Navigation panel not visible

[BeniBela]

Often when I start Icedove 45.2.0 the navigation pane is not visible.

Just a gray box.

http://i.imgur.com/NtvOVhr.png

(ignore the popup at top. i think it is unrelated)

When I close Thunderbird then and restart it, everything is fine.

How could this happen?

[DanRaisch]

Moving to Thunderbird Support as no bug has yet been identified.

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

[BeniBela]

Surprisingly it does not happen in safe mode.

What now?

(even bigger surprise, I wrote this days ago and the post disappeared. wtf forum?)

[DanRaisch]

The forum was down for a couple of days due to problems with the data base. Try disabling all extensions but one and then close and restart the program. (Disable them by using menu path Tools->Addons->Extensions->click on "Disable" for every extension but one.) See if the problem is present. If not, enable an additional extension and close and restart the application. Repeat this procedure until the problem reappears. The last enabled extension will be the cause of the problem.

[tanstaafl]

There was a problem with the database. The web site was down for a couple of days to fix it, but unfortunately some recent posts/threads were lost.

If the problem doesn't occur in safe mode you need to disable your add-ons one by one until you identify the culprit. Another possibility is that your userChrome.css file (an optional file in the chrome directory in the profile, used to customize the look and feel) is not compatible with the latest version of the email client . But if that was the case I'd expect the problem to always occur when using that version.

[BeniBela]

The forum was down for a couple of days due to problems with the data base. Try disabling all extensions but one and then close and restart the program. (Disable them by using menu path Tools->Addons->Extensions->click on "Disable" for every extension but one.) See if the problem is present.

It still is.

(will the forum survive this sentence?)

[DanRaisch]

So, you disabled all but one extension and the issue was still there? If that is what you meant, disable that extension and enable a different extension, restarting the program to see if the issue is present.

[BeniBela]

So, you disabled all but one extension and the issue was still there? If that is what you meant, disable that extension and enable a different extension, restarting the program to see if the issue is present.

No I disabled all extensions and it is still there

[tanstaafl]

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode

Safe mode (help -> restart with add-ons disabled) also disables the theme and the optional userChrome.css file in the Chrome directory in the profile. Did you ever create a userChrome.css file? It might have broken due to a change in the latest version of IceDove.

[BeniBela]

the optional userChrome.css file in the Chrome directory in the profile. Did you ever create a userChrome.css file? It might have broken due to a change in the latest version of IceDove.

I do not have that file


It is still happening.

Sometimes. It does not happen for a week, and then it happens again without any change.

[BeniBela]

Perhaps it happens, when Thunderbird starts too slowly? Because I have too many messages, or my HDD is too slow?

Because it happens nearly every day on the first start in a pair, i.e. I start Thunderbird and the panel is not visible. Then I close it, immediately restart it and the panel is there. On the 2nd try it can start faster, because all data is still in the cache.

Just now I was running out of memory, and it was heavily swapping, I could barely move the mouse. It took three attempts to start Thundebird, the first two attempts had an invisible pane. Because it could not cache anything then?