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TB becomes unresponsive while writing a note, msg says saving to draft folder

  • 17 תגובות
  • 2 have this problem
  • 49 views
  • תגובה אחרונה מאת christ1

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Frequently while writing a new message in Thunderbird, the UI will become unresponsive, the circular "busy" thing will show, and for 15 to 60 seconds, nothing will happen. There is a message in the status line something like "saving to draft folder". Eventually, TB seems to recover. The computer does not become unresponsive, just TB. I only have one new message window open. I have three "accounts" connected to TB. I am a new user to TB so cannot say if this is a "new" issue. (BTW, TB is great!) I'm running Windows 10, Chrome is my browser. I have a flaky internet connection, which sometimes is unresponsive for a few seconds though I have not noticed a correlation between "bad" internet times and this bad behavior. Could the issue be that TB is attempting to save the draft to the remote (server) folder, and is blocked by that delay? One would expect the save draft process to run in the background.

TIA, Van

Frequently while writing a new message in Thunderbird, the UI will become unresponsive, the circular "busy" thing will show, and for 15 to 60 seconds, nothing will happen. There is a message in the status line something like "saving to draft folder". Eventually, TB seems to recover. The computer does not become unresponsive, just TB. I only have one new message window open. I have three "accounts" connected to TB. I am a new user to TB so cannot say if this is a "new" issue. (BTW, TB is great!) I'm running Windows 10, Chrome is my browser. I have a flaky internet connection, which sometimes is unresponsive for a few seconds though I have not noticed a correlation between "bad" internet times and this bad behavior. Could the issue be that TB is attempting to save the draft to the remote (server) folder, and is blocked by that delay? One would expect the save draft process to run in the background. TIA, Van

כל התגובות (17)

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What is your account type - POP or IMAP?

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All three accounts are IMAP.

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I think you've diagnosed the problem correctly: it's trying to save the draft to the server. And if you search on the internet you'll find this is a long-standing grumble from Thunderbird users, you're not alone. There are two steps you can take: 1) Preferences > Composition > General: you can reduce how often it tries to save your work. The default is 5 minutes I think. 2) Account Settings > Copies & Folders: you can choose where the drafts are saved. If you choose the Drafts folder in Local Folders, then they will be saved on your computer and you won't need to connect to the server until you send your mail.

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I was going to suggest 2).

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OK, option 2) seems to work great. I just tested it and it's saving to the local folder instantly, no more spinning circles.

I also cannot see much of a downside to this, because I don't use multiple mail clients that might need to share the drafts.

Thanks!!

Van

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I thought the suggestions above had solved the problem but it has not. Perhaps reduces the frequency, but at the moment it is pretty bad.

I have set the settings for all three accounts I have to save drafts into a local folder called LocalDrafts.

Now, the UI will become unresponsive for long periods with the message in the status line "Deleting n messages from LocalDrafts folder", where n is something like 5 or 3 or 9. Note, there is only one message being drafted and only that message appears in the LocalDrafts folder.

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Slight correction: the message is "Deleted n messages from LocalDrafts"

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Switching to offline mode does not make a difference.

Switching to airplane mode (ie closing the network connection) does stop the behavior.

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Still hoping to get some support for this issue. It makes using TB really unpleasant for writing emails. Everything else is great.

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Still hoping for help here. Should I start a new thread?

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If it's saving the drafts to a local file on your hard disk the most obvious thing I can think of that might be interrupting the process would be an antivirus scanner. They are notorious for causing malfunctions in Thunderbird and some are worse than others. Unfortunately I can't help you much because I have a Linux machine and don't use antivirus software myself. There are helpful articles here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Anti-virus_Software and here: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Antivirus_Related_Performance_Issues I'm puzzled that it reports deleting several drafts when you think there's only one in the folder. Is one of your accounts with Gmail by any chance? It's notorious for saving multiple drafts.

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Try to start Windows in safe mode with networking enabled. - Win10 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/change-startup-settings-in-windows-10#v1h=tab01

Still in Windows safe mode, start Thunderbird in safe mode. - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/safe-mode

Does the problem go away?

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Thanks for the suggestions. Progress.....

Here is what I have done. I use Windows Defender. I set it to exclude the folder where I put my local directories. I set the save draft rate to be every one minute.

Writing a note, I can see that after one minute, the first draft save happens because the local folder where the drafts are goes bold and has (1) after it. About a minute later, the message "Deleted 1 message..." shows up in the status line, implying a new draft was saved. About a minute later, TB has the problem and becomes unresponsive for five or ten seconds. Eventually it continues and the message changes to "Deleted 2 messages..."

I restarted TB in safe mode without restarting Windows in safe mode. The problem happens in the same way. However, this time when I try to close the message, after I click yes on the confirm dialog, TB becomes unresponsive for more than a minute. Eventually it closed the message and continued. This was weird and has not repeated.

I restarted Windows in safe mode with networking (OMG what a hassle they have made it). I started TB normally. The problem does *not* occur. I edited a note for about 8 minutes and never had a problem, even though I could see the Deleted n messages change every minute.

I did not try starting TB in safemode while Windows was in safe mode because the problem already went away.

Hope this helps!

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One more thing, I just realized I can force TB to save a copy of the note by pressing Ctrl-s. This works just fine, no problems or delays even if I do it really fast.

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Windows safe mode disables anti-virus software, which is most likely the culprit.

Create an exception in your anti-virus software for the Thunderbird profile folder, so that the anti-virus real-time scanner will not scan it. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

Don't let your anti-virus software scan incoming and outgoing messages.

Don't let your anti-virus software scan attachments.

Don't let your anti-virus software intercept your secure connection to the server.

Remove any add-ons your anti-virus software may have installed in Thunderbird.

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Thanks Christ1.

I think the suggestion to disable AV does not address the issue at hand. The only problem I have is with draft messages that I am writing on my local PC. What has that got to do with any incoming messages or attachments (there are none)? When not writing a new message (eg just reading, opening and saving attachments, moving things, etc), there are no problems.

Furthermore, Windows Defender does indeed run in Safe Mode (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/which-drivers-loaded-safe-mode#1TC=windows-7). So in Safe mode when there was no problem, Defender was running.

I have already disabled scanning of the drafts folder which is acceptable from a security point of view.

The other email client I have used has not had this issue (Windows Live Mail specifically).

So, I'm still looking for a solution! I will keep experimenting to try to see what conditions lead to the problem, and what avoid it. Please do give me more ideas!

Thanks.

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Well, then you'll need to find the software which Windows safe mode prevents from being started, and which is started normally, and then causing the problem for Thunderbird.