Thunderbird GUI poor performance, is starved for processing time.

eveningdarkstar — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 01:19:12 GMT

I am running Thunderbird version 128.7.0esr (64-bit) under Linux/OpenSuSE 15.6 and I am noticing what I suspect IMHO is a severe design flaw. The GUI is frequently being starve, (becomes non-responsive), of processing time. These pauses, which can be several seconds long, typically occur when Thunderbird is engaged in some other task such as downloading messages.

This kind of mistake often occur when background tasks run too long without giving up the processor, or when separate processes do not take advantage of systems with multiple CPUs are available. In either case the cause is usually caused by severe design flaws not addressing parallel processing within the software architecture. Another thing to look at is to make sure interrupts are being handled quickly and prioritize in how they are handled.

There is no excuse for the user experience being so shoddy, non-responsive user interfaces are simply not acceptable.

Re: Thunderbird GUI poor performance, is starved for processing time.

siffemcon — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 03:30:55 GMT

Try these one at a time, testing after each.

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Disable the Accessibility Service:

- go to TB menu > Settings > General

- scroll all the way down and click the 'Config editor' button on the right

- click 'Accept the risk and continue'

- search for accessibility.force_disabled > change the value to 1

- click the check mark after making the change > restart TB

Note: this will disable accessibility features such as screen readers.

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Clear the cache:

- press Ctrl-Shift-Delete (Mac: Cmd-Shift-Delete)

- set 'Time range...' to 'Everything'

- untick all items except 'Cache'

- clear > restart TB

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Compact folders (this may take quite a while):

- TB menu bar > File > Compact Folders
(If you don't see the menu bar on top, press the ALT key.)

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See Thunderbird:Testing:Antivirus_Related_Performance_Issues (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Antivirus_Related_Performance_Issues)

See Thunderbird:Testing:Memory Usage Problems (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Memory_Usage_Problems)

Run a Performance profile (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiling-thunderbird-performance)

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Thunderbird GUI poor performance, is starved for processing time.

Re: Thunderbird GUI poor performance, is starved for processing time.