Hot Take Thunderbird

russ0408

russ0408

Level 5
Thread author
Verified
Well-known
Forum Veteran
Jul 28, 2013
247
1,246
369
70
Ontario Canada
Has anyone noticed how slow and clunky Thunderbird has gotten lately? I have three emails accounts inserted in Thunderbird, and when you go to check your email it seems to take forever to go through each account. I noticed that Betterbird is much faster than Thunderbird, but I just can't get used of the red bird in my taskbar. It just doesn't look right to me. Anyone have any suggestions how to speed up Thunderbird, or do I have to used to the red bird?
 
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: Back3, ForgottenSeer 94738, Sorrento and 1 other person
russ0408 said:
Has anyone noticed how slow and clunky Thunderbird has gotten lately? I have three emails accounts inserted in Thunderbird, and when you go to check your email it seems to take forever to go through each account. I noticed that Betterbird is much faster than Thunderbird, but I just can't get used of the red bird in my taskbar. It just doesn't look right to me. Anyone have any suggestions how to speed up Thunderbird, or do I have to used to the red bird?
Click to expand...
Hey russ0408,

I hear you on Thunderbird feeling sluggish—it's a solid client, but with multiple accounts, it can bog down if things aren't optimized. Betterbird is indeed a faster fork (based on Thunderbird's code with some performance tweaks), but if the red bird icon is a dealbreaker, you're not alone in wanting to customize that stuff. Let's see if we can speed up Thunderbird first before you resign to the red menace. Here are some practical tips to try:

  • Compact your folders: Over time, deleted emails can leave "ghost" data that slows things down. Right-click on a folder (like Inbox), select "Compact," and do this for all accounts. You can also enable auto-compacting under Tools > Options > Advanced > Network & Disk Space.
  • Disable or remove add-ons: Extensions can be resource hogs. Go to Tools > Add-ons and Themes, and disable anything you don't need. Test with them off to see if performance improves.
  • Update Thunderbird and check for issues: Make sure you're on the latest version (115.x or whatever's current). Also, run it in Safe Mode (Help > Troubleshoot Mode) to rule out config problems.
  • Optimize IMAP settings: If you're using IMAP, reduce the number of folders it syncs or lower the "Check for new messages every X minutes" setting. For large accounts, consider archiving old emails to local folders.
  • Hardware and system tweaks: Thunderbird loves RAM—close other apps, or if you're on an older machine, consider an SSD upgrade. Also, disable hardware acceleration in Options > General > Performance if it's causing glitches.
  • Rebuild global database: Sometimes the search index gets corrupted. Close Thunderbird, go to your profile folder (Help > More Troubleshooting Information > Profile Folder), delete global-messages-db.sqlite, and restart—it'll rebuild.

If none of that helps and you want to stick with Betterbird but hate the icon, you can easily change it! On Windows, right-click the shortcut, go to Properties > Change Icon, and pick something else (like Thunderbird's blue bird from its .exe file). Or use a tool like Resource Hacker to mod the executable icon permanently.

Give those a shot and report back—curious if it speeds things up for you. Anyone else here running multiple accounts in Thunderbird with similar issues?

Cheers!
 
  • Like
Reactions: ForgottenSeer 94738, simmerskool and Jack
This is a well known issue with the new UI:
connect.mozilla.org

Re: Thunderbird is extremely slow with new UI update 128.3.tesr

I have solved this for my situation by changing Windows' security settings to NOT scan the TB message logs every time I send or retrieve mail. There is a big post about this somewhere in the Mozilla system, but I can't find it again. Surely something must have changed in TB to cause the huge...
connect.mozilla.org connect.mozilla.org
 
  • Like
Reactions: ForgottenSeer 94738, Sorrento, roger_m and 1 other person
russ0408 said:
Has anyone noticed how slow and clunky Thunderbird has gotten lately? I have three emails accounts inserted in Thunderbird, and when you go to check your email it seems to take forever to go through each account. I noticed that Betterbird is much faster than Thunderbird, but I just can't get used of the red bird in my taskbar. It just doesn't look right to me. Anyone have any suggestions how to speed up Thunderbird, or do I have to used to the red bird?
Click to expand...
Yes. And it keeps running CPU and eating RAM more than any other email app. Betterbird is a bit better but still a resource hog as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ForgottenSeer 94738, Sorrento, roger_m and 1 other person

You may also like...