Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

User Help for Mozilla Thunderbird
bertarecchia
Posts: 20
Joined: September 23rd, 2010, 1:25 pm

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by bertarecchia »

This morning I started having the same issue.

I don't have the minimize addon
I deleted the session.josn
Rebooted the pc after removing the above file

Still having the issue :(


EDIT!
I take it back.
After deleting the .jason I was able to close one window with the File>Exit , which I wasn't able to do before deleting that file.

Thanks.
ArchVader
Posts: 1
Joined: December 7th, 2012, 12:25 am

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by ArchVader »

Had this problem some days with TB 17.0 and found this post today.

I have the Minimize To Tray add-on. After disabeling this addon and restarting TB I could close one instance.
Then I restarted TB again, the problem was fixed. After enabeling Minimize To Tray the problem never came up.

Thanks for the hint!
RSchusky
Posts: 1
Joined: December 7th, 2012, 4:40 pm

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by RSchusky »

@jawarters fixed it for me, running Windows 7:

I also had this behavior without the Minimize to Tray option. I found I could eliminate the 2nd window by clicking on the Minimize button in the upper right corner, locating the minimized Thunderbird window in the Windows (XP Pro) Task bar at the bottom of the screen, right clicking on it and selecting Close. On restart Thunderbird only had one window open.
Jim4NT
Posts: 1
Joined: December 23rd, 2012, 10:06 am

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by Jim4NT »

The "Minimize to Tray" fix did not work for me. However, in the Thunderbird support pages, I found the tip to use "Alt+F4", (the standard windows "Close Window" shortcut) and this did the trick.
RS Punglia
Posts: 1
Joined: December 27th, 2012, 10:36 am

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by RS Punglia »

I was also having same problem but with version 17.0 of Thunberbird. But the fix that i applied was quick and simple. in AppData\Thinderbird folder there was an extra file by the name "registry.DAT", i removed that file and restarted Thunderbird and it was working fine.

Hope this should work for other too.

Good Luck.
jellison
Posts: 2
Joined: December 27th, 2012, 1:33 pm

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by jellison »

I just got the same problem with V17.0 running on XP. I think it happened when I rebooted. Thunderbird loads automatically when XP boots but I thought it hadn't so I double-clicked the icon - I suspect when it was already in the load sequence of the first launch. Once it is like this, closing one window closes both, and opening it again always opens two windows. I don't have the minimise to tray addon but I did find this page - http://truxtertech.com/2012/12/mozilla-thunderbird-opens-in-multiple-instances/ which fixed it for me. If you don't want to go to that page the sequence is:

Open Thunderbird - two windows open.
Minimise both windows to the taskbar
Right click on one of the taskbar items and select Close. Now you only have one minimised window
Restore the one remaining Thunderbird window
Close the window as normal.

Now when you open Thunderbird it only opens one window. Strange behaviour but from this forum it looks like it's been a "feature" of Thunderbird for a while.

Thanks to Truxter for sharing the fix on his site. :)
User avatar
Lee_Dailey
Posts: 14194
Joined: July 27th, 2004, 4:33 pm
Location: milky way galaxy, sol system, terra, north america, usa, tx, bedford

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by Lee_Dailey »

howdy jellison,

there is a bug in tb17 that sometimes causes it to open multiple windows - and then it closes ALL of them when you close one via the [x] button on the upper right of the title bar.

the fix is any of several things. you found one, another is to use ALT-F4 to close the windows on win7. there are others. [*grin*] the bug has been fixed and will be released in tb18 and tb17-esr in early 2013-01.

thanks for posting the workaround you used! hopefully others will see it and be able to help themselves.

take care,
lee
jellison
Posts: 2
Joined: December 27th, 2012, 1:33 pm

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by jellison »

Lee, Hi.

I have seen since that there are other ways to fix it. I just found that one then saw this thread so I posted that fix. I suspect where people are getting many windows that they may have multiple instances starting at boot up when they don't mean to.
I was concentrating on Thunderbird as I have just successfully "converted" from Pop to Imap - much better.

I look forward to the fixed version.

John

(system terra, United Kingdom, Wales, Middle-of) :D
ekende
Posts: 1
Joined: December 29th, 2012, 11:37 am

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by ekende »

I tried to do the minimize etc., but it wasn't installed on husband's 'puter. The I had a look at what was there and the problem stared back at me plain as day :-))) I re-installed QuickTime recently and it added an add-on to Thunderbird that he really doesn't need. Took it off and all is well. I am pretty pleased with myself. =D> I am a senior lady with limited computer knowledge, but a lot of courage.
User avatar
Lee_Dailey
Posts: 14194
Joined: July 27th, 2004, 4:33 pm
Location: milky way galaxy, sol system, terra, north america, usa, tx, bedford

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by Lee_Dailey »

jellison wrote:(system terra, United Kingdom, Wales, Middle-of) :D

i see what you did there ... [*grin*]
arkady_bron
Posts: 1
Joined: December 30th, 2012, 9:25 am

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by arkady_bron »

I also managed to have two windows open each time I started Tbrid but realised that it was because I had inadvertently dragged a tab outside the window boundary and so Tbird creates a new window. The trouble was there didn't seem to be any easy way back to having a single window. Tbird won't allow you to recombine the tabs in a single window simply by dragging. In fact whilst trying this I made things even worse and ended up with three windows!

I finally discovered the solution was to right click each unwanted window entry in the task bar and select close from there. Then re-instate my normally open tabs in the one remaining window.

I'm really glad I found that because having three windows open each time I opened Tbird was getting really messy.

I'm sure it's just a minor bug that's causing this. It looks like Mozilla are trying to implement the kind of tab mobility Chrome has (which is really excellent by the way) but they haven't quite got it worked out yet.
aj4mq
Posts: 8
Joined: January 2nd, 2013, 7:49 am

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by aj4mq »

Found it. Been having quite a few systems falling apart like this.

To correct this in the future, simply find and delete the session.json file.

This file seems to keep data to create multiple windows.

Enjoy! (Saved mine. Couldn't afford to reinstall.)
Bobbert
Posts: 285
Joined: March 21st, 2005, 12:17 pm
Location: Waterloo, Ontario

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by Bobbert »

This problem just cropped up for me today. I am running TB 17.0 and no, i am not using the Minimize to Tray add-on.

Maybe a delete/re-install is needed?

Anyone else experiencing this problem with TB 17.0? Suggestions?
Rob
Bobbert
Posts: 285
Joined: March 21st, 2005, 12:17 pm
Location: Waterloo, Ontario

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by Bobbert »

I'm no longer having this problem. I suspect it cleared itself up when i closed the one copy. The next time i brought up TB all was well. Wheeeee!
Rob
oneduality
Posts: 5
Joined: September 28th, 2009, 8:42 am

Re: Unusual Two Instances of Thunderbird

Post by oneduality »

2015 and I just started experiencing this recently.. it was frustrating because two windows would open ... close one and they would both close.

But the solution involving disabling minimize to tray revived, restarting, closing one window, re-enabling the extension and restarting again fixed it!

THANKS! .. that was annoying, and it consumed too much memory ( Thunderbird 31.4.0 )
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