All of a sudden, after years of great performance, Thunderbird is now painfully slow. Slow cursor response, slow to open emails, slow navigation.
Slow cursor response, slow to open emails, slow navigation. Just slow.
I have 12 email addresses and a well organized folder set. I archive older messages and empty the trash. What is curious is this just suddenly started - not because of an update or anything else I know of.
No extensions. All plugins disabled. And yes, starting in safe mode speeds it up. Plenty of memory & storage space.
I am out of ideas.
Thanks for the help.
All Replies (11)
What is your anti-virus software?
Please post your Troubleshooting Information.
At the top right of the Thunderbird window, click the menu button 
, then select Help > Troubleshooting Information.
Press the Copy text to clipboard button and paste the information into your reply.
Name: Thunderbird
Version: 45.1.0
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.1.0
Profile Folder: Show Folder
(Local drive)
Application Build ID: 20160509110721
Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
Memory Use: about:memory
Mail and News Accounts
account1:
INCOMING: account1, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext
account2:
INCOMING: account2, , (imap) mail.fbts.com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.fbts.com:25, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account3:
INCOMING: account3, , (pop3) mail.fbts.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.mcn.org:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account4:
INCOMING: account4, , (imap) mail.fbts.com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.fbts.com:25, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account6:
INCOMING: account6, , (pop3) mail.fbts.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.mcn.org:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account8:
INCOMING: account8, , (pop3) mail.fbts.com:110, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.mcn.org:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account9:
INCOMING: account9, , (pop3) mail.fbts.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.mcn.org:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account10:
INCOMING: account10, , (pop3) mail.fbts.com:110, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.mcn.org:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account11:
INCOMING: account11, , (pop3) mail.fbts.com:110, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.fbts.com:26, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account13:
INCOMING: account13, , (imap) mail.fbts.com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.fbts.com:25, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account14:
INCOMING: account14, , (imap) mail.fbts.com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.mcn.org:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account15:
INCOMING: account15, , (pop3) mail.fbts.com:110, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.fbts.com:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account16:
INCOMING: account16, , (imap) mail.fbts.com:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.fbts.com:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account17:
INCOMING: account17, , (pop3) mail.fbts.com:110, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.fbts.com:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account18:
INCOMING: account18, , (pop3) cloud.fbts.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , cloud.fbts.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
account19:
INCOMING: account19, , (imap) mail.mcn.org:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.mcn.org:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
account20:
INCOMING: account20, , (pop3) cloud.fbts.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , cloud.fbts.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
account22:
INCOMING: account22, , (pop3) mail.fineuntilkindergarten.com:110, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: , mail.fineuntilkindergarten.com:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
Crash Reports http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-72c1699b-dfc3-4b9b-a22a-ab2312160522 (5/21/2016) http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-0adeffef-28ed-49bd-bb2e-3bd152160328 (3/27/2016) http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-f82ba6f8-4a04-4ea8-9f41-e41df2160328 (3/27/2016) http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-8c43d78e-f812-43ae-889c-8f6f62160324 (3/24/2016) http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-317b4d9c-6520-4e54-ac5a-acda92160324 (3/24/2016)
Extensions
Important Modified Preferences
Name: Value
accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0
browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1
browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false
browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false
dom.apps.reset-permissions: true
extensions.lastAppVersion: 45.1.0
font.internaluseonly.changed: true
font.name.monospace.el: Consolas
font.name.monospace.tr: Consolas
font.name.monospace.x-baltic: Consolas
font.name.monospace.x-central-euro: Consolas
font.name.monospace.x-cyrillic: Consolas
font.name.monospace.x-unicode: Consolas
font.name.monospace.x-western: Consolas
font.name.sans-serif.el: Calibri
font.name.sans-serif.tr: Calibri
font.name.sans-serif.x-baltic: Calibri
font.name.sans-serif.x-central-euro: Calibri
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font.name.serif.el: Cambria
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font.name.serif.x-baltic: Cambria
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font.name.serif.x-western: Cambria
font.size.fixed.el: 14
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font.size.fixed.x-baltic: 14
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font.size.variable.el: 17
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gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.appVersion: 45.0
gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.deviceID: 0x100a
gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.driverVersion: 10.18.13.6472
gfx.crash-guard.glcontext.gfx.driver-init.direct3d11-angle: true
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gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0
mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
mail.winsearch.enable: true
mail.winsearch.firstRunDone: true
mail.winsearch.global_reindex_time: 1414187882
mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: a3a433d3-6862-4dfc-8b92-6c47b39cd41
mailnews.database.global.views.conversation.columns: {"threadCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"1"},"flaggedCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"3"},"attachmentCol":{"visible":false…
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network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
network.predictor.cleaned-up: true
network.protocol-handler.warn-external.blocked: false
places.database.lastMaintenance: 1463338163
places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858
places.history.expiration.transient_optimal_database_size: 167772160
plugin.importedState: true
plugin.state.npwlpg: 0
print.print_printer: HP 8500
print.printer_Canon_MG5300_series_Printer_WS_(redirected_1).print_bgcolor: false
print.printer_Canon_MG5300_series_Printer_WS_(redirected_1).print_bgimages: false
print.printer_Canon_MG5300_series_Printer_WS_(redirected_1).print_colorspace:
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print.printer_Canon_MG5300_series_Printer_WS_(redirected_1).print_duplex: 1515870810
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print.printer_Canon_MG5300_series_Printer_WS_(redirected_1).print_footerright: &D
print.printer_Canon_MG5300_series_Printer_WS_(redirected_1).print_headercenter:
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print.printer_Canon_MG5300_series_Printer_WS_(redirected_1).print_headerright: &U
print.printer_Canon_MG5300_series_Printer_WS_(redirected_1).print_in_color: true
print.printer_Canon_MG5300_series_Printer_WS_(redirected_1).print_margin_bottom: 0.5
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print.printer_Canon_MG5300_series_Printer_WS_(redirected_1).pri
After having serious problems with Symantec solutions after going to Windows 10, I am now using the built in Windows Defender.
And it seems to be getting progressively worse. Now there is a serious delay between every keystroke. The app window refreshes a great deal, something I have never seen before.
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?
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try later today and post the results.
Did the Safe Mode - Safe Mode restart. Thunderbird performance seems normal in this state.
Back to non-safe mode and the performance is still very slow. Regularly the main window stalls with a "Not Responding" message for a second or two.
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.
Keep it working. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_working_-_Thunderbird
I used to work for Symantec, and so have used Norton AV products for a long time. In Windows 10 it was the source of several problems, so I fell back to Windows Defender and an occasional scan with Malwarebytes. So I excluded the profile folder, but cannot do much more configuration wise. And this does not jive with the "ran fine and then became dogmeat" behavior I have experienced. Thunderbird is slow slow slow, nearly unusable.
So I excluded the profile folder, but cannot do much more configuration wise.
If this doesn't fix the problem yet, ask in a Microsoft forum for more Windows Defender options. Or look for other software you run and which gets disabled in safe mode, and which potentially interferes with Thunderbird.