Mozilla Thunderbird 12 Slow? Try This Fix!
If you are using Mozilla's Thunderbird email client on a desktop computer, you probably have updated to version 12 of the client when the new version came out. Shortly thereafter, Thunderbird was updated to version 12.0.1, which resolved several issues that came to light after the final release of Thunderbird 12.
Some Thunderbird users ever since they have updated to Thunderbird 12 have noticed that the client's performance dropped considerably. This is for instance the case when affected users open emails in the program, as it may happen that it takes longer than usual to do so. Thunderbird in some instances may even freeze, for a while.
According to Mozilla, the most likely cause for this is antivirus software running on the system. Bugs have been filed by users running NOD32 and Avira Antivir, with the likelihood that other antivirus applications may cause the issues as well.
A workaround has been posted to fix the issue for affected users.
- Open the Thunderbird Profile Directory from Help | Troubleshooting Information
- Quit Thunderbird
- Delete any directories in the Thunderbird Profile Directory ending in "-wal" or "-shm"
- Then restart Thunderbird
- E.g. delete directories named like the following: "places.sqlite-wal", "places.sqlite-shm", "cookies.sqlite-shm", "cookies.sqlite-wal"
Users need to make sure that they only delete directories, and not files in the Thunderbird profile folder to test the fix. I'd suggest to make a backup of the profile folder - with Thunderbird closed- to avoid any issues that could result from this. MozBackup can do that for instance.
Once you have deleted the folders in the Thunderbird profile directory, restart Thunderbird to see if the issue has been resolved.
According to Mozilla, a patch for the issue is in the making to resolve it on their side of things. You find the full bug report listing here, in case you are interested or want to share your own experience. (thanks Sören)
Update: Please note that this fix only works for the issue described above. Thunderbird does not use these directories by default, which is why you probably won't find them listed in the client profile directory when you open it.
You can check out our guide on fixing a slow or hanging Thunderbird client for general tips to improve its speed or resolve the issue that you are experiencing when using it.
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You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
I think its thunderbird
It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
You are a god – thank you!
thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Great tip! Thanks!
Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.
Thanks.
Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Thank you, this worked !!!!
Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!