We're calling on all EU-based Mozillians with iOS or iPadOS devices to help us monitor Apple’s new browser choice screens. Join the effort to hold Big Tech to account!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

win 8.1Thunderbird file/folder handling very slow

  • 7
  • 1 nwere nsogbu anwere nsogbu a
  • 5 views
  • Nzaghachi ikpeazụ nke scritch

more options

Long story short: Win 7 got corrupted, so I installed Win 8.1. All programs work fine, except for Thunderbird. Any Thunderbird action is extremely slow, up to a few minutes to execute any action. The program is unusable in normal windows mode. However,

Thunderbird works fine in safe mode, even with antivirus (Iolo / System Mechanic) running.

One cause may be that any action I take with Thunderbird files bigger than a few bytes is very slow. Copying, moving, deleting any Thunderbird files is extremely slow. I have tried copying other large files and folders into T-bird folders, and deleting them, and they work just fine. It's just Thunderbird files that seem to be stuck in glue.

I have added Thunderbird to my firewall allowed programs, so that isn't it.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled Thunderbird, to no avail.

Long story short: Win 7 got corrupted, so I installed Win 8.1. All programs work fine, except for Thunderbird. Any Thunderbird action is extremely slow, up to a few minutes to execute any action. The program is unusable in normal windows mode. However, Thunderbird works fine in safe mode, even with antivirus (Iolo / System Mechanic) running. One cause may be that any action I take with Thunderbird files bigger than a few bytes is very slow. Copying, moving, deleting any Thunderbird files is extremely slow. I have tried copying other large files and folders into T-bird folders, and deleting them, and they work just fine. It's just Thunderbird files that seem to be stuck in glue. I have added Thunderbird to my firewall allowed programs, so that isn't it. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Thunderbird, to no avail.

Asịsa ahọpụtara

There may be other things you need to disable in System Mechanic, e.g. like scanning incoming and outgoing messages and scanning of attachments. You may also ask in a forum for System Mechanic.

Gụọ azịza a na nghọta 👍 0

All Replies (7)

more options

Create an exception for the Thunderbird profile folder, so that it won't be scanned by your anti-virus software real-time scanner.

more options

Problem appears to be solved for now. I added an exception for the folder containing my Thunderbird profile to the "real-time" protection in my Iolo / System Mechanic antivirus software, and it's working so far! Kudos to you, but phooey! on Dell Support, who were unwilling to even attempt to help me with a Thunderbird problem, but sold me the antivirus software!

more options

When your problem has been fixed can you mark the thread as 'Solved' please? Thank you.

more options

Problem NOT solved!

Thunderbird hangs so badly that I can't even end the process in the Task Manager; I have to reboot.

I uninstalled Iolo System Mechanic and Thunderbird, then reinstalled T-bird, and T-bird worked fine. Then I installed System Mechanic and the problem popped up again. I have to reboot to end the Thunderbird process. I even excluded all the Thunderbird folders from real-time scanning, and the problem remains.

Edeziri site na scritch

more options

Problem NOT solved!

Thunderbird hangs so badly that I can't even end the process in the Task Manager; I have to reboot.

I uninstalled Iolo System Mechanic and Thunderbird, then reinstalled T-bird, and T-bird worked fine. Then I installed System Mechanic and the problem popped up again. I have to reboot to end the Thunderbird process. I even excluded all the Thunderbird folders from real-time scanning, and the problem remains.

Update: The problem seems to happen when Thunderbird tries to download a message. As soon as I try to download messages, T-bird hangs and I have to reboot the computer.

more options

Asịsa Ahọpụtara

There may be other things you need to disable in System Mechanic, e.g. like scanning incoming and outgoing messages and scanning of attachments. You may also ask in a forum for System Mechanic.

more options

Even after completely removing Iolo System Care (including registry entries) and reinstalling it the problem remained. My solution has been to use a different antivirus (Avast) which worked well before and continues to do so now.