TB freezes on startup. I need help fixing TB -

Please step through https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Memory_Usage_Problems and let us know what you find.

Here is what you ask:

Thunderbird freezes on startup. I suspect mail box index trouble. This happened before about a month ago.

Today, this morning, I deleted the global index file global-messages-db.sqlite and re-launched TB. TB freezes. Maybe it is re-building the index and maybe it is frozen. I do not know. I let it run for three hours before killing the TB session. I have a lot of messages, but three hours seems like plenty of time to re-index. Should I let it run overnight?

After three hours, I looked at the file in my Profile folder. The file exists but is quite small, 1 megabyte. Earlier versions of the file are 1/2 a gigabyte.

Here are the steps from the Wikipedia page and my responses:

1: Version: I run newish TB: 153.3 on Win10 2: I launched TB in Troubleshoot mode. No improvement. 3: I did not start my computer in Safe mode. 4: TB is excluded in the AV. TB ran fine yesterday, but freezes today. 5: I do not use GMAIL. 6: I cannot get to “Is "Unified Folders" enabled in "Folder Modes" because TB does not get past the start up. It freezes. 7: I want to try this … “Folders should be well maintained. Help > Troubleshooting Information lists large folders. Folders may also be broken, which can be fixed with right+click on folder, Properties > Repair. Signs of problems and common maintenance steps:” But I cannot. TB is frozen on start up. 8: No remote calendars. 9: No proxy. 10, 11 and 12: I cannot get into TB to look at these ideas. 13: I would like to try this … “Does problem resolve by disabling Global Search indexing? Tools|Options|Advanced|General| uncheck Enable Global Search and Indexer” … but I cannot run TB. 14: Same as above. 15: CPU usage is low when TB is trying to run. If it is rebuilding indexes, it is not using much computer power. 16: No Newsgroups. 17: All of my Thunderbird is on a local disk. 18: I have a good SSID disk. Again, TB ran well yesterday. Today, it does not start. 19: I do not think my email provider is re-sending emails. 20: My PC is powerful and it is not a VM. 21: For these, some are not possible because TB freezes on start up. • Does turning off the Status Bar in View > Toolbars help improve performance? • If your folder or account has many (tens of thousands of messages), consider the possibility that your mail provider is throttling (limiting) traffic to its servers. This can make checking for or getting new messages to be slower than expected. Not happening. • Is filter logging enabled at Tools > Filters? (look for filterlog.html files - large logs cause high overhead) I cannot find file filterlog.html in the Profile folder or below. • Do you use server side message filters to place messages in folders? bug 589310 No. Filtering occurs in TB. • If you have ever had RSS feed reader accounts: o Is "Automatically create tags from feed category names" enabled? Then there is a good chance the prefs.js contains many tags which are causing a performance problem [19] o In Account Settings > Server Settings disable "Check for new messages at startup". If problem is gone you may be seeing bug 551144 (fixed in version 13). No RSS feed, • Is prefs.js file in the Thunderbird profile directory larger then 500 KB? If yes, then it might have excessive tag entries from the RSS issue discussed above, or some unexpected, repetitive entries. No. It is small:

• Does it help to clear cache at Settings > General > Disk Space > "Clear Now" and Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Clear startup cache..."? • Do you have thousands of contacts in your address book? No. • On Linux? A package might be causing the problem [20]. Are you running an old version? Consider updating. hangs on Ubuntu 10.04, 14.04 works No. Win10. • On macOS, try disabling Thunderbird's access to Mac Contacts in Mac System Settings > Privacy & Security > Contacts. Not on Mac. • On Windows, did you move the Thunderbird profile directory or any Thunderbird account from the default location "%APPDATA%"? If yes, then MS-Windows Search will attempt to index all Thunderbird disk activity. Disable Windows indexing for your Thunderbird data. No. • Uninstall Thunderbird, then DELETE the Thunderbird PROGRAM directory (not the data directory), then download, reinstall, and retest Thunderbird. If using beta get it from channels. • If Thunderbird memory usage is more than 1.5GB or more then folders may be corrupted or are not being closed. Please get a diagnostic log of Thunderbird activity with MSGDB:5,timestamp using logging instructions, then file a bug, and attach the zipped log file using "Add an attachment".

> Uninstall Thunderbird, then DELETE the Thunderbird PROGRAM directory (not the data directory), then download, reinstall, and retest Thunderbird. If using beta get it from channels.

Actually you don't have to uninstall. Just delete the program directory and install from https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/download/esr. You should be on 153.4.0, which in fact does fix one type of startup hang.

I will try that. Thank you for jumping in.

-Matt.

No good.

I renamed the old C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird folder (so as to disable it without deleting it entirely) and then installed the latest Thunderbird (Thunderbird Setup 153.4.0esr.exe). It installed without trouble.

I launched TB and I get the same result. TB hangs on the "Loading message..." status message in the lower left corner.

TB is running. Task Manager shows it is active.

Considering erasing all of the MSF files as described here. Good idea? https://www.datarecovery.institute/reindex-thunderbird-folders-messages-database/

deleting or not deleting MSF file is really simple. It stores nothing that you will not recover from (usually message labels and some items on the odd IMAP server that does not support the full IMAP suit of commands.) I have done it many times. On large folders it can see signioficant increases in the time to open the folder contents post delete while the local store, or sometimes the IMAP server, is interogated to rebuild the index.

While you say your antivirus is excluded (and mine should be but periodical Microsoft appear to clear some setting with update to defender) that does not prevent other interactions. Antivirus interferes with getting messages (incoming mail scanning and encrypted communications monitoring) VPN's can see mail server play games or simply demand you re-authenticate. This is common with most of the so called free providers. and then we have the monitoring of the system temp folder. Again a default antivirus caper, often the temp folder is a bottleneck slowing the entire system I suggest you clear it using the tools windows provides. For Windows 10 that is usually https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/experience/storage-filemanagement/free-up-drive-space-in-windows

Windows is rather unique as an operating system in that it makes no effort to conrol the content of this folder, nor to remove orphaned files. Cleaning the birdcage or automated garbage collection have been computing terms for as long as I have been involved with them. Micirisift are still struggling with the concept apparently.

There has been talk for decades about windows slowing down after a few months. Temp folder bloat is a significant contributing factor and needs manual intervention regularly to control it. It makes all of your system run faster and often removes momentary hitches while the operating system walks the memory heap that contains the hundreds of thousands of temp file entries in a folder that should have perhaps 100.