in Downloads e.g. ISOs
3. Clear your browser cache manually e.g. ~/.mozilla/firefox/Cache or ~/cache/google-chrome/Default/Cache. This can free up 1GB sometimes.
4. Manually remove older kernels by looking in /boot and deleting all but the latest vmlinuz-..., initrd.img-..., System.map-..., abi-... and config-... (this can free up a couple of hundred MB if you have a lot of old kernels).
5. Use the disk usage analyzer to look for large logfiles or hidden data that you can delete or move.

I still think this is simply a bug that must be fixed, rather than trying to find a solution. Running around deleting or moving data isn't a really great solution (and obviously carries some risk if you accidentally remove something essential or of personal value.

Scouring the internet for answers didn't help. I had the idea to purge-remove my thunderbird installation but I feared losing at least parts of my email archives in the process.

Luckily, I found a solution that went almost hassle-free:

• open Thunderbird
• go to Edit -> Preferences
• open tab Security -> Passwords
• open Saved Passwords
• WARNING: The next step will erase all your passwords from Thunderbird Password Manager, so be sure to have all of your email passwords written down somewhere or saved by another password safe like KeePass!
• click on delete all
• close the window
• in the main window, click retrieve all
• when asked for your password, enter it and tick Use Password Manager to save password
• send yourself an email from every one of your accounts and repeat the previous steps when prompted for passwords

That's it, your passwords should be all set again. Reboot (or logoff-logon) to test if they really stick.