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I recently transferred my email account to The Messaging Company (big mistake I think) because my provider (Exetel) suggested them when they stopped hosting an email service. I then started having trouble receiving emails that I knew were sent and I thought that maybe my old emails were kept on the server too long and were taking up too much space on the server so I went into Thunderbird to change the settings to delete emails that had been on the server for 2 weeks. Thunderbird is now locked onto the Account Settings page and I can't get out of it. As soon as I click on the page I get the "Thunderbird not responding" message so I close the program. I've tried starting Thunderbird in safe mode with no result. I downloaded the latest version and reinstalled Thunderbird but as soon as I start the program it takes me straight into the "frozen" Account Settings page that I can't get out of. I have gone into The Profiles folder and I've included a screenshot of what's there. The latest profile was created when I tried to change the Account Settings. Can I delete that profile and go back to the one created on 9/6/2025?

Thunderbird doesn't open. I suspect because it opens every message I get or send either in a tab or a list or both. Then there gets to be too many of these. I didn't ask for any of these things! Why can't I just get messages like I used to, and not have to constantly be concerned with closing tabs and closing lists? It is ridiculous, and now the program won't even open. I know I am asked to be polite, and it is the programmers who are at fault, not the community volunteers. But we are not allowed to contact and complain to the programmers!

Sorry! 0 results found for ‘Thunderbird locks up when I'm typing an email and says Thunderbird is not responding. Has been going on for a couple of weeks. I'm on Windows 11.’ for ‘Thunderbird’

Thunderbird is freezing when I try to type a message into the new message window. It takes maybe 100 characters or so, then just freezes and requires ctrl-alt-del and end task to get out of it. This began with auto-installation of 140.0.1 as described below, and is 100% reproducible.

Environment: Windows 11 home 64 bit (specifically 2025-07 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 24H2 for x64-based Systems )

Running Thunderbird 140.0.1: Thunderbird 140.1.1esr was auto installed on July 10, 2025. Version history says that the install failed, but version showed as 140.0.1esr. This is when the problem began. On July 18th, I downloaded the release version of Thunderbird and installed that (140.0.1 - no esr). This did not resolve the problem. Troubleshooting info now shows 140.0.1 - no esr as the current version, but the update history does not show that upgrade/downgrade in the list, so I'm not sure it happened.

Things I have tried: Windows safe mode Thunderbird safe mode Clear caches Removed several mail accounts from Thunderbird

Below is system info from Thunderbird troubleshooting page.

 Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 140.0.1
   Build ID: 20250709044702
   Distribution ID:

I'm using Win 11 and ver 140.3.1esr (64 bit)

Thunderbird works perfectly except for just one thing. Every time I write any email it freezes after about 2 minutes. If it's a short email, it gets sent. If it's longer, before I can get to the end, the program freezes, and I have to use Task Manager to stop it. No problem receiving and reading emails. This started about a month ago.

I use Bitdefender, but it still happens with that off. Windows is up to date. Any ideas why this is happening? Thanks.

Why for about the last week has Thunderbird been crashing when drafting a message? Often it saves a portion of the in-progress drafting, but not always. What is the fix?

This is an issue that cropped up with the last update to T-bird. It retrieves and displays emails as well as it always has, but now when composing an email reply, T-bird completely locks up, can't shut it down by any means other than using Task Manager and killing the process. Before killing it, though I expanded T-bird's processes, and it listed five instances, one of which read "Not responding." When this happens, the cooling fan in the laptop kicks into high gear, until shortly after I kill T-bird.

Needless to say, this is intensely annoying and inconvenient. I belong to an extremely busy recovery group, and email is my primary contact with them, so this makes things a royal pain. I've had to resort to hitting "Respond" to open a new email, then firing up the text editor to compose the reply, then cut/paste that in and send it. Workable, but really... it *was* working fine, and now it isn't, and I haven't changed a thing, Windows hasn't updated, no new apps or anything... it just stopped working.

I've tried a number of suggested fixes, such as removing all add-ons (removed, not disabled) and themes, creating a new account (which worked okay for about a week, then it too started locking up). About the only thing I haven't tried yet is uninstalling T-bird and re-installing it, which I'll do if I absolutely have to, but I'd rather not go through the hassle of rebuilding everything if there's any other way to fix this.

Is there any kind of information or file/s I can provide that someone may be able to make some sense of? I'd REALLY appreciate it. I've used T-bird since I had internet access (back when Alta Vista was still a thing), and I love it - - no other email app offers the breadth of features that T-bird does, even paid apps. I'd truly HATE to have to switch to something else over this!!

Thunderbird has worked fine for me for years on my Windows 10 Pro machine. The computer works perfectly otherwise--and has a large amount of RAM. But a few weeks ago, Thunderbird started freezing (stops responding) at some point while I'm writing a message.

What happens is that I'll start to write an e-mail message in Thunderbird, and at some random point (from a few seconds to a few minutes) it will stop adding what I'm typing, and soon the text that it was showing grays out. It will then say Thunderbird has stopped responding, and I have no other choice than to close Thunderbird. I have no way of saving or recovering the message I had been typing--very frustrating!

As a partial work-around, I found that if I click on "Save" every time I add a little more to the message I'm trying to write, then at least when I restart Thunderbird I can go to Drafts and recover the message (as it was the last time I clicked "Save").

Thunderbird still works fine for all other functions (reading received messages, etc.). It only has the stopping responding problem randomly when I'm trying to write a message. It can happen while I'm typing--or during a pause between writing sentences. And the timing of the problem is very random and variable (from almost immediate to a few minutes). I tried running Thunderbird in Safe mode, but the problem was the same...

I always keep up with Thunderbird updates. Currently, I'm using version 140.1.1esr.

Can you give me any help with a solution? This problem is maddening!

Thank you,

Vincent Andrunas

In recent weeks, Thunderbird often hangs when I'm replying to another email and have written a sentence or two. It never recovers, and I have to close the program from Windows.

It doesn't always do this. On a few occasions, if I wait a while, close Thunderbird from Windows, and restart it, the partial is in the Drafts folder.

I'm running Windows 11 24H2, but I've been on 24H2 since December, and this problem is more recent.

Hello, Here is what I consider a new bug in TB. It goes this way: While I am reading a message in the message pane of the standard window (not in its own window), if messages arrive (with a small ding for me), the message pane I am reading goes BLANK and the message I was reading is deselected. I have to reselect the message I am reading and scroll down to where I was. This behavior is very annoying and did not exists in previous versions.

I hope this helps. Thank you , Alain Damlamian

When I try to add a new Mail Account, the "Looking up configuration" step hangs indefinitely. I have to force a hard exit to reopen the app. I was able to add my hotmail account without issue, but now that I'm trying to add @yahoo.co.uk , it just freezes up. Thx

Windows 10, newest Thunderbird.

On my Framework 13, Thunderbird has stopped. Message reads Oups! We're sorry, it looks like thunderbird crashed. Please contact the developer if you want to report the issue. At 85, I'm anything but a nerd. Could someone please help me in simple, everyday terms? I have a lot of incoming and outgoing emails, and am completely stuck. Thank you.

Thunderbird pushed out an automatic update last night (July 13 2025) to version 140.0.1esr. Since then I cannot complete creating and typing a new message without Thunderbird freezing completely during entry of the text of a new message. I am running Windows-11 home, version 24h2. I have rebooted, etc. multiple times. I also ran thunderbird in troubleshooting mode and the problem still exists.

Please help - as of today Thunderbird is completely useless to me.

wellerhn@gmail.com

Hi I have just reloaded Thunderbird onto my laptop after installing a new hard drive. It worked Ok until i imported an account and now get this error message even if I uninstall and reinstall.

That appears in a box and thats it.

Cheers Jim

URGENT Version 142 for Windows 64bit is unstable. It freezes over after almost any action with usual Windows "Not Responding" message. Recommendation to Mozilla: Pull back this release and roll back to 141

Hello I deleted a lot of emails, and I am not sure if all my old emails have been completely deleted. When I go to open Thunderbird, after about a minute it will freeze up. I have 3 email accounts and I can only view one account but when I try to view another email account, it freezes up, and I have to exit. Before I deleted my emails it all worked great no problems. What did I do wrong and what can I do to get Thunderbird back to working like it use to ? Thanks a lot Sam

I've been trying to add yahoo account for several weeks, I type in the email address on the add account function and then I just get a wheel of death and have to force shut the programme, I'm on windows 11.

I'm able to add an e-mail account but when I go to add a second e-mail account, when it looks up the information, it just hangs with the circle going around.

This is true for two different user accounts on the same computer.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled Thunderbird but it didn't help.

Thunderbird can't be exited without killing from the task manager or shutting down.

When I attempt to add an attachment, sometimes Mozilla crashes. This happens several times a month. Windows 10 Home "File Explorer" pops up & I can be scrolling and it will crash Mozilla. Other times I am selecting the file to attach & it crashes. I am at a loss as to why. I'm using the latest version & "Send later" is my only add-on.