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Thunderbird Won't Load At All

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  • 1 has this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by Sackbut

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I'm using the latest TB on W10 entirely up-to-date. TB will not open at all, regardless of where I'm trying to open it: desktop; taskbar; start list. I cannot start in safe mode. I cannot refresh TB. There are no error messages of any kind. The only thing that works is a clean re-install after a complete uninstall, and that only works for a day or two. No one can afford to uninstall and reinstall TB every time they want to read their mail. My PC is a Dell Optiplex GX620 Pentium. I've unloaded all new additions except the usual W10 updates. Nothing works. I'd most appreciate any suggestions. All other programs (Firefox, LibreOffice, W10) work fine.

I'm using the latest TB on W10 entirely up-to-date. TB will not open at all, regardless of where I'm trying to open it: desktop; taskbar; start list. I cannot start in safe mode. I cannot refresh TB. There are no error messages of any kind. The only thing that works is a clean re-install after a complete uninstall, and that only works for a day or two. No one can afford to uninstall and reinstall TB every time they want to read their mail. My PC is a Dell Optiplex GX620 Pentium. I've unloaded all new additions except the usual W10 updates. Nothing works. I'd most appreciate any suggestions. All other programs (Firefox, LibreOffice, W10) work fine.

Chosen solution

Is Carbonite a cloud backup app? Those kinds of apps have caused problems for other users, so you might have to temporarily disable it while running TB, if it's acting on the profile folder.

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Does TB open if you run Windows in safe mode? What is listed in the Startup tab of Task Manager?

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I haven't tried windows in safe mode. The startup tab of task manager lists the following enabled programs as follows: Carbonite, Firefox, LibreOffice Writer, Brother (printer) status monitor, Task Manager, Thunderbird, Windows Security notifications.

Since posting, I did try a dirty reinstall of TB and it worked. It hadn't worked the last time I had the problem.

Thanks for your help.

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Seçilmiş Həll

Is Carbonite a cloud backup app? Those kinds of apps have caused problems for other users, so you might have to temporarily disable it while running TB, if it's acting on the profile folder.

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Yes, Carbonite is a cloud backup app. I'll try your suggestion, but why would its negative effect be intermittent, coming into play only several days after TB has been newly installed?

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I can't say for sure, but if the backup is working at the same time TB access the profile, there could be conflicts if Carbonite locks access to profile files.

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Okay. Next time TB won't load I'll suspend Carbonite and see if that works. Thanks!

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Sackbut said

Okay. Next time TB won't load I'll suspend Carbonite and see if that works. Thanks!

Indeed, please let us know

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There are tools you can install to show which files are open/locked

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It was the Carbonite. I took Carbonite off startup and Thunderbird loaded right up on every restart. I put Carbonite back on startup and Thunderbird would start two or three times, successively, but on the third or fourth and later restarts Thunderbird would not respond at all. Now that I don't understand: why would T fail to load only after two or three successful reboots with Carbonite? I also tried changing their startup order and found another question. T loses function in the same way as described in the foregoing even if Carbonite is set to load '''after '''T on startup. Somehow somewhere there is a progressive disfunction that only stops T from initializing after a specific level of SOMETHING has been reached.