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Thunderbird hangs when downloading a new message

  • 8 replies
  • 4 have this problem
  • 134 views
  • Last reply by AlanGravers

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I get a big lag and TB freezes up whenever it gets a message downloaded, thereby preventing you from typing your emails. It will resume back to normal when the download is finished and whatever you typed will appear all at once. So anything you type while TB is downloading isn't lost; it just doesn't show up on the screen until downloading finishes, about 15-20 seconds later.

I have tried changing the webmail and thunderbird download frequency settings. I've tried starting TB with add-ons disabled. I haven't tried rebuilding files or anything like that, but everything I read says that hasn't made a difference anyway. This problem is directly connected to new mail being downloaded into TB. Happens each time a new email comes in.

Btw, it is an imap connection.

I get a big lag and TB freezes up whenever it gets a message downloaded, thereby preventing you from typing your emails. It will resume back to normal when the download is finished and whatever you typed will appear all at once. So anything you type while TB is downloading isn't lost; it just doesn't show up on the screen until downloading finishes, about 15-20 seconds later. I have tried changing the webmail and thunderbird download frequency settings. I've tried starting TB with add-ons disabled. I haven't tried rebuilding files or anything like that, but everything I read says that hasn't made a difference anyway. This problem is directly connected to new mail being downloaded into TB. Happens each time a new email comes in. Btw, it is an imap connection.
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

It was a conflict with Windows Defender. Once I turned off real-time protection in that, the problem immediately went away. When I turned it back on, the problem also turned back on.

I had to make a change in the global policy editor to keep it turned off, because it would automatically turn back on after any restart of the PC.

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All Replies (8)

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Do you get a 'Not responding' error?

What is your anti-virus software?

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no error, just a 20 second lag. anti virus is malwarebytes premium.

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Also, is this a gmail account? If not, who is you ISP?

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it's world secure email.... also, with windows already up and running in normal mode, I started TB in safe mode and did NOT experience lag. I noticed a tab open with a saved files list. It had lots of entries, so I cleared that list. When I restarted TB in normal mode, I also did NOT experience any lag.

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Chosen Solution

It was a conflict with Windows Defender. Once I turned off real-time protection in that, the problem immediately went away. When I turned it back on, the problem also turned back on.

I had to make a change in the global policy editor to keep it turned off, because it would automatically turn back on after any restart of the PC.

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Once I turned off real-time protection in that, the problem immediately went away. ... I had to make a change in the global policy editor to keep it turned off,

It is a very bad idea to turn off real-time protection entirely, but you shouldn't let it scan the Thunderbird profile folder.

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I still have real-time from Malwarebytes Pro... they were conflicting with each other.