591111 - Thunderbird hangs 2-5 minutes while composing messages

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Frank Farance]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.8) Gecko/20100722 Firefox/3.6.8 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.8) Gecko/20100802 Lightning/1.0b2 Thunderbird/3.1.2

When I type a message, the UI complete freezes: both the compose window and the main window are unresponsive.  After a couple minutes, they return back to normal (including the characters I've typed while it is hung).

Originally, I thought this might be related to attachments and sync-ing with the Drafts folder, but it is still a problem with a short message of a two sentences.

Sometimes it hangs for 5 minutes.  Sometimes it hangs indefinitely and it has to be killed.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

1. are you coming from version 2?
2. when you see this problem, what is the Thunderbird process's memory and cpu
usage? Use the description at
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Memory_Usage_Problems#Overview to
know where to look and exactly what column to use

Comment 2

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Franck, next time this happens could you follow the instructions at https://developer.mozilla.org/en/How_to_get_a_stacktrace_for_a_bug_report and give us a stack trace please ?

Comment 3

[Frank Farance]

OK, I have comments 1 and 2 and I will do them next time.

I read the article "How to get a stacktrace ...", but I have one question.  If the debugger is unresponsive to commands while the process is running (according to this article), then how do I get the debugger's attention to type a command?

(FYI, I'm familiar with various *nix debuggers.)

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I've never seen the debugger be not responsive. The debugger attaches the thunderbird process - it is in control, not thunderbird.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

be aware that lightning can cause perf issues. see 
 Bug 441710 - Thunderbird compose and UI occasionally freezes/slow for 3-60 seconds unexpectedly and continually - caused by calendar/lightning issues [meta]
and
 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?type1-0-0=anywordssubstr&keywords=hang&keywords_type=allwords&field0-0-0=short_desc&type0-0-1=substring&field0-0-1=product&field2-0-0=short_desc&resolution=---&classification=Client%20Software&classification=Components&type2-0-0=anywordssubstr&query_format=advanced&type2-0-1=substring&value0-0-1=calendar&type0-0-0=anywordssubstr&value0-0-0=calendar%20lightning&field1-0-0=short_desc&product=Calendar&product=MailNews%20Core&product=Thunderbird&field2-0-1=component

next time you see this, please try to get a stacktrace with symbols
 https://developer.mozilla.org/en/How_to_get_a_stacktrace_with_WinDbg (replace Thunderbird where you see Firefox)  - configure windbg in advance

Comment 6

[Frank Farance]

(In reply to comment #5)
> be aware that lightning can cause perf issues. see 
>  Bug 441710 - Thunderbird compose and UI occasionally freezes/slow for 3-60
> seconds unexpectedly and continually - caused by calendar/lightning issues
> ...

The hang occurs when I am typing text into a new message.  I am not using any calender/contact features at that point.  Also, although Lightning is installed, I don't use it for calendaring (I use Outlook for that).

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Frank, imap accounts, or pop?  What is account server settings for get new messages?  And for Draft auto save in Options, composition?

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

good for us, is 5 minutes (or even less) makes it easy to get a stacktrace with windbg.  

instructions at https://developer.mozilla.org/En/How_to_get_a_stacktrace_with_windbg (just replace thunderbird every where you see firefox). configure windbg ahead of time (set symbol server, etc) and you can leave windbg running until you see the hang in thunderbird. Then in windbg do File > Attach to a Process > pick thunderbird.exe and OK. paste in and run
~* kp;!analyze -v -hang;lm

save the results as text file, and attach the file to this bug.

Comment 9

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

RESOLVED INCOMPLETE due to lack of response to last question. If you feel this change was made in error, please respond to this bug with your reasons why.

Comment 10

[Frank Farance]

IMAP server is dovecot

outbound:
server: mail.xxx.com
port: 587
(same settings as inbound for use, STARTTLS, etc.)

inbound:
server: mail.xxx.com
user name: yyy
connection security: STARTTLS, if avail
check for new messages every 1 minutes