Avast 11 causing Thunderbird to hang

[REDACTED]

Hi all,

I run Avast Free and Thunderbird on my desktop and laptop (both Win7 64-bit).  In the last week I updated Thunderbird to 38.4 and Avast Free to 11.1.2241 (2016).  Almost immediately I started having trouble with TBird hanging on the laptop - the infamous "AppHangB1" problem.  It seemed to coincide with doing absolutely anything in the TBird GUI while TBird was checking/syncing IMAP accounts in the background.  I have multiple accounts so syncing can take several minutes even when there are no changes.

Since both installations of Avast and TBird are configured identically, I suspected a corrupt TBird profile.  So I erased the profile and copied over the working profile from the desktop.  Still hanging.  So then I suspected a bad software update.  I uninstalled it and installed from a fresh download.  Still hangs.  Then I erased everything, installed TBird and copied the working profile.  Still hangs.

So I began scrounging through TBird's support forums.  I found numerous issues with various AV products, but nothing about Avast in recent history.  But as a test, I disabled Avast ... TBird works!!!

Then I noticed Avast had been updated on Dec 1, so I installed that update (11.1.2245) in case there was an incompatibility that had been discovered but not yet announced.  TBird hangs.

I tried disabling Mail shield.  TBird hangs.
I tried disabling Web shield thinking it might be some HTML mail causing the problem.  TBird hangs.
I tried disabling File System shield.  TBird works!!!

Then I came across an old note (circa ~2008) about TBird hanging unless its profile directory was excluded from scanning.   That note was regarding a different AV product, but I tried it and TBird has worked since ... most of the day now with normal opening/closing use [not just being left open unattended] with both Mail and Web shields enabled normally.

But I still don't know what exactly is the problem because I only need to do this on my laptop - the desktop has worked all along with TBird's profile included in scanning.

Any thoughts as to what is happening?  The TBird crash report from Windows is not consistent.  It's always an AppHangB1, but the location and signature vary.  Not terribly informative.

Thanks,
George

[Rednose]

Hi George

I am also using both Avast and Thunderbird on a Win7 64-bit system, and I don't have any problems.
But I realise that it doesn't help you.

I don't know if this problem is Avast related, but follow this procedure : https://www.avast.com/en-eu/faq.php?article=AVKB33#idt_01
Don't make a ticket, but just post the Support Package File ID in your next reply.
Than I will put it forward.

Greetz, Red.

[REDACTED]

Hi Red,

The package ID is  CIM7X

I hope it helps -  the checks were all green and I only sent mini-dumps (the default) if there were any.  But I haven't seen any errors that obviously came from Avast.

Fingers crossed, the work-around is still working.
George