re :i have submitted my crash reports to Thunderbird a number of times, but no one has come back to me with any help.

submitting crash reports assists the developers. When a load of crash reports are reporting the same issue, it tells them something is seriously wrong. The developers and bug fixers are never going to contact you as they have no idea who you are and they are fixing bugs.

However, it might be of some help if you posted those reports in this forum question. You can find them under: Help > Troubleshooting information Crash reports copy paste the info.

re : It keeps asking me if I want to compact folders You should be compacting Inbox, Drafts and Junk on a regular basis. I do it manually at the end of each day as I delete quite a few emails.

Emails are downloaded to the Inbox and stored in mbox files. mbox files are text files. So each email is written one after the other in the order downloaded. So everything in Inbox is in one text file. When you delete an email, it gets hidden and 'marked as deleted', so it still in the file. If you delete in error, then the action can be reversed. When you compact the folder, those hidden 'marked as deleted' emails are removed from the mbox text file. This tidies up the file and saves space. It is necessary to compact to maintain a healthy Thunderbird.

Compacting can be done manually or you can set an auto compact when it will save more than eg: 2MB. It sounds like you are seeing this auto message to compact folders to save space.

However, if the mbox files are corrupted then you could lose emails.

Make a backup now as a precaution.

• Exit Thunderbird
• Access : C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
• Copy the Thunderbird folder to an external hardrive or usb of suitable size.

Start Thunderbird. Suggest you compact each folder manually because when you compact a folder, a duplicate is created first. If your text files have become huge then it might be a problem copying all of them in the same location.

• Right click on 'Drafts' folder in Folder Pane and select 'Compact'

• Empty the Junk - right click on Junk/spam and select 'Empty Junk'
• Right click on 'Junk' /'Spam' folder in Folder Pane and select 'Compact'

Normally, you do not need to empty the Inbox prior to compacting, but as it seems you have not done regular compacting, as a precaution on this occasion, I recommend you do.

• Move all wanted good emails out of 'Inbox' into other suitable folders for organising and storage.
• Delete any you do not want.

When Inbox is empty:

• Right click on 'Inbox' folder in Folder Pane and select 'Compact'

Info on compacting and keeping a healthy Thunderbird:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_working_%28Thunderbird%29
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders

Compacting folders should help with performance. But if you have an Anti-Virus program scanning everything then it will cause things to slow down.

Thanks for your advice, I think this is not going to be fixed simply by compacting folders, unless you are saying that this is the cause of the crashes. I've just been looking now and there is a message saying "Downloading 246 of 2231 messages in INBOX", this has happened quite a few times. Why should this be happening? here is a recent Crash report, is this helpful ?

Mozilla Crash Reports Search Find Crash ID or Signature Sign in Quick Navigation Select Product Select Version: Report:Documentation | File a bug | Super Search Thunderbird 60.7.0 Crash Report [@ shutdownhang | NtYieldExecution ] Search Mozilla Support for this signature How to read this crash report ID: 22f94653-58a8-42ae-8c03-f27c20190525 Signature: shutdownhang | NtYieldExecution DetailsMetadataBugzillaModulesRaw DumpExtensionsTelemetry Environment Signature shutdownhang | NtYieldExecution More Reports Search UUID 22f94653-58a8-42ae-8c03-f27c20190525 Date Processed 2019-05-25 12:38:25 UTC Uptime 696 seconds (11 minutes and 36 seconds) Last Crash 359,504 seconds before submission (4 days, 3 hours and 51 minutes) Install Age 82,781 seconds since version was first installed (22 hours, 59 minutes and 41 seconds) Install Time 2019-05-24 13:35:07 Product Thunderbird Release Channel release Version 60.7.0 Build ID 20190517095026 (2019-05-17) Buildhub data OS Windows 10 OS Version 10.0.17763 Build Architecture x86 CPU Info GenuineIntel family 6 model 23 stepping 6 CPU Count 2 Adapter Vendor ID Intel Corporation (0x8086) Adapter Device ID Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (0x2a42) Startup Crash False MOZ_CRASH Reason (Sanitized) MOZ_CRASH(Shutdown hanging before starting.) Crash Reason EXCEPTION_BREAKPOINT Crash Address 0x11cb6aef Total Virtual Memory 2,147,352,576 bytes (2.15 GB) Available Virtual Memory 1,428,635,648 bytes (1.43 GB) Available Page File 1,693,863,936 bytes (1.69 GB) Available Physical Memory 293,249,024 bytes (293.25 MB) System Memory Use Percentage 85 EMCheckCompatibility False App Notes AdapterVendorID: 0x8086, AdapterDeviceID: 0x2a42, AdapterSubsysID: 20e417aa, AdapterDriverVersion: 8.15.10.2702 FP(D10-L1100-W00001000-T000) DWrite? DWrite+ WR? WR- OMTP? OMTP+ Processor Notes processor_ip-172-31-42-30_us-west-2_compute_internal_7; ProcessorPipeline Crashing Thread (0) Frame Module Signature Source Trust 0 ntdll.dll KiFastSystemCallRet context 1 ntdll.dll NtYieldExecution cfi 2 user32.dll PeekMessageW cfi 3 xul.dll mozilla::HangMonitor::IsUIMessageWaiting xpcom/threads/HangMonitor.cpp:339 cfi 4 xul.dll mozilla::HangMonitor::NotifyActivity(mozilla::HangMonitor::ActivityType) xpcom/threads/HangMonitor.cpp:351 cfi 5 xul.dll nsThread::ProcessNextEvent(bool, bool*) xpcom/threads/nsThread.cpp:912 cfi 6 nss3.dll SocketWrite nsprpub/pr/src/io/prsocket.c:727 scan 7 xul.dll NS_ProcessNextEvent(nsIThread*, bool) xpcom/threads/nsThreadUtils.cpp:455 cfi 8 xul.dll nsThread::Shutdown() xpcom/threads/nsThread.cpp:737 cfi 9 xul.dll mozilla::net::nsSocketTransportService::ShutdownThread() netwerk/base/nsSocketTransportService2.cpp:589 cfi 10 xul.dll mozilla::net::nsSocketTransportService::Shutdown(bool) netwerk/base/nsSocketTransportService2.cpp:575 cfi 11 xul.dll mozilla::net::nsIOService::SetOffline(bool) netwerk/base/nsIOService.cpp:1059 cfi 12 xul.dll mozilla::net::nsIOService::Observe(nsISupports*, char const*, char16_t const*) netwerk/base/nsIOService.cpp:1345 cfi 13 xul.dll nsObserverList::NotifyObservers(nsISupports*, char const*, char16_t const*) xpcom/ds/nsObserverList.cpp:99 cfi 14 xul.dll nsObserverService::NotifyObservers(nsISupports*, char const*, char16_t const*) xpcom/ds/nsObserverService.cpp:272 cfi 15 xul.dll nsXREDirProvider::DoShutdown() toolkit/xre/nsXREDirProvider.cpp:980 cfi 16 xul.dll ScopedXPCOMStartup::~ScopedXPCOMStartup() toolkit/xre/nsAppRunner.cpp:1390 cfi 17 xul.dll mozilla::DefaultDelete<ScopedXPCOMStartup>::operator()(ScopedXPCOMStartup*) mfbt/UniquePtr.h:482 cfi 18 xul.dll XREMain::XRE_main(int, char** const, mozilla::BootstrapConfig const&) toolkit/xre/nsAppRunner.cpp:4809 cfi 19 xul.dll XRE_main(int, char** const, mozilla::BootstrapConfig const&) toolkit/xre/nsAppRunner.cpp:4866 cfi 20 xul.dll mozilla::BootstrapImpl::XRE_main(int, char** const, mozilla::BootstrapConfig const&) toolkit/xre/Bootstrap.cpp:39 cfi Ø 21 thunderbird.exe thunderbird.exe@0x16f4 cfi Ø 22 thunderbird.exe thunderbird.exe@0x137d frame_pointer Ø 23 thunderbird.exe thunderbird.exe@0x19bf frame_pointer Ø 24 thunderbird.exe thunderbird.exe@0x2098f frame_pointer 25 kernel32.dll BaseThreadInitThunk frame_pointer 26 ntdll.dll __RtlUserThreadStart cfi 27 ntdll.dll _RtlUserThreadStart cfi Show other threads

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Mozilla Crash Reports Search Find Crash ID or Signature Sign in Quick Navigation Select Product Select Version: Report:Documentation | File a bug | Super Search Thunderbird 60.7.0 Crash Report [@ shutdownhang | NtYieldExecution ] Search Mozilla Support for this signature How to read this crash report ID: 22f94653-58a8-42ae-8c03-f27c20190525 Signature: shutdownhang | NtYieldExecution DetailsMetadataBugzillaModulesRaw DumpExtensionsTelemetry Environment Signature shutdownhang | NtYieldExecution More Reports Search UUID 22f94653-58a8-42ae-8c03-f27c20190525 Date Processed 2019-05-25 12:38:25 UTC Uptime 696 seconds (11 minutes and 36 seconds) Last Crash 359,504 seconds before submission (4 days, 3 hours and 51 minutes) Install Age 82,781 seconds since version was first installed (22 hours, 59 minutes and 41 seconds) Install Time 2019-05-24 13:35:07 Product Thunderbird Release Channel release Version 60.7.0 Build ID 20190517095026 (2019-05-17) Buildhub data OS Windows 10 OS Version 10.0.17763 Build Architecture x86 CPU Info GenuineIntel family 6 model 23 stepping 6 CPU Count 2 Adapter Vendor ID Intel Corporation (0x8086) Adapter Device ID Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (0x2a42) Startup Crash False MOZ_CRASH Reason (Sanitized) MOZ_CRASH(Shutdown hanging before starting.) Crash Reason EXCEPTION_BREAKPOINT Crash Address 0x11cb6aef Total Virtual Memory 2,147,352,576 bytes (2.15 GB) Available Virtual Memory 1,428,635,648 bytes (1.43 GB) Available Page File 1,693,863,936 bytes (1.69 GB) Available Physical Memory 293,249,024 bytes (293.25 MB) System Memory Use Percentage 85 EMCheckCompatibility False App Notes AdapterVendorID: 0x8086, AdapterDeviceID: 0x2a42, AdapterSubsysID: 20e417aa, AdapterDriverVersion: 8.15.10.2702 FP(D10-L1100-W00001000-T000) DWrite? DWrite+ WR? WR- OMTP? OMTP+ Processor Notes processor_ip-172-31-42-30_us-west-2_compute_internal_7; ProcessorPipeline Crashing Thread (0) Frame Module Signature Source Trust 0 ntdll.dll KiFastSystemCallRet context 1 ntdll.dll NtYieldExecution cfi 2 user32.dll PeekMessageW cfi 3 xul.dll mozilla::HangMonitor::IsUIMessageWaiting xpcom/threads/HangMonitor.cpp:339 cfi 4 xul.dll mozilla::HangMonitor::NotifyActivity(mozilla::HangMonitor::ActivityType) xpcom/threads/HangMonitor.cpp:351 cfi 5 xul.dll nsThread::ProcessNextEvent(bool, bool*) xpcom/threads/nsThread.cpp:912 cfi 6 nss3.dll SocketWrite nsprpub/pr/src/io/prsocket.c:727 scan 7 xul.dll NS_ProcessNextEvent(nsIThread*, bool) xpcom/threads/nsThreadUtils.cpp:455 cfi 8 xul.dll nsThread::Shutdown() xpcom/threads/nsThread.cpp:737 cfi 9 xul.dll mozilla::net::nsSocketTransportService::ShutdownThread() netwerk/base/nsSocketTransportService2.cpp:589 cfi 10 xul.dll mozilla::net::nsSocketTransportService::Shutdown(bool) netwerk/base/nsSocketTransportService2.cpp:575 cfi 11 xul.dll mozilla::net::nsIOService::SetOffline(bool) netwerk/base/nsIOService.cpp:1059 cfi 12 xul.dll mozilla::net::nsIOService::Observe(nsISupports*, char const*, char16_t const*) netwerk/base/nsIOService.cpp:1345 cfi 13 xul.dll nsObserverList::NotifyObservers(nsISupports*, char const*, char16_t const*) xpcom/ds/nsObserverList.cpp:99 cfi 14 xul.dll nsObserverService::NotifyObservers(nsISupports*, char const*, char16_t const*) xpcom/ds/nsObserverService.cpp:272 cfi 15 xul.dll nsXREDirProvider::DoShutdown() toolkit/xre/nsXREDirProvider.cpp:980 cfi 16 xul.dll ScopedXPCOMStartup::~ScopedXPCOMStartup() toolkit/xre/nsAppRunner.cpp:1390 cfi 17 xul.dll mozilla::DefaultDelete<ScopedXPCOMStartup>::operator()(ScopedXPCOMStartup*) mfbt/UniquePtr.h:482 cfi 18 xul.dll XREMain::XRE_main(int, char** const, mozilla::BootstrapConfig const&) toolkit/xre/nsAppRunner.cpp:4809 cfi 19 xul.dll XRE_main(int, char** const, mozilla::BootstrapConfig const&) toolkit/xre/nsAppRunner.cpp:4866 cfi 20 xul.dll mozilla::BootstrapImpl::XRE_main(int, char** const, mozilla::BootstrapConfig const&) toolkit/xre/Bootstrap.cpp:39 cfi Ø 21 thunderbird.exe thunderbird.exe@0x16f4 cfi Ø 22 thunderbird.exe thunderbird.exe@0x137d frame_pointer Ø 23 thunderbird.exe thunderbird.exe@0x19bf frame_pointer Ø 24 thunderbird.exe thunderbird.exe@0x2098f frame_pointer 25 kernel32.dll BaseThreadInitThunk frame_pointer 26 ntdll.dll __RtlUserThreadStart cfi 27 ntdll.dll _RtlUserThreadStart cfi Show other threads

Mozilla Crash Reports - Powered by Socorro - All dates are UTC Privacy Policy Community Participation Guidelines

How about posting the links to the crash reports you have submitted.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-crash-reporter-tb#w_viewing-crash-reports

This one appears to be https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/22f94653-58a8-42ae-8c03-f27c20190525

Which is linked the the bug report here https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1485802

However this report appears to be a shutdown hang which has no known cause or workaround. These shutdowns do have some fairly common causes other than bugs. The most common being an anti virus product. try restating your computer in safe mode with networking and see if the same issue occurs. But my guess is if you create an exception in your anti virus product fir the Thunderbird profile folder and it's sub folders than you will quite possibly see this issue disappear But that is little more than a guess.

Do you have a gmail account?

And related to your crash, have you set a Master Password in Thunderbird

Matt said

How about posting the links to the crash reports you have submitted. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-crash-reporter-tb#w_viewing-crash-reports This one appears to be https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/22f94653-58a8-42ae-8c03-f27c20190525 Which is linked the the bug report here https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1485802 However this report appears to be a shutdown hang which has no known cause or workaround. These shutdowns do have some fairly common causes other than bugs. The most common being an anti virus product. try restating your computer in safe mode with networking and see if the same issue occurs. But my guess is if you create an exception in your anti virus product fir the Thunderbird profile folder and it's sub folders than you will quite possibly see this issue disappear But that is little more than a guess.

I am using Windows defender and the problem has only recently started, so I doubt if it's to do with my anti virus

Wayne Mery said

Do you have a gmail account? And related to your crash, have you set a Master Password in Thunderbird

No, I have a talktalk email address. I've not set a master password in Thunderbird, not sure what this is and what effect it would have ?

I have had 3 possible replies and suggestions to my problem. All rather different, so it seems the crash report is of little use with this. I still think there is corruption of my emails in their folders. Is there some kind of health check I can run on them to see if they are ok ?

Toad-Hall said

re :i have submitted my crash reports to Thunderbird a number of times, but no one has come back to me with any help. submitting crash reports assists the developers. When a load of crash reports are reporting the same issue, it tells them something is seriously wrong. The developers and bug fixers are never going to contact you as they have no idea who you are and they are fixing bugs. However, it might be of some help if you posted those reports in this forum question. You can find them under: Help > Troubleshooting information Crash reports copy paste the info. re : It keeps asking me if I want to compact folders You should be compacting Inbox, Drafts and Junk on a regular basis. I do it manually at the end of each day as I delete quite a few emails. Emails are downloaded to the Inbox and stored in mbox files. mbox files are text files. So each email is written one after the other in the order downloaded. So everything in Inbox is in one text file. When you delete an email, it gets hidden and 'marked as deleted', so it still in the file. If you delete in error, then the action can be reversed. When you compact the folder, those hidden 'marked as deleted' emails are removed from the mbox text file. This tidies up the file and saves space. It is necessary to compact to maintain a healthy Thunderbird. Compacting can be done manually or you can set an auto compact when it will save more than eg: 2MB. It sounds like you are seeing this auto message to compact folders to save space. However, if the mbox files are corrupted then you could lose emails. Make a backup now as a precaution.

• Exit Thunderbird
• Access : C:\Users\<Windows user name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
• Copy the Thunderbird folder to an external hardrive or usb of suitable size.

Start Thunderbird. Suggest you compact each folder manually because when you compact a folder, a duplicate is created first. If your text files have become huge then it might be a problem copying all of them in the same location.

• Right click on 'Drafts' folder in Folder Pane and select 'Compact'

• Empty the Junk - right click on Junk/spam and select 'Empty Junk'
• Right click on 'Junk' /'Spam' folder in Folder Pane and select 'Compact'

Normally, you do not need to empty the Inbox prior to compacting, but as it seems you have not done regular compacting, as a precaution on this occasion, I recommend you do.

• Move all wanted good emails out of 'Inbox' into other suitable folders for organising and storage.
• Delete any you do not want.

When Inbox is empty:

• Right click on 'Inbox' folder in Folder Pane and select 'Compact'

Info on compacting and keeping a healthy Thunderbird:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_working_%28Thunderbird%29
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders

Compacting folders should help with performance. But if you have an Anti-Virus program scanning everything then it will cause things to slow down.

How could compacting save me 7 GB ? And it sometimes fails in the middle saying that another operation is in progress. can you tell me why RB keeps repeating the download of messages ? Typical message "Downloading message 246 of 2233 in INBOX", there should be no need to keep downloading them, unless an index file is corrupted?

re:How could compacting save me 7 GB ?

I've already explained this. If your folders have a load of marked as deleted emails then your files will be much bigger than they should be. If they are too big then compacting could be effected because a duplicate of file needs to be created and you may not have that space available, hence the advise to do it manually per folder in order specified rather than compacting all folders at once.

Emails are downloaded to the Inbox and stored in mbox files. mbox files are text files. So each email is written one after the other in the order downloaded. So everything in Inbox is in one text file. When you delete an email, it gets hidden and 'marked as deleted', so it still in the file. When you compact the folder, those hidden 'marked as deleted' emails are removed from the mbox text file. This tidies up the file and saves space. It is necessary to compact to maintain a healthy Thunderbird.

I then advised you to stop your Anti-Virus from scanning Thunderbird folders.

Then I suggested the manual method of compacting folders in a specific order.

Have you done as advised?

Will you please post the crash report info as advised so we can check what it says.

At the moment TB is prompting me regularly to compact my folders, when I do so it seems to either run quickly to end or it says that it cannot compact because another operation is already running. It gives no clue as to what this operation is? About 6 months ago I tried to move a lot of messages out to a folder called 2018, but this never seemed to work and no messages were moved, so I don't think that I can empty the Inbox at present. If you like at the 2 other replies that I've had these seem to offer different advice to yours. Can you explain this? Finally, yes I have posted the crash report 3 days ago, it is there below your first post.

I have plenty of space on my hard drive. My inbox is around 1 Gb, not a large file by today's standards

re: My inbox is around 1 Gb, not a large file by today's standards.

It's getting large for a single text file containing alot of emails which are probably important to you.

The other two replies mentioned Anti-virus which I also recommended you stop it scanning Thunderbird files because it could be causing an issue.

Is the mail account Pop or Imap ?

1. Isn't it important that my anti-virus should be keeping an email on incoming emails? I hesitate to remove this checking. As I said, I have been using TB for around a year now and the crashing has only started recently, I have used Windows defender all this time, why should start causing an issue only about 4 weeks ago? 2. I Use IMap. 3. I have also got Local folders which are the result of important emails from a previous Outlook email system. Could these be causing problems ? They are about 3 GB at present. 4. I will try and compact each folder one at a time (after backing up thunderbird).

d.gaussen said

1. Isn't it important that my anti-virus should be keeping an email on incoming emails?

No

I hesitate to remove this checking.

Lots of people are hesitant, but they have also never questioned the line of rubbish the anti virus companies peddle. AN email is a text file. Exactly what bad things happen when you download a text file? or what happens when you store it on your computer? Nothing bad certainly.

About 20 years ago email programs like Microsoft outlook and outlook express executed scripts in the body of the email in the process of "opening them" so you could "catch" something bad by opening the mail. Not because the mail was bad, the mail program was. Thunderbird does not execute those scripts.

Certainly you can get an infection from an attachment. But you can get an infection from a document on a USB dive. The exact same part of your anti virus that scans the document when you open it also scans your attachments when you open them.

As I said, I have been using TB for around a year now and the crashing has only started recently, I have used Windows defender all this time, why should start causing an issue only about 4 weeks ago?

It might not be the problem, but it has to be eliminated. BTW windows defender does not scan incoming email. So this discussion is really rather a moot point. Defender is also not really sufficient in the way of an anti virus on it's own. Or so I am told.

2. I Use IMap. 3. I have also got Local folders which are the result of important emails from a previous Outlook email system. Could these be causing problems ? They are about 3 GB at present.

It is unlikely that stable folders that are not written to or deleted from will suddenly cause a problem. Not impossible, but it would be at the bottom of my list of suspect things to look at. Having said that compacting will not make it worse and might make it better.

4. I will try and compact each folder one at a time (after backing up thunderbird).

Good idea.

Do you have a stable internet connection? My observation on my own rubbish one is that IMAP does at time all download again when the internet connection is dodgy or if you compact or repair a folder and are using the developmental maildir Mail storage format.

Your symptoms are many. Starting in Windows safe mode is a solid starting point because it is dead easy, and it effectively eliminates several possible causes.

Thanks for your comments which I found very helpful. I will try and follow these and see what happens. I'll look up how to exempt my thunderbird email from Windows defender and see if this helps matters. My internet connection connection is generally good, but I am connecting to talktalk email which often seems slow to respond when I use it via Webmail.

Good God....you guys are spot on in suggesting an issue with anti-virus!! I've exempted my Thunderbird folder and there is an immediate improvement! It is now responding quickly to accessing messages...it's early days....will see how it goes.

You don't need to fiddle with AV. Just start Windows in safe mode - win10 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode