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Thunderbird opening multiple windows when opening

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by sfhowes

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My client has an issue where he clicks either on taskbar shortcut or double clicks on desktop shortcut to thunderbird, and multiple (like 10-12) Thunderbird Windows open and it "flickers" each time one is opening. When I used a right click on the taskbar and closed all windows, the issue doesn't seem to re-occur. However, he usually closes using the "x", and then each time he re-opens TB, all these multiple windows open again. I am assuming this is a bug relating to re-opening existing windows automatically, and I can understand that feature if they are the separate email tabs, but these are all separate program windows duplicated. I have checked and he is on the latest release of TB. This is Windows 10. I am currently updating to the latest Win 10 1809 feature update, so not sure if that's a factor. Is there anything else that could cause this and/or anything I can do to fix? Also checked add-on's and extensions and plugins and the only thing enabled/installed is the Lightning extension. Thank you in advance for any assistance!

My client has an issue where he clicks either on taskbar shortcut or double clicks on desktop shortcut to thunderbird, and multiple (like 10-12) Thunderbird Windows open and it "flickers" each time one is opening. When I used a right click on the taskbar and closed all windows, the issue doesn't seem to re-occur. However, he usually closes using the "x", and then each time he re-opens TB, all these multiple windows open again. I am assuming this is a bug relating to re-opening existing windows automatically, and I can understand that feature if they are the separate email tabs, but these are all separate program windows duplicated. I have checked and he is on the latest release of TB. This is Windows 10. I am currently updating to the latest Win 10 1809 feature update, so not sure if that's a factor. Is there anything else that could cause this and/or anything I can do to fix? Also checked add-on's and extensions and plugins and the only thing enabled/installed is the Lightning extension. Thank you in advance for any assistance!

All Replies (6)

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There is a remedy posted here that appears to work, based on reports in the bug cited in the article.

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Hello sfhowes and thank you for your response. However, all I can find is workarounds which are many years old and this holds true for the links you provided as well. I'm just wondering if Mozilla will address this bug at some point directly. Until then, I will keep using workarounds for clients, but it's hard to recommend and install something for a client that you know has issues. Hopefully Mozilla will fix this one at some point soon.

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Agreed, it's only a workaround, but it only seems to happen in very unusual situations, and once 'worked around', it seldom reappears. Issues that are widespread and persistent command far more attention from the development staff. There are no mail clients without 'issues' - it's a matter of assigning priorities to fixing them.

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If the problem does persist, another remedy is to delete the session.jon and sessionCheckpoints.json files. They are automatically recreated when TB restarts.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Run_multiple_copies_of_Thunderbird_at_the_same_time#Thunderbird_opens_multiple_times_when_started

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Super sfhowes, I do appreciate the assistance! Do you know if deleting the session files described above resets any other features of TB such as folder or toolbar customization's?

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The session.json file also stores the open tabs and opening folder, so deleting it can help when either of those is not remembered.

To reset toolbar and layout customizations, delete xulstore.json, or 'Reset toolbars and controls' from the safe mode prompt.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Files_and_folders_in_the_profile_-_Thunderbird