Mozilla Thunderbird force shut down everytime

vlassis · 11 Jan 2017

Hello there!

I have been using Mozilla Thunderbird for quite some time now.
Out of nowhere (or so I believe), everytime I shut down my computer (normally from the Start menu), it tell me that Mozilla Thunderbird is preventing Windows to shut down (or restart) and asks me to either Force Shut Down or Cancel (to manually close it).

I do not understand what might run in the background and why all of a sudden it changed.

Furthermore, I uninstalled and reinstalled it. I delete all the files EXCEPT from the profile file, which contains all my e-mail accounts.

If you need additional information please feel free to ask me!

Thank you!

Gator · 11 Jan 2017

Hey Vlassis,

Have you tried to recreate the issue in Safe Mode?
Safe Mode

If it works in Safe Mode without the issue try removing Add-Ons to see if that is what's causing the issue

Have you tried exiting out of Thunderbird via the menu and not just the X on the top right?

Check your server settings in Thunderbird to make sure it's not trying to check for messages too often

Also you may want to try to run anti-virus/malware just to be safe. It may not be likely but it can cause weird stuff to happen like that.

Try to backup your profile and then remove it to see if your profile is causing the issue (with emphasis on backing up the profile first)
Profiles - Where Thunderbird stores your messages and other user data | Thunderbird Help

vlassis · 11 Jan 2017

Thanks for the reply!
I did not think of removing the profile.
The issue lies there.
I removed the profile and added a new one witch just one of my e-mails and what I believe to be the same settings.
The computer did not ask for a force shut down.
I reinstalled a plugin that I am using but it still did not ask for a force shut down.

So there is something in either all or one of my accounts. A setting I have missed maybe?

Furthermore, I have all of my e-mails set to check for new mails every minute. I also did that in the new profile, with no issues.

Any idea what else might cause this?

It'd be too much to add again all my emails!!

Thank you for everything though!

Gator · 11 Jan 2017

Did the new profile have all your old email accounts on it or just one? If it's searching every minute for 1 email account it may not cause issues, but if its trying to sync multiple accounts on one profile every minute, it's possible that its working on syncing constantly.

If you try loading your old profile back, check Task Manager to see what Thunderbird processes might be running. Also, check Thunderbird to see if its doing anything (like syncing email messages) while you're trying to shutdown. If it is, it may be trying to constantly sync which would cause your shutdown to hang.

vlassis · 11 Jan 2017

I deleted the profile and created a new one. I added all the email accounts with the settings that I remember having.
The issue was somewhere there I guess.
The add on "Minimize to tray revived" has nothing to do with it.

I thank you for your time but I am not in a place to check all that and troubleshoot it now. So re-adding the accounts did it.

Again thank you and sorry to anyone with the same issue!!

Gator · 11 Jan 2017

No problem at all. :)

At least this is solved.

A lot of times with email clients like Thunderbird and Outlook, recreating the profile fixes an assortment of issues for one reason or another.

torchwood · 11 Jan 2017

Thunderbird issued an update couple of days ago, more than likely didn't install correctly.

Roy

MoxieMomma · 11 Jan 2017

Hi:

I'm with @Gator on this one -- most performance problems in Fx and TB originate in the user's profile, not in the program itself.
The TB profile gets a LOT of heavy use and corruption can occur.
Mozilla Safe Mode (not to be confused with Windows Safe Mode) is a good, first step towards troubleshooting, since wonky extensions can also break it.
Creating a new user profile is a bit of work, but it can often solve many problems.
(One also needs to provide care and feeding to the TB profile, such as compacting folders, etc.)

I seriously doubt the recent patch build (45.6.0) on December 28 was the cause of the user's issue, given the limited number of fixes in it (mostly security-related). And the mozillazine forums would be blowing up with problem reports, leading to some sort of chem-spill release from Mozilla -- neither has happened.

Having said all that, it may be "best practice" to close TB from the TB GUI before shutting down Windows.
As an old geezer, I have always done that with *all* my programs, since the days of yore.
Perhaps it's no longer "necessary", but it probably lets TB (or any other program) close more eloquently, rather than letting it happen during the Windows shutdown sequence.
That is only my personal, inexpert opinion.

Cheers,
MM