Why is Thunderbird pegging a core at 100%?

12.04 64-bit thunderbird cpu-load

8,176

Solution 1

Change the configuration key

mail.db.idle_limit

30000000

In Preferences->Advanced->General->Config-editor

Source: http://rainbow.chard.org/2013/02/19/thunderbird-high-cpu/

Solution 2

Have you tried hiding the status bar? ( View->Toolbar->Status bar ) For me it seems that the animated progress bar uses vast amounts of CPU.

8,176

david6

Information Security Expert In depth experience in banking / retail transaction technology, with focus on devices, multi-tier architecture, and security (PCI, ISO stds). Long term software designer, with periodic stints in systems administration (Solaris, Linux) and infrastructure troubleshooting (Windows, Solaris, Linux). Specialties: Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, Change Management, IT Governance/Audit, Product Development, Infrastructure Hardening Long term research: Information Security policy: staff use, compliance, governance, legislation, privacy, and disclosure trend analysis: IT corporate, office productivity software, mobility, encryption, and biometrics. Mozilla Firefox (browser): development, end-user support, testing, and cross-platform (Windows, Linux) Mozilla Thunderbird (email), Mozilla Lightning (calendar): development, end-user support, testing, and cross-platform (Windows, Linux); libical / calsify library code; RFC 5545 (iCalendar) and RFC 5546 (iTIP) standards Apache OpenOffice / LibreOffice, Open Document Format (ODF): development, end-user support, testing, and cross platform (Windows, Linux)

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

david6 over 1 year
I have experienced 2-3 unexplained lockup over last 10 days.

Today, I had a random lockup (no mouse, keyboard response, 100% CPU). But, when I finally switched (Ctrl-Alt-F1) to command line (it took several minutes) it told me that thunderbird-bin had locked a CPU.

I ran this to resolve:
```
pidof thunderbird-bin
sudo kill ####
```
However, after saving other work, I tried restarting Thunderbird. It went to 90%+ CPU, and within 20 seconds it locked again.

Once I have more detail I will raise a bug (on Ubuntu Forums).

Does anyone have any other suggestions, advice?

UPDATE: (Sep-2012)

Thunderbird 13.0.1 is quite stable in safe mode. Still working to resolve ..

UPDATE 2: (Jan-2013)

Now running Thunderbird 17.0.2 (Ubuntu 12.04).

Still have ALL Plugins disabled. Works well, and does everything I need.

Not attempting to resolve.
- david6 almost 12 years
  
  May be same issue as: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=12063541
- david6 over 11 years
  
  Not sure. With Plugins mostly disabled (which I don't use anyway) it is no longer an issue.