Sorry you are having trouble.

Freezes do not create crash reports. Have you posted this issue anywhere else?

Wayne, thank you for your answer. No, I have not posted elsewhere. Could you suggest where the most productive places to post might be?

Thanks again!

I suggest you do not post anywhere else. I only asked so I could determine whether what I saw elsewhere was you or not.

• Start Windows in safe mode with networking enabled - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode
• Still In Windows safe mode, start Thunderbird in Troubleshoot Mode - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-mode-thunderbird

Does problem change?

No, the issue repeated with both Windows and TB in safe mode. It took a couple of minutes after I began composing.

Do you have a signature specified for the account, which appears in the compose window? Is the compose window plain text? Or html?

Yes, I use a signature which is a JPG image.

Messages are HTML.

Thanks!

I disabled both the signature and HTML messages. No change in symptoms. It occurs in both my account with a private domain name and my gmail account.

I tried again, and for a few days not composing in HTML it has worked. Within minutes after turning HTML back on, it froze again.

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

Toad-Hall, that suppresses the issue with compositions freezing Thunderbird.

Unfortunately it also means that messages are sent in plain text even when HTML is selected in the account settings and appears in the composition window, and inline images that appear while composing do not actually get sent.

Any chance I can have both? Hopefully this is just a trouble-shooting step and not the final result.

Thanks for your help!

How you create an email and what you use for sending are different things.

If using HTML when composing an email and can use the 'Formatting Bar', but if sent using only Plain Text, all formatting gets stripped and any inline images will get appended as attachments. However, it is also possible you have sent as HTML and Plain Text, but the recipient has things set up to view as Plain Text. Start by checking what settings you have got set up.

If you are only seeing Plain Text when you view/read emails: Via 'Menu Bar' toolbar 'View' > 'Message body as' > select 'Original HTML'

Please check these settings for 'sending' options: In Thunderbird

• Settings > Composition
• Scroll down to 'Sending Format' section
• Select 'Both HTML and Plain Text'

What did you discover as selected in that area ?

Toad-Hall, that suppresses the issue with compositions freezing Thunderbird.

Many thanks for your feedback on this. I'm thinking of reporting this as a bug, but they need as much info as possible, so could you offer a bit more info. You said you were using Windows 11 OS and the current 'Release' channel version.

Did you get the Thunderbird program from the 'Windows App Store' or did you get it from the official website download page: https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/all/  ? Have you installed any accessibity aids such as 'Screen Readers' ?

Many thanks.

I did not realize that the "Composition" and "Sending" settings were separate. My "Sending" was set to "Automatic" but after I edited "accessibility.force_disabled" as you requested the messages were sent in plain text even when I was testing composing in HTML to be able to report the results to you. I will change "Sending Format" to "Both" as you suggested.

I downloaded TB from the Web site and it appears to automatically update each month, currently 139.0.2 (64-bit).

The Winver command reports Version 23H2 (OS Build 22631.5335).

I have no accessibility aids, and I have never used the Calendar, Task, or Chat features.

Thank you for your persistence. I have enjoyed TB ever since Eudora stopped being updated.

I did not realize that the "Composition" and "Sending" settings were separate. My "Sending" was set to "Automatic" but after I edited "accessibility.force_disabled" as you requested the messages were sent in plain text even when I was testing composing in HTML to be able to report the results to you. I will change "Sending Format" to "Both" as you suggested.

Automatic option does this - assuming there is no bug :) If it detects just text even if created with HTML enabled in account then it sends as Plain Text. However, if some formatting has been applied such as colour or bold or a table etc then it should recognise this as using some HTML and therefore send using HTML.

Inserting an image inline and text - well if the inline images were stripped and then attached as attachments then it seems the auto only detected the text and therefore sent as plain text.

Please keep me updated on whether changing to 'HTML and Plain Text' is now working as expected. Many thanks for your continued co-operation.

Can you perform a test:

If you cleared the cache (Settings > General > scroll to Disc Space and click on 'Clear now' ) and reset the 'accessibility.force_disabled' back to 0, does the problem return or has it cleared up the issue ?

I have made those changes and will watch the behavior for a day or two -- thanks!

I have made those changes and will watch the behavior for a day or two -- thanks!

Alas, TB was just fine for 4 days after restoring its configuration as described above. This afternoon it reverted to freezing again.

I have reset 'accessibility.force_disabled' back to 1 and will watch it again for a few days.

Alas, TB was just fine for 4 days after restoring its configuration as described above. This afternoon it reverted to freezing again. I have reset 'accessibility.force_disabled' back to 1 and will watch it again for a few days.

OK thanks for feed back. There is clearly something going wrong, so I'll see if a bug has been reported and get on to it. resetting 'accessibility.force_disabled' back to 1 should sort you out for now but it needs looking into.

This is a bug report I discovered. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1972457