It is truly incredible to me how people thought Thunderbird gave them their preferred email addresses. It did not, you learned how to get the addresses you wanted by typing certain strings. When the process changed from looking only at begins with to contains you see see the change as no longer finding your preferred addresses.

Are you using version 31.4 with all the latest updates to address auto complete? each point in the 31 release has changed the auto complete in one way or another to fix slowness and poor choices

Dear Mark,

Thank you for this response but I am already using version 31.4. I am not a knowlegdeable computer boffin. All I know is that I used to start addressing an email and a list of options would pop up almost immediately and progressively narrow down as I typed. Now after a few characters it freezes whilst searching for some options, accepts a few more charatcers and then freezes again doing another search. It gets there eventually but so much slower. When a list of options does pop up, it takes a while to accept the address selected.

How many addresses in your address book? Some people have tens of thousands and that may slow things down. Are you using an ldap server for addresses?

I am using the thunderbird address book that has been collected over time. I have a few groups of addresses but none of them will have evne 100 addresses. My Address Book has "Personal Address, Outlook Express Address Book (I think this may have been imported when I started using Thunderbird) and Collected Addresses, but it certainly does not have thousands of addresses. I do not understand your question about using an Idap server but doubt that I am.

I live in the UK and will close my computer for today but will check again tomorrow.

Please could you advise whether any progress has been made on the enquiry? david_edwards

Dear Matt, I am still awaiting a solution to this problem. After typing in a few characters to address a new email, Thunderbird takes a while to find any address options and often adds a "Not Responding" notation to the header while it continues to look for addresses, presumably searching for them in my address book. Thunderbird does find them eventually but I have to wait several seconds before any options are given. Add a few more characters to narrow the search and wait yet more seconds. This is very tedious and unsatisfactory.

Yes, the new method of 'contains' is now returning an increased number of search results.

However, I have found a way of reducing the number of searches so that my system - I do not have loads of addresses either - now works much better and faster searching for 'begins with'.

You could try this to see if it helps you. I downloaded an addon called 'MoreFunctionsforAddresBook' from this link:

• https://nic-nac-project.org/~kaosmos/morecols-en.html

scroll down to the bottom to see the download link.

download the .xpi file to your desktop or downloads folder then install the addon as instructed below.

In Thunderbird

• 'Tools' > 'Addons' OR 'Menu icon' > 'Addons'
• opens a new tab
• click on the gear wheel icon and select 'Install addon from file'
• locate the .xpi file you downloaded and click on Open
• You will need to restart Thunderbird.

Then you need to modify the setting in preferences.

• 'Tools' > 'Options' > 'Advanced' > 'General' tab
• click on 'Config Editor' button - it will tell you to be careful  :)
• In top search type: morecols

look for this line:

• morecols.autocomplete.match_just_beginning; false

• Double click on that line to toggle the 'False' to a 'True'

the line will become bold and status will say 'user set'

• Close window - top right X

• Click on 'OK' to save changes to Options.

Besides helping to improve this issue, that addon offers some very useful functions like being able to choose which address book I wanted to auto add an email address.

I appreciate Toad-Hall's response and it may have made a minor improvement but finding addresses is still very slow.

What setting do you have here:

'Tools' > 'Options' > 'Composition' > 'Addressing' tab Select; 'Local address Books' Uncheck: 'Directory Server'

If you want outgoing email addresses added to an address book: Select: 'Automatically add outgoing email address to my : select address book'

Otherwise leave it unchecked. click on OK

Was the 'Directory Server Selected? If yes, did unchecking it solve the issue?

Brilliant! Many thanks Toad Hall. Most helpful and very much appreciated. One happy bunny at this end!  :-)

So what out of that shopping list of things fixed it for you?

'Tools' > 'Options' > 'Composition' > 'Addressing' tab Select; 'Local address Books' Uncheck: 'Directory Server'

The last several options of TBird have not completely addressed the auto completion issue. It used to work quite well, but then it got REALLY bad, bringing up addresses to whom I never wrote. Then it was improved, but now in V38 it is worse again. I am constantly having emails sent with the wrong address due to the auto completion. Part of that is my fault for not hitting return when the proper address is in place and then confirming that it works (because sometimes it changes), or for moving the mouse slightly and highlighting another address in the list. More Functions for Address book does not work in V38 (and is usually disabled with each new TBird update). There needs to be a way to flag some addresses as never wanted and to prioritize others. Or simply go back to what was in existence before V3!

Hi kbaybob

This 'solved' question addresses the issue of exceptionally slow to select email addresses. quote: Thunderbird used to provide a list of options almost instantly. Now it takes several seconds and stops accepting more than three or four characters until it has finished the first search

Your issue does not sound like this problem.

Please do not add comments that have nothing to do with the issue described. This is called hyjacking questions and does not assist you nor the OP.

You would need to ask your own question for your particular issue if you cannot locate an answer to your problem.

re ;More Functions for Address book does not work in V38 it does work in version 38. I'm using version MFFAB 0.7.2.1 Make sure the auto update for MFFAB is switched on. No addons work if you start in thunderbird Safe mode.

Please do not repond in this question as it is totally unrelated and only confuses the issue.