Thunderbird frozen

[Jane222]

My Thunderbird app is now frozen. There are two possible causes, I think, and it's possible both causes are at work.

1) I got an email this morning with 3 pictures attached that add up to more than 10MB in size.
2) Last night, because my Update Manager suggested it, I installed Linux security updates on my Ubuntu 10.04 machine. This morning I have had problems with both Thunderbird and my browsers, especially when the browsers are going to Google sites.

For a while I was able to use Thunderbird except when I highlighted the overly-fat message. However, it's now the last (latest) message in my Inbox queue, so now Thunderbird is frozen the minute I open it.

I am willing to delete this message. I am willing to compact the Inbox. I'm willing to do pretty much whatever is required to get Thunderbird working again. Any suggestions?

Unfortunately, I can't tell you what version of Thunderbird I'm using, because Thunderbird is frozen as soon as it "opens."

[DanRaisch]

Do you know if the account is set up as a POP or IMAP type account?

[Jane222]

It's set up as a POP account

[DanRaisch]

With Thunderbird closed, as you say that it is, navigate to the profile folder -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird
Locate the file Inbox with no file name extension and rename that file OldInbox.
Locate the file Inbox.msf and delete that file.
Launch Thunderbird to see if the program is accessible.

[Jane222]

Before I got your suggestion, I did a similar thing. I had backed up Thunderbird last night, so the back-up did not have the overly-fat message, because it arrived this morning. I copied both the last-night-backup Inbox and Inbox.msf over the the existing Inbox and Inbox.msf. Thunderbird is still frozen upon opening. Now I will try your suggestion and report back.

[Jane222]

I did as you suggested -- renamed the Inbox and deleted the Inbox.msf -- and Thunderbird is still frozen when I open it. Don't know what to do.

[Jane222]

Ooops. I see that I screwed up in following your directions. I did the renaming and deleting, while Thunderbird was still open -- though it was frozen and minimized to my panel. When I discovered this, I did a "Force Quit" on Thundebird, I then did a "Kill Process" on Thunderbird in the System Monitor. I then tried to open Thunderbird and it did the same thing as before: it supposedly opens but it is frozen. It claims to be downloading messages but I can't get any command at all to execute. That is, when I click on a folder or a menu or anything else, nothing happens. When I try to close the app, I get a message saying "Thunderbird is not responding."

[DanRaisch]

Reboot the system to clear Thunderbird from memory.

[Jane222]

I rebooted. Thunderbird appears to be downloading messages (based on what the status bar says) but remains frozen

[DanRaisch]

Does the same thing occur if you launch the application in Mozilla Safe Mode? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode

[Jane222]

Just ran it in Safe Mode and the same thing happened: frozen.

[DanRaisch]

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.

[Jane222]

Uh, Dan, the directions you just gave "Clear the browser cache and the Windows Temp directory" and "Delete the directory C:\ProgramFiles\Mozilla Thunderbird" apply to a Windows operating system. As my initial post indicated, I am on a Ubuntu 10.04 operating system. It became obvious that my Thunderbird program was simply borked, probably by the Ubuntu security updates that were intended for servers and not for desktops. Hence, I bit the bullit and upgraded from the Ubuntu 10.04 OS to Ubuntu 14.04. I installed the latest version of Thunderbird and successfully copied over my profile and everything seems to be working swimmingly.

[DanRaisch]

Sorry about that but your last two posts were from a system running Windows 8 or 8.1. Thus the suggestions for the Windows procedure.

Glad to hear that you worked things out for yourself.

[misschrissy]

I had the same problem with Thunderbird and re-installed it twice....I found out why the blue circle kept going round and round and taking forever to delete messages...if you have an icon for Thunderbird on your desktop....or otherwise just right click....go to properties....click compatibility tab....box is there....click and set for whichever windows OS you are using....a list comes up....check the box....apply....ok....should solve the problem....it did for me and now working like a dream....