My thunderbird whites out & "Not Responding" shows up? all to often. Can you help. Great other wise :-)

Question

It seems to happen when I really need to get in to an e-mail.. Murphys law :-)
TB locks up, says "Not responding" across the top , Then finally whites out. The rest of the computer is working fine, So I usually go do something else, & when I come back to TB its working again.
Thank you . I see you are supporting TB again with dedicated people , Awesome.
The Search feature is very helpful in Thunderbird. Thank you :-)

Answer 1

'''Re; Pop and IMAP'''
Pop mail accounts can only access the server Inbox and download messages to your Thunderbird mail account Inbox.
IMAP mail accounts see a remote view of the server folders. You subscribe to see folders. Email headers are downloaded and when you select to view an email in the list, the email is retrieved from the server and downloaded to a temporary cache.
You can check which type by looking here:
'Tools' > 'Account Settings' > 'Server server Settings' for the mail account
or
Right click on mail account name in Folder Pane and select 'Settings'
Then choose the 'Server Settings' for the mail account.
At the top on the right side, it will say 'Server Type'. What does it say ?
'''re: Defender:''' - on Windows Vista and 7 (see later posts for 8 and 8.1)
Windows Defender is not a antivirus program, it is anti-maleware/antispyware, please do not think you are protected when only running Defender.
There are some free anti-virus software or you can purchase one.
An example :
* https://www.avast.com/index
'''re: I thought Thunderbird did that automatically'''
Thunderbird is an email client, it allows you see emails and create emails. It can scan for 'Junk' but you would need to make sure your Junk Controls have been set up correctly. See info here:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Junk_Mail_Controls
''By default, Thunderbird blocks remote images and other content in messages from people you don't know. This protects your privacy because spammers can verify your email address by detecting if you viewed a remote image in a message from them. Its also possible to embed an executable (malware) in images.''
''When you receive a message with remote images, Thunderbird will display an alert stating that remote images have been blocked, and the images in the message body will be replaced with simple place-holders''
So do not click on links or images or open attachments from anything that looks suspicious. Do not allow remote content in any email that is not from a known and trusted source.