Author Topic: Thunderbird email and Avast  (Read 4127 times)

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LAB

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Thunderbird email and Avast
« on: September 08, 2005, 06:43:23 PM »
I am using the current version of Avast Home on WinXp SP2. When deleting Thunderbird Email, it can take up to 1 minute or longer and the program hangs up for a while  before the mail  it gets deleted. This occurs if you have Avast's standard shield set to scan all files. If you set standard shield to scan the default files only, then the problem goes away. Outlook works fine on either setting.

It gets to be an annoyance if you try deleting about 5 or more emails at one time which even takes longer. Is Avast checking files prior to deleting them or something or does it have something to do on how Thunderbird stores mail compared to Outlook?

Offline igor

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Re: Thunderbird email and Avast
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2005, 09:03:38 PM »
Is the avast! icon spinning during the time Thunderbird is deleting the message? How big is your mailbox (approximately)?
Does it help if you put the Thunderbird mailbox folder (don't know where it is, sorry - possibly in its installation folder?) into the list of avast! Standard Shield exclusions?

Offline alanrf

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Re: Thunderbird email and Avast
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2005, 09:05:48 PM »
I am using the current version of avast!, WinXP/SP2 and current Thunderbird. 

I just changed my Standard Shield to scan all files and attempted to reproduce the condition you are seeing.  Deleting messages in Thunderbird had no noticeable delay. 

As you probably know Thunderbird holds each folder as a separate file unlike some ofther mail systems (Outlook, Lotus Notes etc) which hold all the mail in one large file.   When you delete a message in almost all mail systems nothing much happens.  The mail message is just flagged as deleted, it is not really "deleted" at all it is just not displayed to you. 

This means that your mail files very quickly get to be very large unless you take some action.  Since you have chosen to scan all files then scanning very large Thunderbird folders will certainly cause extra overhead for avast!   

It is generally a good idea in Thunderbird to move messages you want to keep out of the Inbox to other folders.  Every so often you should right click on your most used mail folders and select the "Compact this folder".  Only when the folder is compacted will Thunderbird really delete all those deleted messages and free up the file space. 

You can set Thunderbird to prompt for compacting folders:

Tools > Options > Advanced > Offline Settings > in the "Disk Space" section click the "Compact folders" box.

LAB

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Re: Thunderbird email and Avast
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2005, 10:08:33 PM »
Igor, I do not beleive that the Avast Icon is spinning on mail deletion but I will check later when I get home. I only have at max up to 15 mail messages at any given point in time since I try to keep it clean. I can even delete one piece of mail that has no attachments on it and only a few lines of text but the result is the same. I have not tried the exclusion list on it, but I know for a fact that when using Outlook, it does not matter how much mail is in there or what the standard shield is set at, the deletion takes place immediately and a long delay when using Thunderbird except when I set standard shield to scan default files only.

 I believe Thunderbird stores mail in the mydocuments/username/application data/Thunderbird/profile folder. I can also try to exclude it and see what happens. I have tried a few other e-mail programs also and have had no problems with any of them except TB.

Offline alanrf

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Re: Thunderbird email and Avast
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2005, 10:30:22 PM »
Although in my previous message I pointed out that when you delete a message nothing much happens to the folder you are deleting from (the message is just flagged as deleted and not displayed to you again) I forgot that the message is copied from that folder to the trash folder (which is a separate file).  So you may want to check out the current size of your trash folder.

One of my pet peeves with Thunderbird is that even if you have the trash set to empty on exit this setting stops working from time to time and the trash folder just builds up and up in size until you deliberately empty the trash and compact the trash folder.

LAB

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Re: Thunderbird email and Avast
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2005, 12:08:57 PM »
I tried emptying the trash folder and that seems to help/fix the problem. Thanks for the help guys!