1206467 - Thunderbird constantly stops responding and uses 2GB of memory.

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[cverderame1766g]

Attachment: Thunderbird Logs.log

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:40.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/40.0
Build ID: 20150826023504

Steps to reproduce:

I just start Thunderbird.  I have Thunderbird start on Windows 7 startup.  I have started Windows in safe mode with networking, have compacted all mailboxes, have disabled antivirus and have disabled firewall.  I even disabled automatic checking of servers for mail.  I first noticed Thunderbird unresponsiveness in version 38.2.0. I uninstalled 38.2.0 and installed version 38.1.  Lastly, I tried beta version 41.0b2.


Actual results:

With everything I tried, Thunderbird continued to be unresponsive for long periods of time, having a cloudy look to it when unresponsive and you click into it. When Thunderbird is responsive, it's only for a handful of seconds.


Expected results:

Thunderbird should not be unresponsive. Attached is a file containing msgdb, imap and pop3 logs that I created.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

How big are the .msf files for your two largest active folders (including trash)?

Comment 2

[cverderame1766g]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk, use Needinfo for questions) from comment #1)
> How big are the .msf files for your two largest active folders (including
> trash)?

My profile has 6 imap mail accounts and 2 pop3 accounts.

Do you mean these places?

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail
imap.googlemail.com.msf = 2kb
imap.googlemail-1.com.msf = 2kb
imap.googlemail-2.com.msf = 2kb
imap.googlemail-3.com.msf = 2kb
imap.googlemail-4.com.msf = 2kb
imap.googlemail-5.com.msf = 2kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail.com\[Gmail].sbd
All Mail.msf = 982kb
Drafts.msf = 4kb
Important.msf = 385kb
Sent Mail.msf = 57kb
Spam.msf = 3kb
Starred.msf = 6kb
Trash.msf = 7kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail-1.com\[Gmail].sbd
All Mail.msf = 62kb
Drafts.msf = 4kb
Important.msf = 16kb
Sent Mail.msf = 7kb
Spam.msf = 3kb
Starred.msf = 3kb
Trash.msf = 5kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail-2.com\[Gmail].sbd
All Mail.msf = 5kb
Drafts.msf = 3kb
Important.msf = 4kb
Sent Mail.msf = 3kb
Spam.msf = 3kb
Starred.msf = 3kb
Trash.msf = 5kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail-3.com\[Gmail].sbd
All Mail.msf = 802kb
Drafts.msf = 4kb
Important.msf = 286kb
Sent Mail.msf = 14kb
Spam.msf = 3kb
Starred.msf = 7kb
Trash.msf = 7kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail-4.com\[Gmail].sbd
All Mail.msf = 89kb
Drafts.msf = 3kb
Important.msf = 22kb
Sent Mail.msf = 3kb
Spam.msf = 3kb
Starred.msf = 3kb
Trash.msf = 17kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail-5.com\[Gmail].sbd
All Mail.msf = 112kb
Drafts.msf = 3kb
Important.msf = 28kb
Sent Mail.msf = 3kb
Spam.msf = 3kb
Starred.msf = 4kb
Trash.msf = 4kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\Mail\juno.com
Inbox.msf = 4kb
Sent.msf = 3kb
Trash.msf = 2kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\Mail\pop3.netzero.com
Archives.msf = 0kb
Drafts.msf = 3kb
Inbox.msf = 272kb
Sent.msf = 22kb
Trash.msf = 2kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\Mail\smart mailboxes
Archives.msf = 3kb
Drafts.msf = 3kb
Inbox.msf = 3kb
Junk.msf = 2kb
Sent.msf = 3kb
Trash.msf = 4kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\Mail\Local Folders
ca2c125a.msf = 3kb = 13kb
GMail Archives.msf = 3kb
Juno Archives.msf = 2kb
NetZero Archives.msf = 3kb
Trash.msf = 27kb
Unsent Messages.msf = 3kb
Yahoo!.msf = 16kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\Mail\Local Folders\GMail Archives.sbd
Gmail Archives - CVerderame.msf = 3kb
Gmail Archives - CVerderamePublicG.msf = 3kb
Gmail Archives - CVerderameRecoveryG.msf = 2kb
Gmail Archives - HSVerderame.msf = 2kb
Gmail Archives - JVerderame.msf = 2kb
Gmail Archives - PCVerderame.msf = 3kb

Yhank you.

Comment 3

[:aceman]

Some of the .msf files are particularly small (like 3Kb), e.g. the Gmail archives. Are those folders really empty?

Also, you show contents of the *.sbd folders. What about the top level folders, like C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail.com (not [Gmail].sbd) ? What .msf files are there?

Comment 4

[cverderame1766g]

(In reply to :aceman from comment #3)
> Some of the .msf files are particularly small (like 3Kb), e.g. the Gmail
> archives. Are those folders really empty?
> 
> Also, you show contents of the *.sbd folders. What about the top level
> folders, like
> C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.
> default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail.com (not [Gmail].sbd) ? What .msf files are
> there?

Forgive me for not being able to constantly work on getting this issue fixed.  With the Saints game yesterday I could not respond sooner.  The Gmail archives, which are for archiving my Gmail accounts, are empty, since I have not done any archiving yet.  Of the Gmail accounts, two have over 700 e-mails, 1 under 200 and 3 under 100.  The Juno pop3 account is very small and the NetZero pop3 account has under 1000 e-mails.  The pop3 accounts are still active, but I do not use them.  I do not keep new or old mail from the pop3 accounts online.  Most new mail from the pop3 accounts is deleted, if not saved in Thunderbird.  I am thinking about getting rid of those pop3 accounts.  When I get home from work today, I will send a list of the contents of the top level folders, to include both .msf and non-.msf files.

Thank you.

Comment 5

[cverderame1766g]

The contents of the top level folders are as follows.

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail.com
[Gmail].msf = 3kb
Drafts.msf = 0kb
INBOX = 194,840kb
INBOX.msf = 1,254kb
msgFilterRules.dat = 1kb
Templates.msf = 0kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail-1.com
[Gmail].msf = 3kb
Drafts.msf = 0kb
INBOX = 1,208kb
INBOX.msf = 81kb
msgFilterRules.dat = 1kb
Templates.msf = 0kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail-2.com
[Gmail].msf = 3kb
Drafts.msf = 2kb
INBOX = 244kb
INBOX.msf = 7kb
msgFilterRules.dat = 1kb
Templates.msf = 0kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail-3.com
[Gmail].msf = 2kb
Archives.msf = 2kb
Drafts.msf = 2kb
INBOX = 37,250kb
INBOX.msf = 1,089kb
msgFilterRules.dat = 1kb
Sent.msf = 2kb
Templates.msf = 2kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail-4.com
[Gmail].msf = 3kb
Archives.msf = 2kb
Drafts.msf = 2kb
INBOX = 4,220kb
INBOX.msf = 148kb
msgFilterRules.dat = 1kb
Sent.msf = 2kb
Templates.msf = 2kb

C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ow47tktz.default\ImapMail\imap.googlemail-5.com
[Gmail].msf = 2kb
Archives.msf = 2kb
Drafts.msf = 2kb
INBOX = 3,190kb
INBOX.msf = 161kb
msgFilterRules.dat = 1kb
Sent.msf = 2kb
Templates.msf = 2kb

Thank you.

Comment 6

[:aceman]

Thanks. I do not see anything extraordinary in the folder sizes. If you had around 4,000,000 KB (4GB) that would be another matter.

Do you also see the slowness if you toggle TB into offline mode (the icon in the status bar) ?

Comment 7

[cverderame1766g]

(In reply to :aceman from comment #6)
> Thanks. I do not see anything extraordinary in the folder sizes. If you had
> around 4,000,000 KB (4GB) that would be another matter.
> 
> Do you also see the slowness if you toggle TB into offline mode (the icon in
> the status bar) ?

Yes.  And, when I go offline, TB asks if I want to download messages first.  I click yes and it looks like TB is downloading every message from every mail account.  At the bottom of TB, I see [e-mail] 209 of 965.  I have TB set, in the "Message Synchronizing" settings for each account, to
1. Keep messages for this account on this computer.
2. Synchronize all messages locally regardless of age.
3. Don't delete any messages.
4. Always keep starred messages.
So, why would TB need to download all messages?  Or, maybe, I did not have to tell TB Yes, download messages before going offline, because the messages were already downloaded.

I don't know if this is related to my TB slowness.  But, in some of my Gmail accounts, there are messages in the All Mail folder that are not in any of the account's other folders, Inbox, Sent, Trash, etc.  I think this may be happening with Trash, because sometimes when I delete mail from TB, the mail does not seem to get sent to "Trash", even though I have all accounts setup in TB to move deleted items to "Trash".  I do not have "Clean up ("Expunge") Inbox on Exit" or "Empty Trash on Exit" selected for any of the accounts.  The way I would like deleting items in TB to work is.
1. I delete an item from Inbox, Sent Mail or another folder that is not Trash.
2. The deleted item is moved to Trash and remains in Trash until I manually delete it from Trash.
3. I manually delete the item from Trash and the item is removed from Gmail and TB.

Thank you.

Comment 8

[:aceman]

Also in the log you have a lot of fetches of messages from the server.
But I do not know much about IMAP and Gmail to judge why TB is doing this.
Do you have some virtual folders (saved searches) defined on those folders?

Comment 9

[cverderame1766g]

(In reply to :aceman from comment #8)
> Also in the log you have a lot of fetches of messages from the server.
> But I do not know much about IMAP and Gmail to judge why TB is doing this.
> Do you have some virtual folders (saved searches) defined on those folders?

After working on this for the past six days, I got Thunderbird's memory usage down to around 125MB.  I think my problems with Thunderbird were caused by my profile getting corrupted somehow and not some sort of bug.

What did not work was
1. Compacting every mail folder.
2. Deleting .msf files from my profile.
3. Starting Windows in safe mode with or without networking.
4. Changing account settings and Thunderbird settings, that should have reduced memory usage and improved Thunderbird performance.  This made things worse.  Thunderbird would use at least 3GB of memory before crashing.
5. Removing all accounts from my profile.

What worked was
1. Backing up my profile folder.
2. Uninstalling Thunderbird.
3. Deleting the Thunderbird program folder and my profile.
4. Reinstalling Thunderbird.
5. Copying the local folders backed up from my previous profile folder, minus any .msf files.

Initial memory usage after the reinstall was around 89MB, around 125M after adding local folders and accounts.

I was hoping my Thunderbird problems could be fixed without a reinstall, but ultimately that's what worked.

Thanks everyone for your help.