Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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

Latest version of TB creates multiple instances when run

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by JosefK

more options

Hi, A friend asked to have a look at her copy of TB running on Windows 10 as she was having difficulty accessing individual messages and was unable to create a new message. When I switched on her PC today and clicked TB it updated automatically to 78.8.0.7718 but when it started it seemed to be taking a long time to settle down and allow access to individual messages. I checked Windows Task Manager and saw there were 35 instances of TB. I confirmed this by right clicking the TB icon on the taskbar. I could cycle through individual instances of TB. Thinking it might be something to do with the update process I closed all instances and restarted the PC. I started TB and it loaded ok but was very slow in accessing individual messages. After 60-90 seconds (I didn't time it accurately) something started to create additional instances of TB. I checked the Task Manager and again it had created an additional 34 instances and was showing 35 TBs. I killed off the extra 34 instances individually and was then able to use the remaining instance normally. I didn't tale screen shots but I can. Does this sound like a TB or Windows problem? It's a 32-bit Windows running on a 64-bit PC. TIA Joe

Hi, A friend asked to have a look at her copy of TB running on Windows 10 as she was having difficulty accessing individual messages and was unable to create a new message. When I switched on her PC today and clicked TB it updated automatically to 78.8.0.7718 but when it started it seemed to be taking a long time to settle down and allow access to individual messages. I checked Windows Task Manager and saw there were 35 instances of TB. I confirmed this by right clicking the TB icon on the taskbar. I could cycle through individual instances of TB. Thinking it might be something to do with the update process I closed all instances and restarted the PC. I started TB and it loaded ok but was very slow in accessing individual messages. After 60-90 seconds (I didn't time it accurately) something started to create additional instances of TB. I checked the Task Manager and again it had created an additional 34 instances and was showing 35 TBs. I killed off the extra 34 instances individually and was then able to use the remaining instance normally. I didn't tale screen shots but I can. Does this sound like a TB or Windows problem? It's a 32-bit Windows running on a 64-bit PC. TIA Joe

All Replies (2)

more options

This is odd. Try to start Thunderbird in safe mode. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/safe-mode-thunderbird

Is there any difference?

more options

Thanks for your suggestion and sorry for the delay in getting back to you. As I said the problem is on a friend's PC to which I only have occasional access. However ... I loaded TB in safe mode ( starting it with the shift key pressed did not work) using the menu options. She did not have any add-ons or extensions to start with. There was no repeat of the multiple instances problem and I left TB in working order. A few days later my friend called and said she could not send any emails. When I checked TB instead of multiple instances there were multiple tabs open with the same message. I couldn't count just how many but the List all tabs result overflowed the screen. I could not ascertain the exact steps she had gone through to get to this point. I closed TB, restarted it in safe mode and left it in working order. I checked yesterday and today and TB was working as it should do. Therefore, I will close this query and assume there is an intermittent problem I can resolve by restarting TB. Thanks for your help Joe