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Thunderbird freezing while writing email

  • 4 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 92 views
  • Last reply by Gina Jolliffe
  • Archived

This started last year and I found a fix on google but I can't remember it. It has noiw come back and is driving me nuts. About 2-5 minutes into composing an email thunderbird goes unresponsive and is greyed out. i have waited 30 mintues and nothing happens. It does not happen until after you type the first character into the new email. I have checked user rights on the thunderbird folder and my windows user folder and I have admnin rights on both If i shut Thunderbird the email appears in drafts when i restart, but only from a bit before it froze. I have reinstalled, compacted nothign is fixing it. Using 64 bit 140.3 on windows 11 home.Tried update to 140.3.1esr. no difference. Just about to give up and go to Outlook because I don't write trivial emails and this is a PITA

This started last year and I found a fix on google but I can't remember it. It has noiw come back and is driving me nuts. About 2-5 minutes into composing an email thunderbird goes unresponsive and is greyed out. i have waited 30 mintues and nothing happens. It does not happen until after you type the first character into the new email. I have checked user rights on the thunderbird folder and my windows user folder and I have admnin rights on both If i shut Thunderbird the email appears in drafts when i restart, but only from a bit before it froze. I have reinstalled, compacted nothign is fixing it. Using 64 bit 140.3 on windows 11 home.Tried update to 140.3.1esr. no difference. Just about to give up and go to Outlook because I don't write trivial emails and this is a PITA

All Replies (4)

There is a known problem where TB is freezing ("Not Responding") while typing an email reply. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1972457#c3 for a workaround.

ok , funnily enough the email I was writing when i reported the error did not freeze and neither did the next so i am wondering if a software update has fixed it. Both windows and forefox updated in the last couple of days. Will keep an wye on it and see if it is truly fixed

Yes, it has started happening to me. Lately TBird keps freezing then one has to close it. It's irritating, and I really can't be bothered with checking the profile or reinstalling. However, for a quick fix, when composing on TBird, Gmail keeps a copy as draft. So you can go there and complete your email quickly.

I don't know if hotmail or others keep drafts on the server, I only use TBird or Gmail.