1906482 - TB 115/128 (Ubuntu) with very large folders (631315 messages) constantly freezes scrolling message list or message pane, or when composing a message.

Status: REOPENED

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Rich Wales]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/126.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Steps to reproduce:

TB 115.12.2 (64-bit), Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS (GNU/Linux 6.5.0-42-lowlatency x86_64).

TB is repeatedly, sporadically freezing for anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or longer, regardless of what I'm doing -- when I am scrolling through the message list header or the message pane, or when composing a message.

Unable to reproduce on demand, but it keeps happening if I wait a while.

This has been going on for a very long time (I believe it started after I upgraded from TB 68 to the more recent versions).

Fast and capable hardware (home-built desktop; AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-core; 32GB RAM; 32GB swap file on a 2TB M.2 SSD).

Only one account configured in TB: IMAP account hosted on a separate Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS box (the IMAP server and the desktop running TB are on the same, fast, highly reliable home LAN).

Five add-ons (Phoenity Buttons, Phoenity Icons, Previous Colors, Signature Switch, and Textmarker). THE FREEZING PROBLEM STILL HAPPENS EVEN IF I RUN TB WITH ALL ADD-ONS DISABLED.

I am not running any antivirus program. Again, this is an Ubuntu (Linux) system.

I'm using a "low-latency" Linux kernel, but the freezing problem persists.

I've tried using the error console, but I haven't seen any messages that would appear to be associated with the freeze events.

I'm not accessing TB via my browser, so I have no idea why my browser's user agent string should matter, but just in case there's some obscure reason why you're insisting on it, here it is:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/126.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Actual results:

See above — TB repeatedly, sporadically freezes, then unfreezes, then freezes again after a while, over and over again.

Expected results:

Shouldn't freeze!

Comment 1

[Rich Wales]

I upgraded yesterday (Wed. 18 Jul. 2024) to TB 128.0esr (64-bit), but I am still experiencing the freezing problem.

It seems to happen mainly when TB is downloading messages from a couple of huge folders on my IMAP server. At the moment, TB has messages showing along the bottom of the window, like this:

Home: Downloading message 229471 of 631315 in Routine...

Should I update this bug for TB 128? Or should I open a new bug?

Comment 2

[Rich Wales]

I went into the "Subscribe" function and unsubscribed from the two huge folders (which I don't really need to access very often anyway). I then restarted TB 128. The freezing problem appears to have been worked around, at least for the moment.

I would propose that the bug is still there and should still be addressed, because accessing a folder in this way should not cause a freeze or deadlock to the entire application, and I might need to go back and refer to one of these huge folders someday.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Should I update this bug for TB 128? Or should I open a new bug?

Using the same bug is best. However, please keep version at the earliest known occurrence.

Comment 4

[John Crisp]

Exactly the same issues on 115.x ever since I upgraded to it.

Current 115.13.0 64 bit
HP Z840 2 x 16 core + 64Gb RAM - not exactly slow.
Ubuntu 22.04
PPA deb install

Around 25 IMAP accounts of varying sizes including a couple of Gmail accounts

Worked perfectly prior to Supernova.

Oddly I have an identical box to this and it has zero issues. But it has less IMAP accounts - under 10.

I've tried numerous times to compare and contrast with no results.

There appears to be no rhyme or reason to the freeze. It just goes to 100+% on one core and sits there.

Makes TB almost unworkable.

Happily debug further if someone gives directions.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

possible matches

• https://mzl.la/4e0u1ZS
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1457191

Please create a performance profile https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiling-thunderbird-performance.

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

John, Rich,

A performance profile https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiling-thunderbird-performance will be helpful.

Comment 7

[John Crisp]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #6)

A performance profile https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiling-thunderbird-performance will be helpful.

Yup.

Trying to make some time.

Still occurring on 115.15

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Rich, we're now at version 128, where some users have found relief.

Can you update and reply by Dec 1?

Comment 9

[John Crisp]

Ha - just upgraded to 128.4.2esr (64-bit)

Started it, cleared the annoying 'celebration' web tab and it promptly locked up again.

I have been trying to get some logs but it is difficult as it happens so randomly.

Got it back, been going through my accounts marking folders as read and it has just happened again.

Tried logging - spent 10 minutes trying with the logger, and nothing. Arrrggghh.

Turned the logger off, and voila. Locked again.

It does seem to happen quite often shortly after startup. Cna it be run in debug mode from the get go with a CLI switch?

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

It does seem to happen quite often shortly after startup. Cna it be run in debug mode from the get go with a CLI switch?

John, I think you should file your own bug report. Everything available is documented at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Memory_Usage_Problems

Comment 11

[John Crisp]

John, I think you should file your own bug report.

I can but it will just be a clone to 128?

The original OP mentioned being subscribed to some large folder - that's me too but I have quite a few with archives etc - so no idea which ones to unsubscribe, and in any event I shouldn't have too. The symptoms seem identical.

Numbers should be used for memory, cpu, time duration, folders, messages - not vague words like fast, slow, small, large.

Workstation as detailed above.

List account types (imap, pop, rss, etc) from Help | More Troubleshooting Info.

24 IMAP accounts - varying quantities of folders and mails. Be handy to have a tool to summarise this with folder & message counts.
2 RSS feeds low traffic

State precisely when the behavior occurs (startup, shutdown, or "normal operation"), and every step (action, menu click, ...) needed to reproduce the problem.

Startup, usually and then any other time it feels like it with no rhyme or reason. The hardest part is trying to get it to do it. It is so random.

Document the diagnosis step numbers that you tested, and which helped or didn't.

Usual safe mode, disable extensions (2 nextcloud and DKIM verifier)

Only possible issues I see in the error console

S_ERROR_FAILURE: Couldn't decrypt string 2 crypto-SDR.sys.mjs:197
decrypt resource://gre/modules/crypto-SDR.sys.mjs:197
_decryptLogins resource://gre/modules/storage-json.sys.mjs:1032
findLogins resource://gre/modules/storage-json.sys.mjs:788
findLogins resource://gre/modules/LoginManager.sys.mjs:469

Failed to enumerate sessionStorage for host about:message: [Exception... "Component is not available" nsresult: "0x80040111 (NS_ERROR_NOT_AVAILABLE)" location: "JS frame :: resource://devtools/server/actors/resources/storage/local-and-session-storage.js :: populateStoresForHost :: line 79" data: no]

Just started in 'Troubleshooting mode' and locks on startup with 1 CPU at 100%

VmPeak: 19415928 kB
VmSize: 3973852 kB
VmLck: 0 kB
VmPin: 0 kB
VmHWM: 1365036 kB
VmRSS: 1280912 kB
RssAnon: 1098068 kB
RssFile: 166056 kB
RssShmem: 16788 kB
VmData: 1397800 kB
VmStk: 156 kB
VmExe: 608 kB
VmLib: 147652 kB
VmPTE: 3796 kB
VmSwap: 0 kB
HugetlbPages: 0 kB
CoreDumping: 0
THP_enabled: 1
Threads: 90

Screen shots can be helpful.

Thunderbird in a locked up state just now.

https://ibb.co/M6RJKFC

As a user of TB for a long time I know most of the tricks for keeping it in a usable state - primarily because it is often so flaky.
Usual stuff like trying to keep IMAP folder under 10,000 etc etc

I've had a consistent setup for a long time.

Worked perfectly prior to Supernova.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I can't trap it in your error console. Tried often, never succeeded yet. I don't have time to do that all day.

If there is a way I can do it via the command line on Linux then let me know and I will try.

Comment 12

[John Crisp]

Ahhh - think I have finally caught it.

Just trying to save & upload a profile.

https://imgur.com/screenshot-TCm1M5M

Comment 13

[John Crisp]

Try this

https://share.firefox.dev/4fUhjgx

Comment 14

[rsbrux]

I have similar problems since the update to 128.5 (flatpak), but I don't have such large folders.
I have only 7 e-mail accounts and my largest folder (a GWS Inbox) is less than 10k messages (around 1.2 GB)
In particular, trying to delete a single message or calling up an invitation cause the UI to become unresponsive.

Comment 15

[Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan)]

John, your profile is missing a lot of the useful information, so I can't really tell what's going on, although clearly something is. (Not quite sure why, might be something to do with how your distro builds Thunderbird.) What I can see is markers from the accessibility features, so one thing you could try is setting the preference accessibility.force_disabled to 1. I'm not sure why or how, but I've seen reports that having the features enabled can cause performance issues.

Comment 16

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan) from comment #15)

John, your profile is missing a lot of the useful information, so I can't really tell what's going on, although clearly something is. (Not quite sure why, might be something to do with how your distro builds Thunderbird.)

Bug 1910890 - All Ubuntu 24.04 LTS crashes are missing symbols.

John, possible for you to try the download from https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/download/ ?
Also, be sure to choose the Thunderbird preset and "All IO" https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiling-thunderbird-performance#w_step-1-preparing-performance-recording-in-thunderbird

Comment 17

[John Crisp]

your profile is missing a lot of the useful information,

I just followed the instructions. I can try again if you tell me what else is required. But it is time intensive trying to trap it.

setting the preference accessibility.force_disabled to 1

Ha - just tried to do it and it locked again. Doh.... I'll test and report.

All Ubuntu 24.04 LTS crashes are missing symbols.

Not on 24.x - see my #c4 from 4 months ago....

something to do with how your distro builds Thunderbird

I use the package from your PPA.....

https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

and "All IO"

I did this as per the page.

Scroll down and also mark the checkbox for "All File IO".

But I will try another go.

Comment 18

[rsbrux]

P.S. In my case turning off indexing improved performance, but I enjoyed the quick search response that the indexing enabled in previous versions, and would like to have it back.
The UI still hangs sometimes,e.g. when I delete a message from an IMAP folder, but not as long as it used to.

Comment 19

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to John Crisp from comment #17)

your profile is missing a lot of the useful information,

I just followed the instructions. I can try again if you tell me what else is required. But it is time intensive trying to trap it.
....

Scroll down and also mark the checkbox for "All File IO".

But I will try another go.

John were you able to get another profile?

Comment 20

[John Crisp]

John were you able to get another profile?

On my todo list but Christmas, and removing unwanted snaps from a lot of desktops has kept me busy.

I may have time later next week.

Comment 21

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to John Crisp from comment #20)

John were you able to get another profile?

On my todo list but Christmas, and removing unwanted snaps from a lot of desktops has kept me busy.

I may have time later next week.

Comment 22

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

According to bug 1910890 we are still missing symbols.

Comment 23

[John Crisp]

I may have time later next week.

And then our UK office burned down...... :-(

BBC coverage of fire

Everyone is OK and luckily with remote working etc we lost an office, not a business but I have been a tad busy :-)

Still on Ubuntu 22.04 and using PPA TB 128.5.2esr(64bit) and yup, it still locks up.

I will try and get another report as soon as I can.

Comment 24

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Sorry to hear that.

Please use 128.6.0 or newer

Comment 25

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

128.8.0 available next week is known to fix one performance issue - bug 1860094. Please post your results after using 128.8.0 or newer.

Comment 26

[Phoenix]

Resolved per whiteboard

Comment 28

[John Crisp]

Sorry. Been firefighting this year, almost literally....

Saw it was closed and then could not ask for it to be re-opened (unlike our own bugzilla).

So 128.11.0 ESR still occurs.

I have two extensions for nextcloud and DKIM verifier that I am going to disable.

(disabled, restarted, almost immediately locked)

I am going to remove and rebuild the global message DB and then see what else occurs.

(Well, deleted the gloda - 2.2Gb, started, and instant lock)

Going through mailboxes this morning all seemed good, and then stop.

I will try and install a version with symbols as per comment 16 but I need to make more space by fitting another drive to duplicate/backup the profile.

Comment 29

[John Crisp]

So Installed 139.0.2 (64-bit) and have been running it the last week.

(Annoyingly, despite copying over and using my existing profile it seemed singularly unable to use the old passwords which necessitated a huge amount of work to correct as I have nearly 30 accounts.....)

So far it seems to be stable and not locking up which is a relief. Not very happy at having to move off ESR though. Continual upgrades just drive us mad.

I will continue to montor it can let you know if there are any issues, or not.

Comment 30

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to John Crisp from comment #29)

Not very happy at having to move off ESR though. Continual upgrades just drive us mad.

I think at the present time (but I can't predict it will last), you could change from release back to esr https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-release#w_how-do-i-change-from-release-back-to-esr

Comment 31

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to John Crisp from comment #29)

So Installed 139.0.2 (64-bit) and have been running it the last week.

So far it seems to be stable and not locking up which is a relief.

Rich do you agree current esr 140 or release 144 are better?

Comment 32

[John Crisp]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #30)

I think at the present time (but I can't predict it will last), you could change from release back to esr https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-release#w_how-do-i-change-from-release-back-to-esr

Upgraded to 140.4.0esr (64-bit) PPA version on my orignal profile and it still sticks. <sigh>

I can see a single core hit 100%

I need to test it alongside the latest version but need to re-arrange some drive space.

Comment 33

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

On the positive side, rsbux and one other person (mychataa) in https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/thunderbird-is-extremely-slow-after-the-new-ui-update-115-4-2/m-p/108319/highlight/true#M41732 have indicated 140 is much better.

Comment 34

[Rich Wales]

Hi. I am still using Thunderbird (140.5.0esr). I haven't experienced any problems since I unsubscribed from my two huge folders (see comment #2 above). I haven't tried resubscribing to the two huge folders (no need + no time).

Comment 35

[Rich Wales]

I resubscribed to one of the huge folders, and after a long time loading messages, TB locked up again. The following was showing in the bottom line of the TB window:

Home: Downloading message 51060 of 929054 in Routine . . .

I killed TB (via "kill -1"), restarted it, and unsubscribed from the huge folder.

Again, I'm now using TB 140.5.0esr, and apparently the problem hasn't gone away with newer releases (though it doesn't seem to be a concern for me if I'm not trying to access a huge folder). Apologies to others following this bug, but I don't have time right now to try hunting it down, and it does sound like I'm not the only person seeing this issue, so I'll have to leave any further sleuthing to others.