Revisiting Assembling Message Issue
Currently using Windows 10, 22H2, Thunderbird 115.12.2. This PC has been working fine since it was built approximately January of this year, 2024. I have not installed any new software or made any major changes for several months. I'm using Bitdefender Total Security. Recently I started noticing this issue with Thunderbird (I've been using as long as it's been out.)
When composing a message, I now see on a regular basis at the lower left of the message window "Assembling message......." or "Assembling message......... Done". Thunderbird does not crash. If I continue to compose and send, the message always sends. So I'm not having the error some others have had in the past. But it does look like the message I'm typing may be having issues being put into the Drafts folder while it's being composed. That seems to be the only operation happening when the message appears.
I have seen this past week the messages sending and being placed into the Sent folder but there have been at least two messages identical to the ones sent that are still in Drafts and are not deleted after being sent. So whatever is going on seems to be a bug with the saving of the draft and then cleaning out Drafts after the message is sent. Note these are text only messages and I did not change any settings in Thunderbird after updating last week.
While Bitdefender updates on a regular basis and Thunderbird notifies me of updates when they are available (same with Firefox), those are the only items being updated so it seems something is going on. I am going to assume this is an issue with Thunderbird for the time being since nothing else has changed. I've gone through tips noted for those having errors sending messages when they get the Assembling message notification but I don't get any errors. Just a weirdness with the Drafts folder.
In the interest of safety, I don't want to turn off AV to test anything. I've also compacted folders to no avail. Seems that notification keeps coming back.
Any additional help would be appreciated.
All Replies (3)
Do you have an exception in bit defender to prevent it scanning in the Thunderbird profile folder while the program is running?
One of the greatest points of failure in Thunderbird is not getting access to its own files when it seeks them because some lumbering dinosaur of an antivirus is scanning at its leisure. Removing the point of failure is all most folk require for a trouble free experience.
Matt,
No, I did not have that folder as an exception (a bit scary due to e-mail being a dodgy vector for malware and viruses to get right in) but I'll set that up and see how it goes for a day or two and let you know.
Note that Bitdefender did add an anti-spam filter to Thunderbird (I OK'd it) but it's currently disabled as I try to determine what's going on and may remove it as T'bird does a decent job on its own on dropping garbage into the junk folder.
Give me a day or two to test this suggestion and I'll let you know if this worked or not.
I should search for this but do you know off hand if T'bird has a log that shows what it's doing when "Assembling message....." is running and if it's catching some issue on its own?
Thanks!
Modified
Matt,
It's been several days and I have not experienced the issue but I'm not convinced it was due to Bitdefender 100%. Looks like part of the issue might have been a POP server configuration mismatch somehow (settings on my end were not changed but maybe my e-mail provider had some change) and I re-created my POP account in Thunderbird and everything is working OK for the time being and I have not seen the "Assembling message" prompt anymore.
So I'll leave it as is for now and see how it goes. Due to the re-creation of the POP account at the same time I excluded Bitdefender per your suggestion, I can't say which is the "solution" to my problem so I'll not yet mark your reply as a solution. In a couple weeks I'll remove the exception and see if the issue returns. If so, I'll know you were correct and I'll mark it as a solution.
Thanks!