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Thunderbird opens 40+ windows

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For the past 3 months, I have to come over to my father's computer weekly to close down all the hundreds of windows that Thunderbird opens. I then delete the session.json and sessioncheckpoint.json files.

His Thunderbird will work for awhile and then it opens between 40 to 100 windows.

Is there a permanent fix to stop this from happening?

For the past 3 months, I have to come over to my father's computer weekly to close down all the hundreds of windows that Thunderbird opens. I then delete the session.json and sessioncheckpoint.json files. His Thunderbird will work for awhile and then it opens between 40 to 100 windows. Is there a permanent fix to stop this from happening?

All Replies (4)

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Hi cbefuddled, do the windows display email messages or web pages or blank pages?

For blank windows or tabs, this advice for Firefox about downloads (attachments) might be relevant: Firefox repeatedly opens empty tabs or windows after you click on a link.

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The extra windows that Thunderbird creates are all additional instances of Thunderbird. It appears the software is opening itself up 40- 100 times. If I right click the icon in the Taskbar it will list instance after instance of Thunderbird.

I tried the technique of closing one window at a time. But Thunderbird was so busy opening up new instances that I finally just shut it down through task manager.

I then go out and delete the 2 .json files: session.json and sessioncheckpoint.json. The software will then work fine for a few days. But within 7 days it will be back doing the very same thing.

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As of Aug 19th, I am continuing to have to go over once a week and delete the 2 .json files: session.json and sessioncheckpoint.json.

The software continues to open up addition instances of the software.

Is there a permanent fix for this?

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I suggest doing a user study (shoulder surfing) to see whether you can discover when/why new windows open.

If that's not feasible or fruitful, try using the following session history scraper to see the URL history of the windows (expand "back" history of each tab) in case that shows something:

https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/scrounger.html