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Ever since I upgraded to Windows 10 Thunderbird occasionally freezes when I am deleting emails. How can I fix this annoying problem?

  • 14 replies
  • 9 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by christ1

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I have not seen my exact problem in this forum. Thunderbird seems to work generally well until I start to delete some messages and then it just freezes. It takes about 5 minutes before it is working again. I can send and receive messages just fine. It just seems to be a problem when deleting emails. Please help!

I have not seen my exact problem in this forum. Thunderbird seems to work generally well until I start to delete some messages and then it just freezes. It takes about 5 minutes before it is working again. I can send and receive messages just fine. It just seems to be a problem when deleting emails. Please help!

All Replies (14)

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What is your anti-virus software?

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Try to start Windows in safe mode with networking enabled. - Win10 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/change-startup-settings-in-windows-10#v1h=tab01

Still in Windows safe mode, start Thunderbird in safe mode. - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/safe-mode

Does the problem go away?

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Before I do this can you please tell me what good it would do? I don't usually operate my PC in safe mode. What does it change by doing this? Thanks.

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It disables certain software which is started automatically in normal mode, such as anti-virus software. The idea is to verify whether anti-virus software is messing with Thunderbird.

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I tried what you suggested and it appears to work fine in Safe Mode. Now what do I do?

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Windows safe mode disables anti-virus software, which is most likely the culprit.

Create an exception in your anti-virus software for the Thunderbird profile folder, so that the anti-virus real-time scanner will not scan it. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

Don't let your anti-virus software scan incoming and outgoing messages.

Don't let your anti-virus software scan attachments.

Don't let your anti-virus software intercept your secure connection to the server.

Remove any add-ons your anti-virus software may have installed in Thunderbird.

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I would prefer it if Mozilla was able to figure out the problem and fix it from their end so that I wouldn't have to jump through all of these hoops. Why did Thunderbird work perfectly fine with Windows 7? I was using the same anti-virus software then.

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The problem isn't caused by Thunderbird but by anti-virus software messing with Thunderbird mail files. Feel free to complain to AVG. You're the one with the problem. You asked a question, and you got an answer. I'm sorry if you don't like the answer. Good luck.

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OK. I'll try that approach. Wish me luck. Thanks for your help.

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I'm back with the same problem. I uninstalled AVG free and am relying on Windows Defender as my anti-virus program instead. But I am still having the "freeze" issues that I had before. What to do now?

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The link that you provided shows me how to locate my Thunderbird "profile" folder. However, I'm still not clear how to make my anti-virus software make an exception or allow the email to work. A step-by-step process would be more useful than the link that you provided. Sorry.

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Please contact Microsoft or ask in a Microsoft forum.