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Question about multiple instances of Thunderbird running at once

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  • Last reply by teeness

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I've read that when you launch Thunderbird by clicking on its icon/shortcut it should only load once, even if you click it a few times. There should be just one window of TB open. If I click the TB shortcut/icon on the desktop, it behaves like this. I can click it multiple times and only one TB window will open and be active.

However, if I launch TB from the "quick launch" on my windows 8.1 (or any windows) taskbar, I can get mulitple windows of TB to open, as many as I want. So if i click the TB icon on the quick launch once, i get one instance of it. Twice, I get two and etc. Any program in the quick launch behaves like this. It launches programs with one click and will launch them again and again.

I only click it once and get one instance which is fine and how it should be. But is this behavior with the quick launch ok? Should it not do this with Thunderbird? Thanks.

I've read that when you launch Thunderbird by clicking on its icon/shortcut it should only load once, even if you click it a few times. There should be just one window of TB open. If I click the TB shortcut/icon on the desktop, it behaves like this. I can click it multiple times and only one TB window will open and be active. However, if I launch TB from the "quick launch" on my windows 8.1 (or any windows) taskbar, I can get mulitple windows of TB to open, as many as I want. So if i click the TB icon on the quick launch once, i get one instance of it. Twice, I get two and etc. Any program in the quick launch behaves like this. It launches programs with one click and will launch them again and again. I only click it once and get one instance which is fine and how it should be. But is this behavior with the quick launch ok? Should it not do this with Thunderbird? Thanks.

Modified by teeness

Chosen solution

There is generally no advantage in running multiple instances of Thunderbird, unless you specifically make these run with different profiles. In practice, if they are allowed to use the same profile, the first Thunderbird should should acquire the profile and hence lock the others out, though this may not become apparent until you try to save something, such as a message, or change some settings.

Do your multiple Thunderbird run successfully? Do they all show the same mix of accounts, folders and address books? Can any or all of them save and make changes?

If that is intended behaviour, (i.e. some Windows "feature") I don't like it; it doesn't play well with profile locking and would I think lead to problems.

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There is generally no advantage in running multiple instances of Thunderbird, unless you specifically make these run with different profiles. In practice, if they are allowed to use the same profile, the first Thunderbird should should acquire the profile and hence lock the others out, though this may not become apparent until you try to save something, such as a message, or change some settings.

Do your multiple Thunderbird run successfully? Do they all show the same mix of accounts, folders and address books? Can any or all of them save and make changes?

If that is intended behaviour, (i.e. some Windows "feature") I don't like it; it doesn't play well with profile locking and would I think lead to problems.

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Hi.. yes, If i run two at once (by clicking the TB icon in the quick launch twice) they both show the same exact thing. I just tried this.. if I write an email and save it as a draft in one of them, it will show it as saved in that one and also show it as saved in the other one.... they seem to both act as one....I don't like it either and it's something I never do.. I just click it once usually, but I noticed yesterday it will launch multiple times if I click it more than once.... the quick launch is part of the task bar so it allows me to quickly with one click launch another instance of FF if I want to or go to the desktop if I have the current browser or program maximized.

Anyway, I'm going to stick to just clicking it once since I only need one TB window - I was just surprised it could do that.. never noticed that before but it does it on all my computers so I guess it is just a function of it being in the quick launch and how that makes programs behave....

Thanks.

Modified by teeness