Freezes while composing message Thunderbird 138/139, Windows 11, in safe mode and troubleshoot mode SOLVED by setting accessibility.force_disabled to 1 (bug1972457)
Thunderbird 138/139, Windows 11 Pro 23H2. While composing a message, after a few lines the app freezes. Both the compose window and the main TB window freeze. Only opening the Windows Task manager allows me to close them. This did not happen with earlier versions.
If I save the message every few seconds while composing I can get most of the message back and continue after restarting TB. This behavior is the same in both the normal and troubleshooting TB modes. I can't even find a crash log to send to Mozilla.
Where shall I look next?
Thank you!
Wayne Mery மூலமாக திருத்தப்பட்டது
தீர்வு தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்டது
Can you try this and report on results. In Thunderbird
- Settings > General
- scroll down to bottom
- click the 'Config editor' button
- It opens in anew tab
- In search type: force
- look for: accessibility.force_disabled
- default has zero 0 setting
- click on the pencil icon
- Remove the zero and type : 1
- click on the tick icon to save.
Please note it will disable accessibility features such as screen readers.
Restart Thunderbird
Please report on results
Read this answer in context 👍 2All Replies (5)
Toad-Hall, I can live with the 'accessibility.force_disabled' setting at 1. I use no add-ons, no calendar, no chat, just IMAP email. All I need is to send and receive HTML-friendly email. Maybe we need "Thunderbird Light" with no frills.
Again, many thanks for your patience and for uncovering the bug also reported by another. At least I know it's not something I am doing wrong.
I have the exact same problem. Thunderbird stops responding while composing a message in HTML. It started a couple of months ago when Thunderbird recommended that I change to the release update channel and a newer version was installed. I don't remember the older number nor the newer version number at that time. I was running Win10 Home at the time. I had been running Thunderbird for a few hears without a problem under Win10.
I have not found this Not Responding While Composing problem mentioned in a wider web search, only in this one report in this particular forum.
I have since updated my Dell XPS 8940 to Win11 Home. The Thunderbird problem continues under the new operating system.
As of today, I am using Thunderbird 141.0 (64-bit) on the release update channel. The problem has continued through a few Thunderbird updates and the update from Win10 to Win11.
As the OP describes, Thunderbird frequently stops responding when composing a message. I am able to click on X in the upper right corner of the main window to close Thunderbird. I save after every few words so after restarting Thunderbird I can continue composing from the saved drafft.
I have tried turning off hardware acceleration and running in Safe mode, but the problem persisted.
Perhaps I will have to remove Thunderbird completely from my computer and start over with a clean install. But I have a few years of data stored on my computer so I've been reluctant to do this as I don't know that this drastic measure would help.
Dell XPS 8940, Win 11 Home 24H2, NVIDIA GeForce RTX3060 (Studio driver 32.0.15.7700 updated 7/14/2025), 64 GB ram
Granddaddy, start with Toad-Hall's message on June 7, 2025. That disables some some Thunderbird features that I never use anyway (for me it is an email program, nothing more) but it does kill the bug.
Dan Landiss said
Granddaddy, start with Toad-Hall's message on June 7, 2025. That disables some some Thunderbird features that I never use anyway (for me it is an email program, nothing more) but it does kill the bug.
Link to that comment: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1514833#answer-1740015.
Hi Dan Landiss Can you please mark my comment as the Chosen Solution, so that people with same issue can find a current solution more easilly. Many Thanks. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1514833#answer-1740015
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