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Thunderbird crashes if it's not run specifically "as administrator" [win10] SOLVED itself, magically

  • 4 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by fallingman

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Everything was OK for many years when suddenly Thunderbird on Windows 10 stopped to work properly. It started asking to add security exceptions for every account installed immediately when opening it. I added all the exceptions (although they were a little bit strange, because in other computers with the same configuration everything was still working as usual) but with poor results and after a while Thunderbird crashes. I open it again, I add again the exceptions and again after a bad working it crashes. Then I made a backup of the profile and tried to reinstall it without solving the problem. The profile is still there and nothing is changed. I uninstalled it again, deleted manually the profile (both from AppData/Local and Roaming) and reinstalled it to have a new and clean profile but something is wrong again. I notice immediately that it seems not to connect to Mozilla's servers and when I try to add an account it doesn't complete the informations about imap and smtp (gmail !!!) because it cannot connect to the server. I tried then to use Thunderbird in a new Windows account (in the same computer) and everything was perfect. Not understanding what more to do and searching something on the web I eventually tried to run Thunderbird "as administrator" and finally IT WORKS WELL!! So, why now I have to run it as administrator to make it work? Can you help me please? I thank you all in advance.

Everything was OK for many years when suddenly Thunderbird on Windows 10 stopped to work properly. It started asking to add security exceptions for every account installed immediately when opening it. I added all the exceptions (although they were a little bit strange, because in other computers with the same configuration everything was still working as usual) but with poor results and after a while Thunderbird crashes. I open it again, I add again the exceptions and again after a bad working it crashes. Then I made a backup of the profile and tried to reinstall it without solving the problem. The profile is still there and nothing is changed. I uninstalled it again, deleted manually the profile (both from AppData/Local and Roaming) and reinstalled it to have a new and clean profile but something is wrong again. I notice immediately that it seems not to connect to Mozilla's servers and when I try to add an account it doesn't complete the informations about imap and smtp (gmail !!!) because it cannot connect to the server. I tried then to use Thunderbird in a new Windows account (in the same computer) and everything was perfect. Not understanding what more to do and searching something on the web I eventually tried to run Thunderbird "as administrator" and finally IT WORKS WELL!! So, why now I have to run it as administrator to make it work? Can you help me please? I thank you all in advance.

Modified by Wayne Mery

Chosen solution

Thank you for your new answer and the suggestions but I have a great news. As it suddenly started having problems so suddenly it started working well again without doing anything. Mysteries of windows 10 probably... Thank you again and good bye

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what anti virus are you using? It sounds like one of those that stick their own security certificates in the process and mess up mail.

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Bitdefender free but from a long time. And I think think it could be an idea of the cause if I had the same problem in the other account I created but it's not. And I don't think it's windows firewall too, for the same reason...

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You have one piece of new software... Windows 10. Nothing works with it like it used to. So everything you have used and trusted for decades is suspect. That is the first thing you need to accept.

Second.issues with Bit defender can occur if it is installed before Thunderbird. Try reinstalling bit defender.

Finally what are the crash id's https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-crash-reporter-tb#w_viewing-crash-reports

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Chosen Solution

Thank you for your new answer and the suggestions but I have a great news. As it suddenly started having problems so suddenly it started working well again without doing anything. Mysteries of windows 10 probably... Thank you again and good bye