Start Thunderbird in 'SAfe Mode'

If Thunderbird is not running: Start Thunderbird in Safe Mode by holding down the Shift key while starting the application.

If Thunderbird is running: In Thunderbird Menu icon > Help > Restart with addons disabled.

Note this disables more than just addon extensions. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode

Please report back on results.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Unfortunately this won't help.

I tried both ways: restarting the application with Shift-key and using Restart without add-ons.

On dialog "Thunderbird Safe Mode" I tested both options: continue in safe mode and making changes permanently to add-ons & resetting tool bar.

Additionally I tested TB on co-workers computers, latest version of Thunderbird (Windows and Linux versions). Menus work as they should.

All other applications (Firefox, Slack, GIMP, Notepad++, Chrome) works normally.

I have this problem too, in Windows 10. I use the escape key to close the menus.

zenos, jjttb,

Does it also happen with context menu?

reference https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1371459

Yes, context menus too.

See the attached screen shot, showing the orphaned Thunderbird context menu overlaid on my browser.

The menu won't go away until I make Thunderbird the current application and then hit esc.

Significant probability that this is related to graphics and hardware acceleration. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1421249#c13

Yes, all menus are floating over each others and they will stay on the top when switching to another application. I have attached screenshot about this.

Is there anything I can do to help solve this problem?

Does switching hardware acceleration off help?

• Menu icon > Options > Options > Advanced > 'General' tab
• uncheck 'Use hardware acceraltion when available'
• clickon OK

Options for Windows. Preferences for MAC

Make sure you are currently using the Thunderbird default theme then try this: Try removing session and toolbar data in profile name folder.

Make hidden files and folders visible:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Show_hidden_files_and_folders

In Thunderbird

• Help > Troubleshooting Information
• click on 'Open folders' button - a new window will open showing Profile folder.
• Close Thunderbird now - this is important

• Look the following two files and delete them.

1. session.json
2. xulstore.json

• Close window - top right X
• Exit Thunderbird; wait a few moments for background processes to complete, then Start Thunderbird.

Please report back on results.

Note, if hardware acceleration is off (which is the default) then try switching it on :)

Turning "use hardware acceleration when available" setting on/off does not change anything. TB was restarted after turning the option on/off and I tried to change it several times.

I'll go through other suggestions by Toad-Hall and report back.

Thanks but unfortunately suggested actions won't help.

Steps I went through:

1) Turn ON hardware acceleration 2) Exit TB, restart and test 3) Turn OFF hardware acceleration 4) Exit TB, restart and test 5) Do steps 1-4 again several times. 6) Find the config file folder. 7) Close TB 8) Remove files session.json and xulstore.json 9) Start TB 10) Try again steps 1-4.

I'll attach log I found from Troubleshooting Information if it's any help (removed only my mail details).

 Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 52.5.2
   User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.5.2
   Profile Folder: Open Folder

             (Local drive)
   Application Build ID: 20171221110448
   Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
   Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
   Memory Use: about:memory
   Profiles: about:profiles

 Mail and News Accounts
   account1:
     INCOMING: account1, , (imap) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true

   account2:
     INCOMING: account2, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext

   account3:
     INCOMING: account3, , (imap) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account4:
     INCOMING: account4, , (imap) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true

 Crash Reports

 Extensions

 Important Modified Preferences

   Name: Value

     accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0
     browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false
     dom.apps.reset-permissions: true
     extensions.lastAppVersion: 52.5.2
     font.internaluseonly.changed: true
     font.name.monospace.el: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-cyrillic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-unicode: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-western: Consolas
     font.name.sans-serif.el: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-cyrillic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-unicode: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-western: Calibri
     font.name.serif.el: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-cyrillic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-unicode: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-western: Cambria
     font.size.fixed.el: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-cyrillic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-unicode: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-western: 14
     font.size.variable.el: 17
     font.size.variable.x-cyrillic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-unicode: 17
     font.size.variable.x-western: 17
     gfx.crash-guard.d3d11layers.appVersion: 52.5.2
     gfx.crash-guard.d3d11layers.deviceID: 0x1200
     gfx.crash-guard.d3d11layers.driverVersion: 23.21.13.9065
     gfx.crash-guard.d3d11layers.feature-d2d: false
     gfx.crash-guard.d3d11layers.feature-d3d11: true
     gfx.crash-guard.status.d3d11layers: 2
     mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
     mail.winsearch.firstRunDone: true
     mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: e8dc59f6-ca26-423e-b8ed-e3a30a48962
     mailnews.database.global.views.conversation.columns: {"threadCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"1"},"flaggedCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"3"},"attachmentCol":{"visible":false…
     media.gmp.storage.version.observed: 1
     network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
     network.predictor.cleaned-up: true
     places.database.lastMaintenance: 1516173158
     places.history.enabled: false
     places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 122334
     plugin.importedState: true
     security.sandbox.content.tempDirSuffix: {4b48b8ad-0690-4a54-99d5-192fab855a38}

 Graphics

     GPU #1
     Description: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
     Vendor ID: 0x10de
     Device ID: 0x1200
     RAM: 1024
     Drivers: C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_5601d21ccd639df9\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_5601d21ccd639df9\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_5601d21ccd639df9\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_5601d21ccd639df9\nvldumdx.dll C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_5601d21ccd639df9\nvldumd.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_5601d21ccd639df9\nvldumd.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_5601d21ccd639df9\nvldumd.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_5601d21ccd639df9\nvldumd.dll
     Driver Version: 23.21.13.9065
     Driver Date: 1-3-2018

     Features
     Direct2D: false
     DirectWrite: true (10.0.16299.15)
     WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0) -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 2.1.0.2a250c8a0e15)

     AzureCanvasBackend: skia
     AzureCanvasAccelerated: 0
     AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo
     AzureContentBackend: skia

 JavaScript

 Incremental GC: 1

 Accessibility

   Activated: 0
   Prevent Accessibility: 0

 Library Versions

     Expected minimum version
     Version in use

     NSPR
     4.13.1
     4.13.1

     NSS
     3.28.6
     3.28.6

     NSS Util
     3.28.6
     3.28.6

     NSS SSL
     3.28.6
     3.28.6

     NSS S/MIME
     3.28.6
     3.28.6

Unfortunately not finding any bug reports of this https://mzl.la/2Ew6gta

How long is this happening?

I think TB started behaving badly around December 2017. Could be a bit earlier as I assumed it was random quirck and didn't really pay attention to it until now.

Again here, not sure when this started. It is compounded by the fact that I got a new Windows 10 computer at about the same time as I noticed it.

This is still a problem on Thunderbird 52.8.0.

Tested on Windows 10 Pro feature update 1803.

A bug report is open. for anyone reading this page and needing to follow bug report:

• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1371459