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Thunderbird 45.2 slow when using unified folders

  • 7 iimpendulo
  • 2 inale ngxaki
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  • Impendulo yokugqibela ngu Wayne Mery

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Recently I updated to Thunderbird 45.2 on Ubuntu Gnome. It is set up with two email accounts (5k and 10k emails), and I use unified folders. After the recent update to TB 45.2, whenever I select the unified Inbox folder (only the Inbox folder), Thunderbird starts to use 100% CPU for about a minute, before it responds normally again. Again, if I select the unified Sent folder (which contains about the same amount of emails) TB does not hang. It also does this in safe mode. I have tried compacting the Inbox folder, and I deleted global-messages-db.sqlite from my profile folder, nothing helped.

EDIT: Once the unified Inbox is loaded, the Quick Filter works as usual (i.e., fast), however clearing the quick filter text results in the one-minute-100%-CPU-hang. This does not happen if I do the same procedure while one of the Inboxes of the two email accounts selected.

Any suggestions?

Cheers Lasse

Recently I updated to Thunderbird 45.2 on Ubuntu Gnome. It is set up with two email accounts (5k and 10k emails), and I use unified folders. After the recent update to TB 45.2, whenever I select the unified Inbox folder (only the Inbox folder), Thunderbird starts to use 100% CPU for about a minute, before it responds normally again. Again, if I select the unified Sent folder (which contains about the same amount of emails) TB does not hang. It also does this in safe mode. I have tried compacting the Inbox folder, and I deleted global-messages-db.sqlite from my profile folder, nothing helped. EDIT: Once the unified Inbox is loaded, the Quick Filter works as usual (i.e., fast), however clearing the quick filter text results in the one-minute-100%-CPU-hang. This does not happen if I do the same procedure while one of the Inboxes of the two email accounts selected. Any suggestions? Cheers Lasse

Ilungisiwe ngu lbnc

All Replies (7)

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On the toolbar > Help > Troubleshooting Information

Click the show profile button in Troubleshooting Information Change Thunderbird folder view to ALL from Unified Close Thunderbird In the file window that opened, Open the mail folder Delete the smart mailboxes folder. Restart Thunderbird. Change the folder view back to unified.

Startup will take a bit longer as those folders and indexes need to be regenerated, but hopefully the new will be faster than the old.

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I tried what you suggested and it didn't help. There is an exciting development, though.

It seems to be caused by the Grouped By Sort option that I use. If I under View -> Sort By select Grouped By Sort, then TB freezes - also in all other unified folders, not only Inbox. If, however, I unselect Grouped By Sort, I can switch between folders without TB freezing.

Suggestions?

Cheers Lasse

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Restart Thunderbird in safe mode (hold shift when starting and continue on safe mode when prompted, that will exclude add-ons, Themes and hardware acceleration.

Try group by in ALL Folders and if you have the patience one of the other modes such as unread. Just to see if there is a similar correlation.

Others are not seeing the issue AFAIK. But that does not mean it is not out there. If it is an add-on, then the author needs to know. IF it is Thunderbird then the more information we have to file a bug, the greater chance there is that a developer can fix the issue. What can not be replicated rarely gets fixed, unless by accident.

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Like I said earlier, the issue also occurs in safe mode and it also occurs in all other folders - as long as I use Grouped By Sort.

The time TB freezes seems to be correlated to the amount of emails it needs to sort, though. For example, for the unified Inbox folder, it uses more time than for the unified Sent folder - and my Inbox contains more messages than the Sent folder.

So to me it seems like TB everytime sorts through all messages when combining the emails from my two accounts.

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Hmm, it might be scanning the MSF files. So lets try deleting them and see if that will help. If one is even a little off then really all bets are off.

ALt+F and select compact folders. that will compact unused space in folders left over from deleted mails and rebuild the index for each folder compacted.

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I deleted all the msf files, and after TB had finished remaking them, I compacted the folders - still no luck.

But if it's only me that has that problem, then I guess something is wrong on my end. Can the mail server settings have something to do with it? Seems unlikely.

Any more ideas are more than welcome. As a temporary thing I'll just not use unified folder...

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lbnc said

Like I said earlier, the issue also occurs in safe mode and it also occurs in all other folders - as long as I use Grouped By Sort. The time TB freezes seems to be correlated to the amount of emails it needs to sort, though. For example, for the unified Inbox folder, it uses more time than for the unified Sent folder - and my Inbox contains more messages than the Sent folder. So to me it seems like TB everytime sorts through all messages when combining the emails from my two accounts.

I agree. It does appear to work that way - it re-reads every folder, then applies the grouping. So under current design it will always be slow