HELP can't fix slow thunderbird email

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wcombat1911
Posts: 2
Joined: November 18th, 2017, 12:06 pm

HELP can't fix slow thunderbird email

Post by wcombat1911 »

My father uses Thunderbird email on Mac OS. He continuously gets the spinning wheel for almost any task that he tries to complete (i.e. opening emails, sending, switching between folders). I have tried a couple of things I saw mentioned here like repairing the folder, deleting old archived folders, reducing the search frequency for new folders, deleting the .msf files. Some of those things worked for a day or two but the problem returned quickly.

Any ideas on how I can permanently correct this issue? The account is set up as an IMAP.

Thank you in advance!
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tanstaafl
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Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: HELP can't fix slow thunderbird email

Post by tanstaafl »

See if any of the suggestions in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Performance_-_Thunderbird help. I'd start by seeing if disabling all add-ons by using "help -> restart with add-ons disabled" makes a difference.

Has he always had this problem, or is it recent?
wcombat1911
Posts: 2
Joined: November 18th, 2017, 12:06 pm

Re: HELP can't fix slow thunderbird email

Post by wcombat1911 »

tanstaafl wrote:See if any of the suggestions in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Performance_-_Thunderbird help. I'd start by seeing if disabling all add-ons by using "help -> restart with add-ons disabled" makes a difference.

Has he always had this problem, or is it recent?
The problem probably started about a year ago and has progressively gotten worse. I disabled the add-ons and notice an immediate difference. Everything is much quicker and no spinning wheel. On the little pop up box that comes up when it restarts, which option should I select? I believe I chose the first one that mentioned something about safemode...is that one correct or should I have selected the other option which says remove toolbars etc.

Thank you so much! Seems to have worked.
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tanstaafl
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Re: HELP can't fix slow thunderbird email

Post by tanstaafl »

Safe mode is meant only for troubleshooting.

I suggest you start Thunderbird normally, but manually disable all add-ons in tools -> add-ons. Then incrementally enable one, restart and see if it makes a difference until you identify the culprit. You might have an add-on that used to work fine, but now has bad side effects due to it not being updated to deal with some change in Thunderbird.
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