Thunderbird 24.6.0 hangs (not responding) on message delete

[kgcode]

I'm running the built-in Windows Defender and nothing else. I temporarily disabled the real-time scanning feature, and the problem in Thunderbird still occurs. Also, I carefully watch CPU and disk activity in Task Manager while the hang is happening, and what I see there looks just like an idle system.

Interestingly, overnight the problem has now gone back to just happening on deletes and not on moves.

EDIT: And 10 minutes later, we're back to the hang occurring on 20% of deletes instead of 100%.

[DanRaisch]

Uninstalling and reinstalling the application itself has absolutely no impact on your Profile, which is where saved data such as account settings, message files, etc is stored and where most problems originate, but in this case perhaps it's worth a try:

Clear the browser cache and the Windows Temp directory.
Shutdown any anti-virus software you are running.
Download a new copy of the full installer from http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/
Delete the directory C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird
Run the installer.
Restart the anti-virus program.

Note that your saved messages, settings, passwords, etc (if any) are stored in a different directory from the program files and will not be removed by deleting the directory identified above.

This thread viewtopic.php?f=39&t=996475&p=5239885#p5239885 has a more detailed version of the above instructions if needed.

[wsmwk]

test in *WINDOWS* safe mode. If you still get the failure, then the primary cause is likely rooted in thunderbird. If you do not get the failure, then the cause is some software started during Windows startup.

[wsmwk]

test in *WINDOWS* safe mode. If you still get the failure, then the primary cause is likely rooted in thunderbird. If you do not get the failure, then the cause is some software started during Windows startup.

If it fails in Windows safe mode, another think go try - setting XP compatibility mode in Thunderbird's start menu Properties.

Let us know your results

[kgcode]

Completely uninstalling and reinstalling Thunderbird per the instructions above had no effect on the problem. All deletes are still hanging as described in the original post.

The program files folder on 64-bit Windows is C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\.

[DanRaisch]

Please try the two suggestions offered by wsm.

[Oestertje]

I have exactly the same problem since the latest update. Windows 8 and Pop e-mail.
It's very annoying, everytime I try to delete something but also when I'm moving mail to folders Thunderbird hangs.
It actually seems to get worse today, or maybe I'm getting more annoyed.

[kgcode]

Okay, in Windows safe mode (not Thunderbird safe mode, but actually booting Windows to safe mode), I could not reproduce the hanging problem in Thunderbird. Booting back to Windows normal mode, the problem still occurs. WSM said that "if you still get the failure, then the primary cause is not thunderbird." Since the problem did NOT occur in Windows safe mode, does that mean that the primary cause IS Thunderbird?

The odd thing is that the frequency of occurrence keeps changing...sometimes it hangs on 100% of deletes but not on moves, sometimes it's 100% of deletes and moves, sometimes it drops to 20% of deletes, and then snaps back again to 100% of deletes. I see nothing "kicking in" in Task Manager to explain what the heck is happening during those hangs of 30-90 seconds. There is no additional CPU activity, no additional disk activity on any drive, no additional network activity. What this implies to me is that, when the problem occurs, Thunderbird has performed a wait on some event, and doesn't respond to input until that wait is either satisfied or times out. A deadlock perhaps, that's broken eventually by a timeout?

After trying the Windows safe mode suggestion, and seeing the problem disappear in Windows safe mode but reappear in Windows normal mode, just for fun, I completely uninstalled Thunderbird again, and then installed 24.5.0. The problem persisted. Then I tried uninstalling Mozilla Maintenance Service. Interestingly (although perhaps by chance), the problem went away completely for several hours. Then it reappeared, but only occurred on about 10% of the deletes. It has stayed down at 10% of deletes for the rest of the day. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

[wsmwk]

Okay, in Windows safe mode (not Thunderbird safe mode, but actually booting Windows to safe mode), I could not reproduce the hanging problem in Thunderbird. Booting back to Windows normal mode, the problem still occurs. WSM said that "if you still get the failure, then the primary cause is not thunderbird." Since the problem did NOT occur in Windows safe mode, does that mean that the primary cause IS Thunderbird?

Sorry, my wording was incorrect and confusing. I have revised it. If it worked fine (did not occur) in Windows safe mode, then the cause is likely some software that is started during "normal" Windows boot, and not Thunderbird.

Excellent detail. Please keep us posted on your findings.

[kgcode]

Thanks for the clarification.

With the fresh installation of Thunderbird 24.5.0 (i.e., previous version) in Windows normal mode, and somewhat encouraged by the drop in hangs from 100% of deletes to 10% of deletes, I tried disabling all of the Thunderbird add-ons (that came with it...I have never installed additional add-ons). The hang problem went away completely, and hasn't happened in several hours of fairly continuous use. (Interestingly, in an earlier experiment, running Thunderbird in its own safe mode did hang.) Moreover, the speed/responsiveness of Thunderbird has increased dramatically. I'll run this way for awhile and see if the hang problem reappears. If it doesn't come back on its own, I'll try re-enabling one add-in each day until the problem reappears.

[wsmwk]

Thanks for the clarification.

With the fresh installation of Thunderbird 24.5.0 (i.e., previous version) in Windows normal mode, and somewhat encouraged by the drop in hangs from 100% of deletes to 10% of deletes, I tried disabling all of the Thunderbird add-ons (that came with it...I have never installed additional add-ons). The hang problem went away completely, and hasn't happened in several hours of fairly continuous use. (Interestingly, in an earlier experiment, running Thunderbird in its own safe mode did hang.) Moreover, the speed/responsiveness of Thunderbird has increased dramatically. I'll run this way for awhile and see if the hang problem reappears. If it doesn't come back on its own, I'll try re-enabling one add-in each day until the problem reappears.

On rare occasion there have been reports that Tbird safe mode does not help solve a problem but doing other things with addons has helps.

There are only two addons that come with thunderbird - test pilot and the default theme. I would not expect changes to them to impact performance

[kgcode]

Well, I spoke too soon. The problem suddenly came back with a vengeance - hanging again on 100% of deletes and 100% of moves. It's quite a moving target.

WSM, based on your comment about Thunderbird having only two add-ons, it looks like a few add-ons have been installed automatically through external forces (e.g., Acrobat, Java, Office 2013, QuickTime, Silverlight, etc.). But it's moot at this point, since disabling them all provided only temporary relief.

[wsmwk]

Well, I spoke too soon. The problem suddenly came back with a vengeance - hanging again on 100% of deletes and 100% of moves. It's quite a moving target.

You previously mentioned that Winows' safe mode kills the problem. If that ultimately proves to be solid intel, then the problem is not with Thunderbird nor any of it's addons. I suggest you follow that lead and look at your AV and other software that gets loaded during and after windows startup.

WSM, based on your comment about Thunderbird having only two add-ons, it looks like a few add-ons have been installed automatically through external forces (e.g., Acrobat, Java, Office 2013, QuickTime, Silverlight, etc.). But it's moot at this point, since disabling them all provided only temporary relief.

Those plugins are shown in the addon UI because they already installed on your computer. Ignore them.

[kgcode]

I have a very bare-bones Windows 8.1 installation. The only AV is the built-in Windows Defender, and completely disabling it (both through the UI and by killing services) had no effect on the problem. I have other applications, but they are not running when this happens. I would think that Task Manager would show someone doing something during the 30-90 second hang, but it looks like an idle system...with the only anomaly being and Thunderbird shows up as Not Responding.

Thinking back, and given that the problem seems to ebb and flow more than it did originally, I think my test under Windows safe mode might have been too short to prove that the problem was actually gone in that mode. The absence of the problem for a period of hours doesn't prove that the problem is gone. So, I'll go back and try it under Windows safe mode for a longer period of time.

EDIT: Just a bit more data. I have carefully checked the Windows event logs, so see if any events correlated with the Thunderbird hangs. No events just before, during, or after the hangs were reported in any of the event logs.

[joette]

I'm waiting also for a solution to the same problem. I'm going to go back through all my old back-ups and see if I can't find an older version of Thunderbird, and re-install it until I hear of this problem being taken care of.

I use Avast for anti-virus, and have even removed all the anti-virus software, and it still happens, so I can't believe it's related to that at this point.

From what I read on here, nothing changed but the update to the new version of Thunderbird for most of us experiencing this problem; I know I didn't change any of my other programs, except updating Thunderbird, so I have to go with it being a problem on that end.