Thunderbird is always incredibly slow

[C0stanza]

Hey everyone. For years I've been looking for a solid email client that isn't the default one and every time I ask around I always have plenty of people suggesting Thunderbird. Problem is, whenever I try and use it the program takes forever to do anything. This is a problem I've had for years on different machines running Windows 7, 8.1, and now 10. When I start up Thunderbird, after connecting it to my old Gmail account, the program will hang for minutes at a time and sometimes fail to show me any new mail I've received no matter how long I wait.

 

Are there some common config settings I don't have set properly? Does anyone here use Thunderbird? Its gotten to the point where I've seen this issue for so long I'd really like to understand what's going wrong, even if there are other ways I've long since settled on to check my mail.

[SupaKomputa]

Why not just use the gmail web? Last time i use an email client is more than decade ago.

[Alex Atkin UK]

37 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Why not just use the gmail web? Last time i use an email client is more than decade ago.

While I do not recommend using gmail at all (they can revoke your account at any time) if you are using it then I'd agree, there's really no point using an e-mail client IMO.

 

I use an e-mail client as I run my own e-mail server, which I can host on any VPS and I keep my archived e-mails offline, where I can keep it backed up myself.  Obviously that has the drawback I cannot access my old e-mails when away from home, but there are ways around that too if I moved to something like NextCloud hosted on my NAS.

[SupaKomputa]

3 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I use an e-mail client as I run my own e-mail server

this is the only reason to use email client for custom domain / office email.

as a server admin it's a hassle really to setup and maintain an email server.

i always advice my clients to use cloud mail provider (gmail / outlook / yandex, paid or free).

makes my job simpler, and i dont have to troubleshoot their email problems. haha.

[Alex Atkin UK]

4 hours ago, SupaKomputa said:

this is the only reason to use email client for custom domain / office email.

as a server admin it's a hassle really to setup and maintain an email server.

i always advice my clients to use cloud mail provider (gmail / outlook / yandex, paid or free).

makes my job simpler, and i dont have to troubleshoot their email problems. haha.

That's true, I had to upgrade to a much more powerful VPS recently because clamscan now needs insane amounts of RAM to scan incoming mail.  It can also consume absurd amounts of CPU power when something iffy does come in.

Still, I'd rather than than have 2FA coming into a popular attack vector, or have Google profile me based on the content of my e-mails. (not that I often even send e-mails)

I'd just run the e-mail server locally tbh, but Virtualmin doesn't support Fedora and like you said its a hassle to do it manually.  I did used to use my local box as a backup relay, but it kept breaking.

[SupaKomputa]

15 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

because clamscan now needs insane amounts of RAM to scan incoming mail

yeah, especially with the amount of junk mail today. i gave 5gb email quota for each person it will be full in a month.

scanning for malware takes up unnecessary resources, not worth it for small-mid size company.

[C0stanza]

Alright everyone seems in agreement that an email client is more trouble than its worth. I'm still curious as to why Thunderbird is so slow while the default mail app for MacOS and Windows both seem to work way better but I won't stress too much about it. Thanks for the responses everyone

[divito]

I've been using Thunderbird for almost it's entire 19 year life span; can't say I've experienced anything quite like you're experiencing.

I use Hotmail, Gmail, Outlook accounts with Thunderbird, as well as a personal e-mail server/domain and a work one as well. The only time Thunderbird seems to take awhile for me is if connection to one of the mail servers is a bit bogged down. But typically, everything is fairly smooth.

This post has some tips to check some settings that may help speed things up.