Avast is your problem. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Antivirus_Related_Performance_Issues#AVAST

Sorry. I forgot to mention, I had also completely uninstalled Avast and still had the same problem. I uninstalled it once again just to confirm, but even after uninstalling Thunderbird still freezes up soon after booting. Even in Thunderbird safe mode it freezes up. I don't know what else to try.

If Thunderbird works in Windows safe mode, there must still be something installed on your computer interfering with Thunderbird. I don't know what that is though.

I recently switched my aol account from pop to imap. It seems, but I'm not positive, that this problem started around that time. Is it possible that this is what is causing the problem? I have a Gmail account that has always been imap and there were never any problems there.

Is it possible that this is what is causing the problem?

Since Thunderbird works in safe mode I don't think so.

I've tried a few other steps as I am so far not able to get my Aol account working in Thunderbird. My Gmail accounts work fine though.

I used a Macrium image of my hard drive from three weeks ago to get back to when before i switched my Aol account to Imap. It was working fine in Pop. As soon as I swithched to Imap, i started getting the same problem.

I tried a couple of different port settings for my incoming an outgoing servers. First port 465 for both at SSL/TSL. The program didn't freeze but the Aol account did not download any new mail.

Then i tried incoming at 143 and outgoing at 587 both still SSL/TSL. Got the same result as above.

Whenever the port is set to 993, that is when Thunderbird freezes up.

Then i came across a previous question in which you helped someone with the same problem here -https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1178765

Based on that information, is there something else I could try?

I have decided to just switch back to POP3. I have disabled all non system services. Still no luck. I have disabled all startup items. No help there either. I may try to contact Aol support and see if they have any thoughts, but I am out of ideas. I appreciate all of you help christ1, but I think this one is unsolved unless you have any other thoughts.

See if this article helps. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Memory_Usage_Problems

I had already checked for high cpu, memory or disk usage but none of those occurred. I went through the troubleshooting steps anyway, just to make sure all of my bases were covered. (One good thing came out of it, found out how to get rid of those pesky redundant "all mail" folders in my Gmail accounts)

Basically did everything in the troubleshooting steps and still the Aol Imap account still ended up freezing during the "Looking for folders" stage. I don't understand it. My Gmail Imap accounts work perfectly. My Aol Pop account works perfectly, but as soon as I try to download mail for it's Imap counterpart, Thunderbird freezes.

Is there an error log somewhere that would help?

This freeze, does it go away if you wait long enough?

When is the Thunderbird profile stored? DO you have some sort of sync on the drive or folder or streaming backups?

As a matter of fact I do have a sink set up for the profile folder. I will turn it off and let you know the results. Thanks.

As a matter of fact I do have a sink set up for the profile folder. I will turn it off and let you know the results. Thanks.

As a matter of fact I do have a sink set up for the profile folder. I will turn it off and let you know the results. Thanks.

As a matter of fact I do have a sink set up for the profile folder. I will turn it off and let you know the results. Thanks.

The folder syncing was not the problem