lets look at this.

1. Thunderbird is not crashing it is freezing. Two entirely different things. Correct language tends to get more correct responses. For crashes we have crash reports.

2. You are with Verizon. Have you completed the transfer to AOL? See https://www.verizon.com/support/consumer/email

I have visited the Verizon link that you gave me, and it states that "Frequently Asked Questions - verizon.net email moving to AOL Mail (FL, CA & TX)". I am in Virginia, not FL, CA, or TX, and have had no communication from Verizon about migrating to AOL mail. OK, so Thunderbird "freezes" instead of "crashing". My bad! So what can I do to fix this problem? Once I did receive a pop-up window saying that "Thunderbird has crashed..... Submit report", which I did. Thanks! Ron

It would be useful to know if Thunderbird's Safe Mode helps. Hold down shift when starting Thunderbird. If asked, tell it to proceed with all add-ons disabled.

Thanks, Zenos, for the suggestion. When I do as you said, everything seems to be working, except that without the add-ons (primarily my Calendar and my French dictionary) I am not entirely happy with this "solution"> How might I proceed to see which add-on is causing the problem? I had not added any add-ons recently and, as far as I know, Calendar and French dictionary are the only ones I had. Nothing has been changed with these add-ons, so why does this problem start showing up now? Thanks! Ron

Now that I have started TBird once in Safe Mode with add-ons disabled, does this mean the add-ons have been deleted? Because now, when I just click on my TBird icon in the task bar, without holding down the SHIFT key, it opens up normally and I can view mails, contacts, write emails, etc. But there is no Calendar or French dictionary available. Under HELP, there is an option to restart TBird with add-ons disabled, which it seems they already are. It seems to me that there should be an option under TOOLS to "Manage Add-ons". I cannot even see what add-ons are loaded. Like I said before, no changes have been made to my Calendar and French dictionary add-ons in a very long time. I'm confused (and a bit frustrated). Thanks! Ron

No, your add-ons are merely disabled.

Safe Mode does some other things, like restore default toolbar configurations and, possibly of relevance, disables "hardware acceleration", which makes use of some graphics cards capabilities. This option (when enabled) is believed to be the cause of some crashes and hangs or just bizarre behaviours.

You can go to Tools|Options|Advanced|General to turn this off, then resume in regular "Unsafe Mode", and see if that sorts you out.

I can't remember if re-starting in normal mode will automatically re-enable your add-ons; please do check for yourself.

Add-ons can be found under Tools|Add-ons in the old menu, or |Add-ons

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Menu_differences_in_Windows,_Linux,_and_Mac for differences in the menus between Mac, Windows and Linux.

OK... "hardware acceleration" is NOT enabled. I finally managed to find my Calendar in TOOLS/ADD ONS/ EXTENSIONS and re-enabled it. All my events from earlier in the year are intact. Under TOOLS/ADDONS/DICTIONARIES, I found my French dictionary, which was disabled, and I was able to re-enable it. Everything seems normal, but I think I am still running in Safe Mode (don't know how to tell if that is the case). How do I start TBird normally, and NOT in Safe Mode?? Thanks for all your time and help! Ron/Jean-Marc

Thunderbird will start as normal when you close and then reopen Thunderbird.

Thanks for everything. Ron/Jean-Marc

JeanMarc,

What Antivirus do you have installed? And if it is McAfee, does disabling McAfee at tools | addons | extensions help? (please tell us)

Sorry, Wayne, for my tardiness in replying to you. Ever since I started having some problems with TBird last year, I have always had the McAfee Email scanning extension disabled. As of now, things seem to be back to normal. Thanks for everyone's help!

Jean-Marc

JeanMarc69 said

Sorry, Wayne, for my tardiness in replying to you. Ever since I started having some problems with TBird last year, I have always had the McAfee Email scanning extension disabled. As of now, things seem to be back to normal. Thanks for everyone's help! Jean-Marc

So it went away on its own??