diff --git a/helpers/make-thunderbird b/helpers/make-thunderbird
index 2e7e9f72735edbbea966c166dc95c42e2c33e9e8..af0c29aa6c84c2c43c2bd34dd2186e2f4b73e128 100644
--- a/helpers/make-thunderbird
+++ b/helpers/make-thunderbird
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 #    Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301 USA
 #
 
-VERSION=17
+VERSION=18
 
 . ./config
 
@@ -30,6 +30,17 @@ cp $DATA/branding/* comm/mail/branding/thunderbird/ -r
 #  cp $DATA/branding/* browser/branding/$i/ -r
 #done
 
+# Remove .gitignore call as those files get cleaned out on dpkg tarball by default.
+remove_gitignore_from_json(){
+    jq . ${1} |sed '/.gitignore/d'|awk -v RS= '{$1=$1}1'|tr -d ' '|tee ${1}.new
+    mv ${1}.new ${1}
+}
+
+for json in $(find -name \.cargo-checksum.json|xargs grep -rl gitignore)
+do
+    remove_gitignore_from_json $json
+done
+
 # Privacy and branding via prefs
 cat << EOF >> debian/vendor.js