Crashes when opening or sending attachment

[Helvetica]

Hi all
I use Thunderbird 52.7.0 (32-bit) on my Windows 7 PC.
To be honest, I am getting sick and tired of Tbird crashing every time I try to send or open or save an attachment.
The only way I can attach something - when I am lucky - is to use the File... Attach... File.. menu option because the normal "Attach" Icon ALWAYS causes a crash.
Opening attachments is almost impossible. For 2 days now I have been trying to open a small pdf attachment (from a reliable source) and no matter what I do, Tbird crashes.
I am in the middle of an important academic work and need that pdf but Tbird constantly crashes every blasted time. This is very very annoying.

This has been happening for about 3-4 months, since one of the recent updates.

Before anyone suggests any of the following:

I do NOT have any add-ons in TBird
I HAVE tried using TBird in safe mode
I HAVE tried using a new profile
I DO regularly clear out my trash and Compact Folders

And it still crashes.
I still use an older version of Tbird on my laptop for another email account and it never ever crashed, no matter what I sent or opened or viewed..

I know for a fact that this has been a problem for other people, and would like to know what is being done to fix it ?

[DanRaisch]

I know for a fact that this has been a problem for other people, and would like to know what is being done to fix it ?

What indication of that do you have? It's certainly not something happening to many people because we are not seeing numerous reports on these forums of such problems.
Regarding that PDF you need for academic work, have you tried to download it using a browser to access your email provider's webmail page?
What security software is running on that computer?
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.
Have you checked for hardware issues on that computer, particularly hard disk errors?

Oh, and just so it's clear, we are not Mozilla. This forum is not run by or formally associated with Mozilla. We're an independent user-helping-user community.

[Helvetica]

What indication of that do you have?

A google search using
Thunderbird crash attachment

gives me 110,000 (!) hits.

Regarding that PDF you need for academic work, have you tried to download it using a browser to access your email provider's webmail page?

Yes, it works there of course, but it is time-consuming to spend the extra time to go there, log-in, find the mail, click on the email (usually part of a "tree"), find the correct one with the attachment, click on it, click on download, tell it where to save it etc..

What security software is running on that computer?

AVAST (paid for, not the free version). Thunderbird has full access, so to speak.

How is the account set up in Thunderbird, as POP or IMAP?

POP

Have you checked for hardware issues on that computer, particularly hard disk errors?

Did a checkdisk (chckdsk? in DOS/Command) - no problems found

Oh, and just so it's clear, we are not Mozilla. This forum is not run by or formally associated with Mozilla. We're an independent user-helping-user community.

Yes, I am aware of that. I thought someone here might know a solution.
It has only been happening since an update towards the end of last year.

[wsmwk]

I thought someone here might know a solution.
It has only been happening since an update towards the end of last year.

To have a solution it helps to have a cause, and so far we have only symptoms. Two pieces of information will help:

A. Presumably you have submitted crash reports, which means in Help > Troublehooting you have a list of crash IDs. Please post here the IDs of the most recent

B. If the behavior is reproducible, start Windows in safe mode. Can you still cause the crash?

[Helvetica]

Here are the last few ones:
bp-62793f70-0dc9-41dc-8404-c22340180501 01/05/2018
bp-64687ef1-67d6-49cf-82a5-a37710180426 26/04/2018
bp-ee13ddc7-b29b-438d-a368-1e14b0180423 23/04/2018
bp-abceaa35-39d8-415d-80a9-ba7ec0180420 20/04/2018
bp-aefb48e2-24b1-487d-9344-781ed0180409 09/04/2018

I am not even going to try it in Windows safe mode !

I might consider re-installing an old version from 2017 because, as I mentioned, this has only been happening since the last or last-but-one update.

[wsmwk]

Your crash is happening in msonsext.dll, a program related to Microsoft Sharepoint, which is probably intercepting file open and closes. To stop the crashes you may need to adjust or update Microsoft Sharepoint.

[TRAINSGWR]

What happens when you save the attachment & then open it outside of Tbird?

[Helvetica]

Your crash is happening in msonsext.dll, a program related to Microsoft Sharepoint, which is probably intercepting file open and closes. To stop the crashes you may need to adjust or update Microsoft Sharepoint.

I have never used Sharepoint, in fact I had to use google to see what it even was. It isn't in any of the Windows folders (set to show everything), it isn't in the list of "Add or Remove Programs", it isn't anywhere in any of the msconfig tabs, and there are only a couple of entries in my registry with "Sharepoint" in them, but with empty keys.
So I really have no idea how I can adjust Sharepoint and I certainly don't want to install it.
The dll is in my
Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Folders folder. From the date of the dll (2004) it may have been installed with Office 2003 (which I still use every day because its faster and less bulky and very tweakable). I will rename the dll and download the latest version and see whether that helps.

[wsmwk]

> I will rename the dll and download the latest version and see whether that helps
results?

What happens when you save the attachment & then open it outside of Tbird?

results?

[Brummelchen]

your graphics driver is much out of date (2013) current ist 2018 and this one:
https://support.amd.com/de-de/download/ ... 7%20-%2032

From the date of the dll (2004) it may have been installed with Office 2003

sometimes those old files from such old programs fail. and Office 2003 has died long ago, out of support.
nevertheless when you try to attach explorer is needed and explorer loads dll and that is failing due age.
and ofc this way round firefox will also fail

[Helvetica]

your graphics driver is much out of date (2013) current ist 2018 and this one:
https://support.amd.com/de-de/download/ ... 7%20-%2032

To update the status of this problem....
I cannot find a graphics driver for the ASUS EAH6450 Series later than 2016 which has been installed since Spring and which Windows tells me is the newest one. The crashing when opening or saving or trying to attach a file is still happening with depressing regularity (four times today).

Someone suggested "try saving the attachment then opening it.." I wish I could. When I try saving an attachment, Thunderbird crashes.

Back in Spring I also replaced that weird msonsext.dll with a new one downloaded from Microsoft. It made no difference whatsoever.
I really don't know what to do next.

[Helvetica]

Just a quick note to tell you all that the last Thunderbird update (60.3.1 (32-bit) appears to have addressed and fixed the problem.
(touch wood).
I have sent and received several attachments over the past couple of days with no crashes.
So it seems that someone may have noticed all the dozens of crash reports which my system was sending.
What a relief !

[Helvetica]

Just an update - another 2 Thunderbird updates since November and the crashes when needing to select an attachment has started again...