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Thunderbird freezes after opening then consumes 100% CPU usage.

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 18 views
  • Last reply by Wayne Mery

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Been using Thunderbird on Ubuntu Linux (12.04 LTS) for years. While creating a new message, Thunderbird froze (dimmed its window) and began consuming 100% CPU time. I killed the process after 5 minutes and started TB again and it froze immediately. So, I elected to restore the TB profile from a two-week-old backup. TB then started normally, pulled in emails from the previous 2 weeks, and all appeared OK. Closed and re-opened TB and it froze immediately.

I then removed the TB program and re-installed it via the Ubuntu Software Center. I restored the backed-up profile, pulled in the emails and all was well. I then closed TB and shutdown the laptop. Next morning, I opened TB and it froze again.

Been using Thunderbird on Ubuntu Linux (12.04 LTS) for years. While creating a new message, Thunderbird froze (dimmed its window) and began consuming 100% CPU time. I killed the process after 5 minutes and started TB again and it froze immediately. So, I elected to restore the TB profile from a two-week-old backup. TB then started normally, pulled in emails from the previous 2 weeks, and all appeared OK. Closed and re-opened TB and it froze immediately. I then removed the TB program and re-installed it via the Ubuntu Software Center. I restored the backed-up profile, pulled in the emails and all was well. I then closed TB and shutdown the laptop. Next morning, I opened TB and it froze again.

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I was able to use Safe-Mode to open TB (but only my 2-week-old profile, not my current profile, it still freezes on opening even in Safe-Mode). I had two extensions that were disabled by Safe-Mode and determined that Lightning was causing the problem. I also found that my Inbox folder size was at 1.1Gb so I compacted that down to about 35Mb.

So all is well now, except I'm reluctant to try Lightning again as I'm wondering whether I've set some recurring events that Lightning is tripping over. Is there a way to install a clean version of Lightning that will wipe clean all events currently in my profile?

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Installing and uninstalling addons or products does not affect, nor clean out "data".

A common contributor to Lightning performance problems is having recurring events.