1897012 - Thunderbird always freezes with spinning beachball when checking for new mail with (pop)

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: General, defect, P2)

Description

[David]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.14; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0

Steps to reproduce:

Nothing. Running a MacPro 5.1, OS 10.14.6, 128G RAM

Actual results:

Whenever Thunderbird automatically checks for new mail, Thunderbird freezes (becomes unresponsive) with a spinning beachball until new mail is downloaded.

Expected results:

Normal operation while checking and downloading new mail.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

pop or imap?

Comment 2

[David]

pop

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Please

• Start Windows in safe mode with networking enabled - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode
• Still In Windows safe mode, start Thunderbird in Troubleshoot Mode - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-mode-thunderbird

Does problem change?

Comment 4

[David]

Please look at the description. Not on Windows! On Mac OS 10.14.6
This is a fairly recently introduced bug. Last several months or more. I can't remember exactly. I have been using Thunderbird for many years and this was never a problem until recently. Sorry, I should have noted which version of Thunderbird introduced this bug but I somehow thought it would be seen by many and quickly corrected. It wasn't.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Thanks for the info. Best to give your exact version when reporting, and not assume others have or can see your problem.

Please check - is it better if you do not have the Inbox selected in the UI?

Comment 6

[David]

Thunderbird 115.10.1 current version, however the problem began several versions before.
When I manually check for new mail via "Get Messages", I don't see the problem happening, perhaps that might be because when I manually check for new mail there is usually not much mail to get. Biggest problem is when first opening Thunderbird and it automatically checks for new mail, that's when the program freezes with a spinning beach ball.

Comment 7

[David]

Thunderbird freezes when "checking inbox for new mail", which can typically take 30 seconds or much more when first opening the program. As soon as Thunderbird starts to download the new e-mails, it unfreezes.

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Please check - is it better if you do not have the Inbox selected in the UI?

Thanks for the info. But let me rephrase because what we need to know is EXACTLY this, if the Inbox is NOT displayed do you see the crappy performance?

In other words, if you select some folder other than Inbox when you shut down, when you restart and new mail is being downloaded but the Inbox is not displayed does it beach ball?

Comment 9

[David]

It does not matter whether inbox or any other folder is selected on the UI, the freezer still occurs when automatically checking inbox for new mail.

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Excellent. Couple more variations, please try with status bar disabled. And any calendars disabled.

If it occurs, please create a performance profile during startup using https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiling-thunderbird-performance - the last section points to details about how to do this for startups. Do this with status bar disabled, calendars disabled, and Inbox not selected during startup.

TIA

Comment 11

[David]

Still occurs with status bar disabled and I do not use calendars.
Since the problem occurs when first opening Thunderbird and it checks for new mail, it will not be possible to open the toolbox in time to catch the freezing behavior because it will already be froze! Unless there's another way to do it?

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiling-thunderbird-performance - the last section points to details about how to do this for startups => https://profiler.firefox.com/docs/#/./guide-startup-shutdown

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #12)

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiling-thunderbird-performance - the last section points to details about how to do this for startups => https://profiler.firefox.com/docs/#/./guide-startup-shutdown

Belay that. May as well wait for version 128 in July, which has pop and other improvements.

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Please check version 128 late(r) this week and report results. Thanks.

Comment 15

[David]

Since I am running Mac OS 10.14.6, I cannot install version 128. I am running Thunderbird 115.12.2, which still has the problem, and is up to date for my OS version. Ugh!

Comment 16

[David]

How about applying the "Get new messages" pop improvements of Thunderbird 128 to Thunderbird 115.12.x, or making Thunderbird 128 work with Mac OS 10.14? I cannot update OS right now. Thunderbird used to work just fine--for years! Some help please!

Comment 17

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to David from comment #16)

How about applying the "Get new messages" pop improvements of Thunderbird 128 to Thunderbird 115.12.x,

Bug 1883760 is on 115.

Bug 1893307 and bug 1847137 are not on 115 and are unlikely to come to 115. The later states a workaround at bug 1847137 comment 33. Does changing your accounts help?

or making Thunderbird 128 work with Mac OS 10.14?

Apple support ended 3 years ago. This for sure isn't happening.

Comment 18

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Also, how many messages in your Inbox in Thunderbird?

Comment 19

[David]

How did Thunderbird get broken? This bug started less than a year ago. Was never there before.

Comment 20

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to David from comment #19)

How did Thunderbird get broken? This bug started less than a year ago. Was never there before.

The bugs I cited where caused by other patches. But the most important item for you is, does bug 1847137 comment 33 help your situation?

Comment 21

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

David, does bug 1847137 comment 33 help your situation?

Comment 22

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

And...

How many pop accounts?
Using Unified Folders mode?

Comment 23

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I doubt this would be Mac-specific

Comment 24

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Until we have more information, this is incomplete