693507 - Thunderbird 7.0.1 hangs when idle with pop accounts

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

Description

[Shannon]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1
Build ID: 20110928134238

Steps to reproduce:

I used to keep Thunderbird open 24/7 when I had version 7.0 Since upgrading to 7.0.1 that is never possible. The program cannot stay open for more than a few hours without crashing and needing to be re-launched


Actual results:

The program would report as "Not Responding" or it would never come into view from the taskbar.


Expected results:

I should be able to leave the program open all day for days like I used to.

Comment 1

[:aceman]

There shouldn't be any change between 7 and 7.0.1 that would cause this. Do you kill TB when it hang in this way? Does the automatic crash reporter come up?

Comment 2

[Shannon]

Created attachment 566242 [details]
Here is the crash report from Windows 7

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Shannon from comment #2)
> Created attachment 566242 [details]
> Here is the crash report from Windows 7

Thanks. Unfortunately that's not very helpful.
a) does this happen if started in safe mode?
 http://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/safe-mode
b) Can you get a stacktrace per https://developer.mozilla.org/En/How_to_get_a_stacktrace_for_a_bug_report

Comment 4

[:aceman]

Can you update to TB8?
I think there were some bugs fixed that made mozilla memory usage grow infinitely while idle. See bug 661527 and the other ones mentioned there.

Maybe this bug is a manifestation of using up all memory.

Comment 5

[Shannon]

I have already upgraded to 8.0. It is a little better, but not entirely. I leave Thunderbird open all the time. I would say that at least once a day, it is fully locked and windows asks me if I want to kill the process. The main memory hog of my system is actually Firefox and when Thunderbird is crashing, I check the memory and it is in high usage, but not maxed out.

Comment 6

[Shannon]

Right now Thunderbird is locked. It is currently using 63,352K Memory and my Mem usage is holding steady at about 90% because of Firefox. So what I did was killed firefox to bring memory usage to normal levels. Memory usage is now at a comfortable 50%. However, Thunderbird is still completely locked up and needs to be killed. I hope this is sufficient evidence to rule out Memory usage.

Comment 7

[Bobd]

(In reply to Shannon from comment #6)
> Right now Thunderbird is locked. It is currently using 63,352K Memory and my
> Mem usage is holding steady at about 90% because of Firefox. So what I did
> was killed firefox to bring memory usage to normal levels. Memory usage is
> now at a comfortable 50%. However, Thunderbird is still completely locked up
> and needs to be killed. I hope this is sufficient evidence to rule out
> Memory usage.
I see a similar manifestation in Vista, except that the entire system hangs. It never used to happen until I changed from POP3 to IMAP. Did you make such a change or are you using IMAP?

Comment 8

[Shannon]

I have about 10 email accounts in Thunderbird for my family. The 3 accounts that are configured to check e-mail regularly are POP3 and have always been that way. I have Windows 7, but I was not having a problem with Windows 7 before. The only changed variable was the upgrade to v 7.01 and the problem remains in 8.01.

Comment 9

[Bobd]

(In reply to Shannon from comment #8)
> I have about 10 email accounts in Thunderbird for my family. The 3 accounts
> that are configured to check e-mail regularly are POP3 and have always been
> that way. I have Windows 7, but I was not having a problem with Windows 7
> before. The only changed variable was the upgrade to v 7.01 and the problem
> remains in 8.01.

I have changed back to POP3 and have still encountered the problem, though not as frequently. The last time it happened my firewall reported that its files had been corrupted from an external source. :aceman told me to turn off HW acceleration in TB and to reboot with no addons.  I have done that and am trying to see if that makes a difference.

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Shannon from comment #0)
> User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101
> Firefox/7.0.1
> Build ID: 20110928134238
> 
> Steps to reproduce:
> 
> I used to keep Thunderbird open 24/7 when I had version 7.0 Since upgrading
> to 7.0.1 that is never possible. The program cannot stay open for more than
> a few hours without crashing and needing to be re-launched

Shannon, do you still see this problem when using version 9?  If you do, the following outlines how I think you might proceed...

Do you see the problem if you disable antivirus software and non-microsoft firewall software?  If you still see it, then continue ...

There is almost no difference between v7.0 and v7.0.1 [1], and nothing there seems an obvious cause for your problem.  I suspect that if you run v7.0 long enough that you would also see the problem there, but you are welcome to try it [2].  If you still see it, then continue ...

I'm thinking the problem started between v6.0.2 and v7.0.  Can you try v7.0beta1 [3]? 

[1] http://blog.mozilla.com/thunderbird/2011/09/30/issue-discovered-with-thunderbird-add-on-upgrades/
[2] v7.0 ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/7.0/win32/en-US/Thunderbird%20Setup%207.0.exe
[3] v7.0beta1  ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/7.0b1/win32/en-US/Thunderbird%20Setup%207.0b1.exe

Comment 11

[Bobd]

(In reply to Bobd from comment #9)
> (In reply to Shannon from comment #8)
> > I have about 10 email accounts in Thunderbird for my family. The 3 accounts
> > that are configured to check e-mail regularly are POP3 and have always been
> > that way. I have Windows 7, but I was not having a problem with Windows 7
> > before. The only changed variable was the upgrade to v 7.01 and the problem
> > remains in 8.01.
> 
> I have changed back to POP3 and have still encountered the problem, though
> not as frequently. The last time it happened my firewall reported that its
> files had been corrupted from an external source. :aceman told me to turn
> off HW acceleration in TB and to reboot with no addons.  I have done that
> and am trying to see if that makes a difference.

I have since concluded that PC Tools Firewall Plus was the culprit in my case, because I had changed to it shortly before I changed to IMAP in TB and when I finally decided that it might be at fault I uninstalled it and re-installed Zone Alarm. Since then I have had no problems, though I also disabled HW acceleration in TB as well.

Comment 12

[:aceman]

Good:) Will you now try changing to IMAP?

Comment 13

[Bobd]

(In reply to :aceman from comment #12)
> Good:) Will you now try changing to IMAP?

I'm really not very motivated to do so since I have everything working well right now. Maybe I could create a new gmail account and try it there, though. I'll do that, OK?

Comment 14

[:aceman]

Yes, as it suits you. Thanks.

Comment 15

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Bobd, feel free to reopen bug if you do add more information