Tbird hangs while downloading new messages

[garyfritz]

In the last few months, my Thunderbird has started locking up while downloading messages -- total hang, "(Not responding)" messages, etc -- usually about 3-5 seconds per message, I think. Then it unhangs and everything is fine.

I tried totally uninstalling and re-installing. That seemed to help a bit (just enough that I can't repeatably reproduce it ) but it's still doing it. Any suggestions?

[tanstaafl]

Does this occur with multiple accounts (different email providers)?

[DanRaisch]

How is the account set up in Thunderbird, as POP or IMAP? Find out using menu path Tools->Account Settings->Server Settings->Server Type at the top right of the dialogue.

[garyfritz]

Does this occur with multiple accounts (different email providers)?

I'm not entirely sure. I really only have three accounts that I read with TB: my main one, a gmail account, and another account that's based on outlook.com. The main one holds emails at the server until I download them, but the the other two seem to deliver them instantly -- even though I used the same Server Settings (check for new message at startup, check for new messages every 10 minutes, allow immediate server notification, all turned off) on all accounts. So I can't batch up a set of messages on those accounts and see if they hang when I download them. I might have seen a hang on the gmail delivery once, but it's not definite.

How is the account set up in Thunderbird, as POP or IMAP? Find out using menu path Tools->Account Settings->Server Settings->Server Type at the top right of the dialogue.

All accounts are IMAP.

I have no idea if this is related, but I just started getting an error (sometimes) when I try to send mail: "qq unable to connect to AV daemon." I first got it early this morning when I tried to test for @tanstaafl's question. I've gotten it on both of the non-gmail accounts. I suspect I'd get it on gmail if I kept testing long enough.

[tanstaafl]

What is your anti-virus scanner?
Any idea what qq is?
Is each account configured to directly connect to a mail server (for example imap.gmail.com) or are they configured to connect via a proxy such as 127.0.0.1 or localhost? You can tell by looking at the server name in each accounts server settings.
One email provider is gmail, another outlook. Who is your third email provider, the one that seems to have the problem most often?

[garyfritz]

Just Microsoft Defender.

No idea what qq is. I never saw that message before. I'm not even sure where the message is being generated. I saw it both on my main email provider and on the outlook-based account. Maybe it's local??? But the message dialog was generated by TB when it tried to connect to the mailhost.

Direct hostname connections -- imap-mail.outlook.com, imap.gmail.com, etc. The third provider is a local/regional ISP where I've had my primary email address for 20+ years.

[tanstaafl]

The "qq unable to connect to AV daemon" might be returned by the SMTP server. I found a framework called viper that organizes malware samples/scripts to help detect malware, that can generate that error message when it can't connect to the ClamAV (anti-virus scanner) demon. So perhaps the SMTP server is complaining that it can't scan your email for malware/viruses before sending it, so it decides not to send it, returning a cryptic error message. But that is just a guess.

You could confirm it by enabling SMTP logging per http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_logging_for_mail/news and look in the log file afterwards to verify the error was returned by the SMTP server.

[garyfritz]

Sorry, I've been fighting a wicked case of flu. A 103F = 40C fever has a way of focusing your attention away from your emailer.

I think the qq thing is a red herring. Remember I said I wasn't sure it was connected, and I don't think it is. It happened only briefly while I was testing stuff last week. Also it happened during sending (hence your desire for SMTP logging), but the locking-up problem happens when downloading (receiving) messages.

In any event, I enabled logging as you asked -- and nothing. TB created the log file but didn't write anything to it. I sent several test messages but nothing got logged.

set MOZ_LOG=SMTP:5,timestamp
set MOZ_LOG_FILE=C:\Temp\TBird-SMTP.log
"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Mozilla\Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe"

[tanstaafl]

Glad you are better. Especially with the recent news stories about people unexpectedly dying from the flu.

An empty log file usually means that it couldn't make a tcp-ip connection to the mail server. I suggest you delete the saved password for the SMTP server, restart Thunderbird and see if you at least get prompted for the password when sending a message. However, my impression was that your original problem was not sending, it was unexpected delays in getting new mail. You specified the wrong protocol. You want either POP3 if you have a POP account or IMAP if you have a IMAP account.

[garyfritz]

Hey, I just did what you told me to do...

How could it not have made a TCP/IP connection? It successfully sent and received mail.

But I tried logging IMAP, and... nothing. I would think I had misconfigured it so it wasn't actually activating the log, but it's creating the log file... it's just not logging.

[garyfritz]

Still nothing in that log file.

Somewhere in the process of trying to debug this, I broke the global search tool. Maybe when I uninstalled/reinstalled? It is enabled in Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Advanced Configuration. In the Config Editor, mailnews.database.global.indexer.enabled is true.

But there is no search box. Ctrl-K does nothing. Help?

[tanstaafl]

I didn't spot another related setting in the config editor. I suggest you browse the bold settings that are marked user set to see if any of them seem related.

See if http://kb.mozillazine.org/Toolbar_or_wi ... ot_working helps. You might need to delete the Xulstore.json file and let Thunderbird replace it with a new one that uses default settings.

Normally uninstalling and re-installing doesn't effect your settings unless you check the optional checkbox to delete your profile.

[garyfritz]

Well, lovely. I got a new laptop that didn't have the problem, so I kinda dropped it. But then the new laptop fizzled and I had to send it back, so I'm back on my old laptop with the downloading-mail-hanging issue, just putting up with it.

Then today TB offered me the 52.7.0 update. I installed it, and immediately upon restarting, I can't download mail AT ALL. SMTP still works -- I can still send -- but I can't connect to IMAP for downloading mail, copying sent mail to Sent folder, anything.

It's like TB is trying to tell me something... :-\

[tanstaafl]

Did you save the profile from the fizzled laptop? If you did I'd suggest you try using it on your old laptop. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_p ... hunderbird

You said "All accounts are IMAP." but talk about how you can't download anything. With a IMAP account if you can't open a new message for some reason you just click on the next new message in the folder. I'm confused. Normally if you can't read any email at all either the settings are wrong, a firewall/anti-virus scanner is causing problems, or there is something wrong with your webmail account. I assume you can still read your email using webmail/a browser so that rules out a captcha causing problems .

If all of your accounts are IMAP accounts and you don't have access to the copy of the profile from the frizzled laptop I suggest you think about creating a new profile. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager and http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_addres ... n_profiles . If you have some mail saved only in Local Folders see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders

[tanstaafl]

If the old version worked and you think the update caused your problems I'd first try uninstalling it , downloading the setup program and re-installing. It will use your existing profile.

Otherwise pick a older known good version and install it per http://kb.mozillazine.org/Go_back_to_an ... hunderbird