Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How do I start TB in safe mode on a Mac? The alt key does not work

  • 5 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by Matt

more options

On my Mac account, Thunderbird keeps on crashing. on my wife's account on the same Mac TB runs fine, and i guess this is a compatibility issue with one of the language packs. I want to start TB in safe mode, but the 'alt' key does not work. So, what is the way to start TB in safe mode on a Mac?

On my Mac account, Thunderbird keeps on crashing. on my wife's account on the same Mac TB runs fine, and i guess this is a compatibility issue with one of the language packs. I want to start TB in safe mode, but the 'alt' key does not work. So, what is the way to start TB in safe mode on a Mac?

All Replies (5)

more options

Hold the Option key when you launch TB (on Windows systems, hold Shift).

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode#Mac_OS_X

more options

I have tried to start TB in the safe mode using the terminal command. This works in itself but the resulting behaviour is the same - TB crashes immediately without any chance on intervention.

more options

If this were a Windows computer, I'd suggest starting it in (Windows) safe mode, and then trying to launch TB. You can try the same thing on your Mac, but since the other user account works fine, I suspect the problem lies in your TB profile, as suggested.

In that case, I would try and create a new profile with Profile Manager, set up your accounts, and see if TB runs properly. If so, you can transfer the uncorrupted data from the old, damaged profile.

more options

Hi, I've created a new profile, and this makes TB start again. So that's progress! But - after an arbitrary time, TB crashes again whilst downloading the messages from the mail server. Restarting TB starts the message download from scratch so TB ends up to have multiple instances of the messages it has downloaded before the next crash....

more options

crash ids would help here I think.

Help menu > troubleshooting information and post some recent crash ids.