Thunderbird repeatedly freezes and stops responding to input for several seconds
Frequently when I am typing a message in Thunderbird, the cursor will stop responding for several seconds and then will abruptly catch up all at once with the characters that I was typing. Also I try selecting a message (which has already been downloaded) and the program stops responding to input for several seconds until the message pane updates. (Nothing like this happens with other programs like Word or Notepad.) I have already restarted with add-ons disabled but that did not fix it.
This happened in previous versions of Thunderbird but it seems like it's gotten worse with the latest update.
All Replies (9)
The most likely cause is you have another program interupting the process. This is usually the Anti-Virus product scanning.
Stop AV from scanning thunderbird folders on startup.
Stop AV from scanning incoming and outgoing mail.
This happens even on a machine with no anti-virus installed.
I did fix it by doing something that worked once before, which was to delete the "All Mail" and "All Mail.msf" files in my [Gmail].sbd folder. Apparently it was trying to update those files, which are huge, so it was a blocking operation that stopped the program from responding.
'gmail keeps all of your emails in the 'All Mail' folder. gmail applies a tag/label to the email so it shows a virtual eg: 'Inbox' of emails because users are used to seeing things that way. I would recommend that you do not subscribe to see the 'All Mail' folder as it only duplicates everything.
If you have a lot of older emails, suggest you move them to another suitably named folder for old mail or archive them. Note gmail auto archives to the 'All Mail' folder, hence why I suggested creating other suitable folders so you can organise them. This keeps the folders smaller. Then you can unsubscribe from seeing the various folders with old emails. It is always on server just in case you need to access them again by 'subscribing to see old mail folder(s).
I've found the likely source of the problem: Thunderbird is syncing "All Mail" even when I specifically have that box un-checked. I can go into Account Settings -> Synchronization and Storage ->Advanced and I can actually *see* the count of messages in "All Mail" climbing, even though I have the box unchecked. Attached are two successive screen captures from that dialog box, so you can see the number climbing even though the box is not checked.
This is a catastrophic bug for me since it means I cannot disable the syncing of the All Mail folder, which is the main cause of Thunderbird freezing and slowing down.
Do you have the 'All Mail' folder subscribed and visible in the gmail account in the folder pane? Right click on gmail imap account and slect 'Subscribe' to see the list of selected folders. If yes it is selected, then it is possible the headers are downloading.
If you do not want to see 'All Mail' in Folder pane,then you need to unsubscribe from seeing that folder. If it is subscribed then it will synchronise to download headers.
The synchronisation window you posted shows what folders are selected for sychronising for offline use. In which case the full message is downloaded. As 'All Mail' is not selected, I'm assuming the full message is not actually downloading.
If you went into offline mode and if only headers are downloading then you should not be able to read email content of those emails in All Mail.
Ah OK, thanks. I will see if this fixes it.
I wonder if there is some way that Thunderbird could detect if file operations are causing general slowness, and display a dialog to the user saying "It looks like [X] is causing the UI to slow down, would you like to disable it?" (In particular, subscribing to any folder like "All Mail" where the header files will be very large.) Perhaps calling a time() function right before a UI-blocking file read/write operation starts, then another time() function right after it ends, and then detecting if enough time has passed that it's probably degrading the user experience. However that would require inserting that logic into a lot of places in the code.
I have the "repeatedly freezes and stops responding to input for several seconds" problem too. However, I do not use IMAP, nor gmail.
It gets worse and worse over a couple of days, until it is too much of a time-consumer. I then shut down and restart TB, and have a fresh fast interface. This solution always works, but after a few hours the first freezes start to re-appear. I cycle on and on like that.
Is someone willing to hint me in what corner of TB to look for settings to fiddle with?
Thanks in advance, regards Thomas.
Modified by tkemmere
General issues that can cause temporary freezes and not responding issues which can effect pop and imap accounts.
The most likely cause is you have another program interupting the process. This could be your OS updating or other programs updating in the background. You would need to schedule those updates to occur when you prefer.
The most common culprit is the Anti-Virus product scanning. To prove this is the case:
- Start computer in 'Safe Mode with Networking'
- Start Thunderbird.
If much better then
- Stop AV from scanning thunderbird folders on startup.
- Stop AV from scanning incoming and outgoing mail.
It could also be an addon extension: to test:
- Start Thunderbird in Safe Mode.
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/safe-mode-thunderbird
If it is an addon then you may need to update the addon or disable it.
Large folders can slow processes. Do you compact folders on a regular basis ? I compact Inbox, Junk and Drafts on a daily basis. Compacting removes hidden marked as deleted emails. Info on compacting, please give it a read as it is important.
General info on performance: