OK, Thunderbird just froze twice for just under two minutes each while doing nothing related to GIF files. I was doing a simple "Get Messages". The sub-folder I happened to have selected at the time contained no messages at all. No messages themselves were selected, GIF containing or not. There were no large messages downloaded which might account for even a slight pause and definitely not a freeze of 2 minutes.

Task Manager definitely reported Thunderbird as "Not Responding" and no columns indicated any change in usage while frozen. The only sub process listed under the Thunderbird App "Thunderbird (32 bit)" was "Drafts - Local Folders - Mozilla Thunderbird"

While Thunderbird was frozen, Task Manager showed overall CPU at most 20%, Memory 39%, Disk 1%, Network 0% Thunderbird showed CPU 0%, Memory 155.6 MB, Disk 0 MB/s, Network 0 MBps In other words, no other process was running out of control to cause Thunderbird to be slow or freeze. Task Manager showing zero network traffic indicates Thunderbird was not downloading any messages no matter how large or small during the freeze.

have you tried creating an exception in avast for nstmp.html in the temp folder? I think I recall another thread where avast was acting like a pig until that file was exempted from scanning.

Anyway look at this thread. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1075469 it has links to others. All covering the recent released Avast.

The question owner specified that: "I have tried all of the following and none have worked: ... Turning off anti-virus (Avast)".

It's not helpful to ignore the troubleshooting details that submitters provide.

I am experiencing a similar freeze when sending emails in Thunderbird that started upon upgrade to >38.x on Win8.1. It doesn't seem to be related to GIFs for me, but, like you, it seems to unfreeze after several minutes.

However, a freeze every few sent emails makes the program unusable on a daily basis (I've been using it for 10 years...).

Have you found that downgrading to version 31.2 or earlier resolves the issue? That workaround appears to solve my issue, albeit in an unacceptable manner on the long term.

mekkim said

The question owner specified that: "I have tried all of the following and none have worked: ... Turning off anti-virus (Avast)". It's not helpful to ignore the troubleshooting details that submitters provide.

I assume you will be taking it from here then.

Without being rude the statement that someone has turned off their anti virus is simply not worth the air it takes to say it. The anti virus products themselves lie about if they are active. So the poor reporter of such information can still lead everyone up the garden path unwittingly even it they are technically skilled. hence the following standard process. After all the guy in the thread I linked to only had success when he uninstalled Avast.

To diagnose problems with Thunderbird, try one of the following:

• Restart Thunderbird with add-ons disabled (Thunderbird Safe Mode). On the Help menu, click on "Restart with Add-ons Disabled". If Thunderbird works like normal, there is an Add-on or Theme interfering with normal operations. You will need to re-enable add-ons one at a time until you locate the offender.
• Restart the operating system in safe mode with Networking. This loads only the very basics needed to start your computer while enabling an Internet connection. Click on your operating system for instructions on how to start in safe mode: Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, OSX

If safe mode for the operating system fixes the issue, there's other software in your computer that's causing problems. Possibilities include but not limited to: AV scanning, virus/malware, background downloads such as program updates.

OK, I have done everything suggested. Nothing worked.

I've noticed another weirdness though which might explain the problem.

When I send a message Thunderbird says "Deleted 22 Messages from Drafts" and then hangs. When Thunderbird finally responds from the freeze the message switches to "Deleted 23 Messages from Drafts". The message I was sending was the only one in Drafts.

To me this would indicated a corrupt message database. But I have already deleted global-messages-db.sqlite and restarted Thunderbird to rebuild the Global Database. At this point I have tried this three times.

Any more suggestions how to fix this?

Thanks, Timothy

Is this account IMAP or POP?

POP.

I also went on my ISP's WebMail. A "Drafts" folder did not even exist there yet since I had never written a message directly online.

Do you compact your folders regularly? Tbird can lock things up if too much junk accumulates in the databases. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_working_-_Thunderbird

Compacted very frequently. Messages archived such that only year 2015 messages are there.

Reading properties for the "Mail" folder under this profile, I see total size 633 MB. I also see 2,753 files. Which does not seem unreasonable considering the amount of email I deal with.

The 268 folders does seem a bit high considering I only see 66 subfolders in the Thunderbird folders pane itself.

I have 12 different email addresses I receive from. All of them POP. Even though all 12 of these accounts are pointing to "Inbox for a different account" > "Local Folders" they do seem to have an inbox and trash folders under their own pop account folder in addition to Local Folders.

I do seem to have a lot of Windows folder names duplicated in several places under the "Mail" folder under the profile. Most of them seem empty. Is this normal?

I need to go now. I'll check out more late tonight.

I think I've got it!

I seemed to have a lot of empty directories within the <profile>\Mail directory. I did the following and it seems to fix my problem: 1) Quit Thunderbird. 2) Copy the profile directory to backup Thunderbird profile. 3) Use an empty directory deletion program to delete all empty directories (I used "Remove Empty Directories" but there are others available). 4) Rebuild the global database by deleting <profile>\global-messages-db.sqlite. 5) Restart Thunderbird.

The global database was now less than 1/10th the size and Thunderbird seems to have quit hanging (so far).

Some of the reasons I had so many empty folders: 1) I tend to create and delete accounts fairly regularly. I like my mail top go to folders under Local Folders rather than the original account. I was using the wizard as a quick way to add new accounts rather than manually. I would then change (account)<Server Settings><Advanced> to "Inbox for Different Account". I would then delete the old account folder. Doing it this way appears to leave a bunch of empty directories behind. a) I will now create new email accounts manually and change where the inbox is pointing in one go. 2) Renaming folders appears to leave empty directories behind under the old folder name. 3) There were still a bunch of empty directories I could not explain. I deleted these too.

- Timothy

A corrupt global message db is probably the real culprit. I have not seen it much for a long time, but the major reduction in size indicated it had issues. IF it happens again (gets huge) please use an SQLITE viewer and have a look inside the file to see if you can see what is out of kilter before deleting it. Causes of corruption are often complex and any information is relevant and grist for the mill. I use an older version of this http://sqlitebrowser.org/

It turns out none of the above was the problem either. Eventually Thunderbird started hanging again.

The problem appears to have been an obsolete add-on extension "QuoteAndComposeManager". For some reason Thunderbird never told me this add-on was not compatible with this version of Thunderbird. Thunderbird did not tell me this extension was not even available anymore on the Thunderbird add-on website.

I wish someone had told me about the Error Console. I did not know it existed. I had never noticed "Error Console" listed as a selection under "Tools". Nor did I know I could start it automatically when Thunderbird started by adding " -jsconsole" to the Thunderbird command line or shortcut target.

Once I started using the Error Console the problem became more clear. Every time Thunderbird hung I would get an error message about how an "update" file did not exist in folder "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\extensions\{972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}".

Once I knew it had something to do with extensions and updates, I turned off "Update Add-ons Automaticaly". When Thunderbird did not hang for several days, I turned "Update Add-ons Automaticaly" back on - Thunderbird started hanging again with the same message.

I then started removing add-ons one at a time beginning with any I could not remember using recently. When I removed "QuoteAndComposeManager" Thunderbird stopped hanging and has not hung for three days now.

If a moderator or someone advanced enough to know how to do bug reports sees this post could you please add it as a bug? I do not know whether the problem was in the min/maxVersion for the extension, or if an "update" file really is missing somewhere, or if it is when Thunderbird went looking for updated extension when the extension no longer exists at all on the Thunderbird website.

Thank you, - Timothy Atwood

I do not think it was ever on AMO. It has always been available on the Authors web site.https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/quoteandcomposemanager-en.html

The current version is 0.4.0.2 if you have had issues with that version please drop an email to Paolo, he is usually fairly responsive.

I have been following this thread because it seems to be the same problem I have been having - especially in the last several weeks. I have found that starting Windows 8.1 in safe mode solves the problem, but have not been able to identify the component that is causing the problem.

Initially compressing and/or repairing folders seemed to help, but that no longer has much effect.

Starting TB in safe mode makes no difference. Manually disabled every TB add-on and extension I could find. Turning off Windows Defender makes no difference.

 (However it occurs to me that I uninstalled McAfee and switched to Defender early in the process and it seems to have gotten worse since then.)

Starting the computer and ONLY running TB as stand-alone does not help.

But as long as Win 8.1 is in safe mode TB works GREAT!

I am about to start turning off individual services manually to see if I can identify the problem.

Do you have any better suggestions for identifying what other software services to try first?

Do you have an anti virus? Is it already a known problem child? https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Antivirus_Related_Performance_Issues (we try and keep it up to date with new instances, but we do take a while sometimes. A single incident also does not make it to an entry.)

As reported above, I uninstalled McAfee and installed Windows Defender, and in retrospect it seems to have gotten worse since then.

Running with internet access off (I only have WiFi) the performance is sometimes slow, and of course I can't work with mail on the server (I am also WIFI only) but it is only a minor inconvenience

When WiFi is on the problem has been constant - goes "non responsive" for minutes at a time, then works for only a short time, usually only a few seconds, before going non responsive again. The TB title bar shows Thunderbird is not responding.

NOW - I took Windows out of safe mode, and TB seems to be working fine. I don't know of anything I changed, but the problem seems to be gone. If it recurs I will exclude the TB profile in Windows Defender.

Thanks for the quick response. I will report back when I am sure if the problem has gone away.

Ok, after almost 3 weeks running everything in normal modes with no problems I let windows install some updates. Thunderbird immediately started "not responding" - even worse than before. I can usually type a couple of words, occasionally a complete sentence, then it locks up for a minute or more. On a few occasions the lockup lasted 5 minutes or more. I repaired, compressed, ran TB in safe mode, ran windows in safe mode, put exceptions in for all TB and Mozilla folders in my Apdata folder, and even updated TB to the latest release. I even went back to a restore point prior to the updates. Nothing seems to help.