Thunderbird keeps crashing

[Barney-R]

Since performing a clean install (single boot) of Ubuntu 12.04, I am having stability problems with Thunderbird (17.0.2). I've always had a few issues with font styles and sizes, with Thunderbird seemingly making it's own decisions, but now, if I click on the "Larger font size" button, the program freezes, usually taking Ubuntu down with it. I can't even shut the computer down normally, but have to switch the power off, which I don't like doing.

One of the "selling points" for Ubuntu, and for Linux generally, is that it doesn't crash (hardly ever anyway), but Thunderbird has cancelled that. Sometimes it crashes for no obvious reason, and if I try to change the text size in an e-mail I'm typing, it always crashes. It's reached the point where I daren't make any changes.

Sometimes I end up with a completely different font, and sometimes the text is so big that there's only room for a single character on a line.

A minor point is that the spell checker isn't working properly, often picking up on part of a word and marking it as a spelling mistake. As an example, I might type the word "another" and the spell checker will mark "nother" or "ther" as mis-spelled. It's not a serious problem, but it's irritating, and sometimes acts as a warning of an impending crash.

I'm having to type long or important messages in a text file, which can be saved as an insurance against loss, before copying and pasting into a new e-mail.

I don't like Evolution, and I've got some messages in Thunderbird that I want to keep, so does anyone know how to solve this stability problem?

[pfeiffep]

Not certain if my situation and solution will work for you....I had ThunderBird 17 installed and I added ThunderBrowse.
I had similar issues as you described. I completely PURGED the ThunderBird installation, and then re-installed which 'fixed' my situation.
Because I use imap and keep message on server I lost NONE of my emails.

Notable - I use an ancient laptop and a high powered desktop (both 12.10), the issue was on the laptop, so I surmised that TBird with TBrowse installed was too
much of a resource hog. I've had no issues with TBrowse on desktop.

[Frogs Hair]

It could be a corrupt profile or an installation problem. You can create a new profile by opening the home folder > Ctrl + H and deleting the .thunderbird folder . When Tbird is opened again a new folder will be created. The down side is you have re-enter all the information and install any add-ons again. If you have a lot of important information with you profile you my not want go this route.

[Barney-R]

Sorry about the late reply. I've been away for a few days.

My problem with reinstalling Thunderbird is that I use pop3, so the messages I want to keep are stored on my hard drive, plus I'd rather not have to re-enter all my settings and re-build my address book.

I'm aware that I can save messages elsewhere in .eml format, but then there doesn't seem to be a way of re-importing them.

I've downloaded some updates recently, and I notice the text size in Thunderbird (new outgoing messages) is larger, so no need to change that, but the spell checker is still picking on parts of words. I've always been good at spelling, so perhaps I'll just disable spell checking.

I haven't dared risk changing the text size yet, but sometimes it still changes on it's own when I start a new paragraph, usually becoming smaller and often changing the font style as well (only from that point though, existing text usually remains unchanged).

I don't know whether there's a solution or whether I'll eventually have to ditch Thunderbird and find something better.

[Frogs Hair]

You can export/import your address book from Tools > Address Book Tools > Import/ Export . Thunderbird has Sync also thorough I have not used it .
Sync allows you move your settings to to a new device /computer.

[Barney-R]

Thanks for trying everyone, and apologies again for my late response.

It's looking as if I'm stuck with this problem. Must be a faulty installation. I don't want to reinstall though because I'm in the middle of some important conversations.