Do you get a 'Not responding' notification in the title bar?

What is your anti-virus software?

"Do you get a 'Not responding' notification in the title bar?"

Yes. This is often what will happen when a program stops functioning. Not exactly a news item. I'm sorry if the term "freezes up" has confused anyone by being too vague and obscure. I thought the meaning of that casual lingo had been pretty clearly understood pretty much forever.

Not exactly helpful information.

"What is your anti-virus software?"

Another less than useful question, and suitably vague for what I expected. Presumably, I will guess you mean what might be running resident in the background while problems are happening, as anti-virus software doing frequent scans when my system is not busy doing WORK is not really relevant.

More to the point, the most recent version of v78 of Thunderbird having severe problems is 78.4.3 (64bit) and I had also tried the 32 bit version with no discernible differences.

This is running on Windows 7 Professional (SP1).

What I did find, myself, trying to troubleshoot somebody else's goofs, was that if I forced TB offline, it stopped seizing up. Interesting.

After more time, I finally found that if I allowed Thunderbird to be online and doing normal business EXCEPT going to the "news feeds and blogs" account settings and UNCHECKING "enable updates for all feeds", to not allow it to do its normal scan for new RSS feed items... the freezes stopped happening and no further trouble... as long as, you know, I don't let the RSS reader in the email/RSS reader/calendar program actually read RSS feeds.

Silly me.

How something as plain and gross as this gets through ANY kind of serious beta testing (or even get TO beta testing) is beyond me. I'm not used to functioning in a domain of careless incompetence, so I don't know how all that works.

By the way, before anyone gives me any grief like "well, how do you expect people to find a problem in testing using your old icky version of Windows!", I have managed to stave off following Microsoft down their path of regressive destruction of THEIR own software, so far.

Thanks for the complete lack of help, I can only hope that somebody functional sees the symptom I found and can set about fixing the basic large problem I finally managed to discern myself.

Another less than useful question, and suitably vague for what I expected. Presumably, I will guess you mean what might be running resident in the background while problems are happening, as anti-virus software doing frequent scans when my system is not busy doing WORK is not really relevant.

You're the one with the problem, and apparently you are unable to solve it. Therefore I'd suggest you take a step back and stop drawing conclusions.

Even though it may not be obvious to you, the question about your anti-virus software was asked for a reason. Therefore, if you want help, please answer the question.

If this was a general problem with Thunderbird, everyone would run into it. But that isn't the case. It's more than likely the problem is with your setup.

Thanks for the complete lack of help

You're welcome.

I can only hope that somebody functional sees the symptom I found and can set about fixing the basic large problem I finally managed to discern myself.

The symptoms you described are pretty clear. Virtually everything points to anti-virus software being the culprit. There's an easy way to prove that (or not). But if you think you know better and are unwilling to cooperate, then there's no point going forward. Up to you.

It should not be a surprise that precise wording like "not responding" straight up on your screen does in fact greatly help others provide a better diagnosis, versus a vague "it sucks" and it "freezes". RSS feeds is one of the items cited in https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Memory_Usage_Problems - we know there are still some examples in the wild, which for some reason does not affect most users of RSS. If you would cite some of the feeds you are using, or can determine the precise one that is causing the issue then it may help someone in fixing the code.

If you post in the future, please use language that observes the CPG of this forum https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/governance/policies/participation/

Right on form.

1. I see someone changed the title, now reading: ""not resopnding" caused by RSS feed checks "<sic>

It might occur to some that if the same kind of care and attention to detail goes into the source code of Thunderbird, it might explain many problems.

It was apparently more important to "redact language". Getting priorities straight around Mozilla. Well done. Because "no swears, please!" is what REALLY matters.

Still no signs of comprehension about why a user might be a little grumpy and impatient after encountering a second MAJOR MALFUNCTION in Thunderbird within, what, from memory, less than a year or so. So...

It should not be a surprise that precise wording like "not responding" straight up on your screen does in fact greatly help others provide a better diagnosis, versus a vague "it sucks" and it "freezes".

Right. I'll go over this again. It has been generally understood casual language for decades that in the world of computing, "freezes" works as a means of communicating the general idea that a program has ceased to show any sign of functioning in any way, which, naturally, would include responding in an expected manner to user inputs and/or the operating system. It is a BROAD term, it is hardly a VAGUE bit of terminology.

I'm sorry if this is confusing somehow, I will attempt to do better in understanding my own failure to communicate clearly, along with my failure to understand my own flaws and failures in the malfunctions of the software involved.

Let's continue, as tiresome and useless as this is, in the hope that somebody here may readjust attitudes and possibly LEARN SOMETHING.

Good god. (Let's see what "guideline" that "violates".)

<snip> we know there are still some examples in the wild, which for some reason does not affect most users of RSS. If you would cite some of the feeds you are using, or can determine the precise one that is causing the issue then it may help someone in fixing the code. If you post in the future, please use language that observes the CPG of this forum https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/governance/policies/participation/

Perhaps I could cite some feeds I'm using from, taking a quick check, over 100 RSS feeds... or, you're suggesting I determine what RSS feed might be causing a failure... when the failure happening means any sign of what's happening is a mystery to me as a user because the whole thing freezes.

Or... THIS. Note, I am not a programmer, and apparently know nothing. So it means nothing here if I make this suggestion, which is something like this:

in writing a program, program the logic and resulting source code so that if some unexpected result happens in some routine, like, e.g., checking an RSS feed across the internet fails to return and expected response, the routine will after some reasonable time frame be able to FAIL GRACEFULLY and NOT leave the program involved stuck in some permanent cycle of malfunction.

To be clear, not knowing what specific RSS feed might be causing a failure, and the details of such a thing, should not be an obstacle to revising the program to correct the endless hang kind of failure it exhibits here.

HAS NOBODY EVER ENCOUNTERED THIS CONCEPT BEFORE?

Oh, there's even more.

You're the one with the problem, and apparently you are unable to solve it. Therefore I'd suggest you take a step back and stop drawing conclusions. Even though it may not be obvious to you, the question about your anti-virus software was asked for a reason. Therefore, if you want help, please answer the question. <snip> The symptoms you described are pretty clear. Virtually everything points to anti-virus software being the culprit. There's an easy way to prove that (or not). But if you think you know better and are unwilling to cooperate, then there's no point going forward. Up to you.

Right. Waste more of my time. I know nothing.

Again trying to clarify, "virus software" is broad. I frequently scan using Malwarebytes. This is different than "anti virus software" running resident... the only thing there would be Microsoft Security Essentials.

Turning that off changes nothing in this situation.

Changing "New and blogs" account setting to NOT "enable updates for all feeds" causes the endless hang (sorry, "Not Reponding" in title bar) to stop occurring.

Is this clearly spelled out sufficiently, or is my inferiority in reasoning and communication still causing problems?

I AM curious now, and, because I am such a dim bulb, would really like to see an itemized list of "Virtually everything points to anti-virus software being the culprit". Please.

One last item.

This is important. Again, I can only hope that people can get their minds focused and maybe learn.

If this was a general problem with Thunderbird, everyone would run into it. But that isn't the case. It's more than likely the problem is with your setup.

God, this is tiresome. Let me try here. General problem, my setup, everyone would run into it, et cetera. Right. Let's belabor the obvious.

But let's back right off with the "problem is with MY SETUP silliness that fits right in with the whole ethos of "let's not figure out and fix our mistakes, let's make it THE USER'S FAULT!". (especially icky swearpersons)

If previous versions of a computer program have been doing the same general functions of the program as has been designed some long time before, with all the conditions involved staying the same or at least stable (e.g., I have not added any new RSS feeds in quite a while, since many versions of Thunderbird ago), and doing it just fine, if a newer version of the program completely fails and does so in a disastrous manner with no hope of recovery, forcing a brute force ending of the program, it suggests that the problem lies, please focus here, IN A FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE IN PROGRAMMING IN ROUTINES DOING THE SAME WORK THAT PREVIOUS VERSIONS HAVE DONE WITH NO PROBLEMS.

I don't know what more I can do to help you guys, because I can't fix anyone's basic attitude, and that seems to be the largest bug these days.

I'll say this again.

Thunderbird used to be great.

It has been turned into a chronic disaster.

This is a people problem, not an individual user system configuration problem.

I have had enough of this idiocy.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-subscribe-news-feeds-and-blogs describes a preference which can be adjusted to reduce the performance impact of checking RSS feeds.

To your good health

I return to add this, for whatever good it could do for anyone encountering a problem like mine. You are unlikely to get any serious help here.

What I discovered after an extended time examining things piece by piece is this. Some mysterious problem with a particular RSS feed folder, that has been in action for years through so many versions of TBird, caused the program hang, total permanent eternal freeze until forcibly killed.

I could not even right-click on the folder within Thunderbird to get to "properties" and then maybe try "repair folder". Pretty much even looking at the folder involved in Thunderbird locked up the world. The only way to deal with this was to get out of TB, go to Windows file management and delete the two files associated with that feed. I restarted TBird, and the problem was "solved" (to be clear, it WAS NOT SOLVED, I only found a way to get away from the unsolved problem... just mentioning this while wondering if some halfwit will read this and still mark this as "solved" because I managed to get TBird to go fetch RSS feeds without exploding).

Sharp eyed readers will notice I have not specified the particular RSS feed that was somehow an issue. The problem I see here is that with what passes for "help" now, specifying the particular feed seems likely to lead someone down the path of thinking "we need to examine that and fix the program so that doesn't cause a hang" and never address the real underlying problem, programming so that an unexpected result or input or whatever will cause a routine to FAIL GRACEFULLY AND MOVE ON, and NOT get locked in infinite loop death.

One last note. I see a link provided above as "help" about how to subscribe to RSS feeds. That's cool, but not helpful if you already KNOW how to use RSS feeds. NOT EVEN REMOTELY USEFUL IN SOLVING THE PROBLEM AT HAND.

To a more specific point, the linked page is described as "describes a preference which can be adjusted to reduce the performance impact of checking RSS feeds.".

This is mind blowing levels of obtuse. To make this simple, the issue is not "performance impact", please let me spell out the simplest factor here, which is that THERE WAS NEVER ANY PROBLEM WITH THIS UNTIL VERSION 78 OF THUNDERBIRD.

1. Why would be there suddenly, NOW, be an issue with "performance impact", in a supposed "upgrade", and why and how should that be a USER problem (rather than: note to programmers- DON'T RUIN SOMETHING THAT WORKS)?

2. Even given some issue of "performance impact", another little kind of important principle useful to keep in mind is- if a computer program gets into a situation of being heavily loaded with a task, it should never end up FREEZING UP IN ENDLESS LOOP LIMBO NEVER TO RECOVER, no matter how hard it might be working. The worst thing that should ever happen is the user seeing some warning message telling them to stand by because the program is overloaded with work. Period.

God help all of us actually depending on this software. (Oh, and part of it... last bonus... some geniuses changed things so that if you used a more recent broken version of Thunderbird, your user profile has been altered in a way so that it is not POSSIBLE to revert to an older, stable, functional, non broken version of TBird before your mistaken "upgrade".)