[N/A] Windows email client suggestions? [N/A]

G-Man

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For ten years, I've happily run Mozilla's Thunderbird email client on Windows machines. In the past six months, it's become unworkably slow - often freezing for up to 15. You start typing and nothing happens, then after what seems like forever, the letters appear. It's also 5-10 seconds delayed to respond to mouse clicks, etc. Unusable.

I'm currently running a new Windows10 desktop and i7 Windows7 laptop - both have such serious delay/response/latency issues I must leave Thunderbird if I can't fix it, because it is so frustrating. No issues with any other software, and a consistent robust internet connection.

There's good Internet discussion on this, so I'm not the only one with the issue. Those solutions help a little for 10-60 minutes. I run zero Thunderbird Add-Ons on the desktop and only one font/display enlarger on the laptop.

I run eight email addresses. One never gets mail, four get tons, three get 1-5 messages per day. For the foreseeable future, I need to continue with the multiple email addresses. My Profile is 23GB with 652 files in 97 folders, with emails dating back to January, 2008.

Anyone conquered these problems and gotten Thunderbird back to its previous excellence?
Any good alternatives to Thunderbird?
Thank you.
 
I use Outlook.

What malware protection are you running? Maybe you need to exclude the Thunderbird email store from it. I haven't used it in years but when I retire RIP Outlook.
 
Thanks, JonH. On the Win10 machine, I use Windows Defender (after giving up on AVG). On the laptop, MalwareBytes.

Thanks, Sac Arrow. Gmail and Yahoo.
 
I use Outlook for my exchange account, and the web interfaces for my Hotmail and Yahoo accounts on the computer. On my iphone and ipad, I have them all routed to a common inbox through the Exchange client. I supposed I could configure Outlook to do the same on the computer but I just don't have a need to. So, I guess I would vote for Outlook as well.
 
Isn’t there a lighter version of the Mozilla one?
 
I was a fan of Outlook for a long time. I don't recall the reason now, but at one point using gmail from a browser was my only workable option for a while. I sorely missed outlook for a long time. But over time I came to like being able to log into my email from any machine or my phone and having everything be there as I left it without fail. When the time came that I could start using outlook again, I didn't bother. Gmail does everything I need it to. The search function works great. Filters do what I need them to. I can have as many folders as I need. When I get a new computer or phone, installation, setup and configuration is a matter of putting my credentials once. I don't think I'll ever use a dedicated email client again.
 
Do you need to have a locally-installed email client? I used to use Outlook but about 5 years ago switched to just using the web interfaces for Gmail and Hotmail. After some initial adjustment to my long-established procedures and ideas about email, it works just fine.

EDIT - and, @Juliet Hotel beat me to it!
 
Outlook has some great benefits over a straight web based client, such as integration with office apps (send from app, for instance), being able to right click on file in file explorer and send, being able to add received appointments (like ICS files) with a click, etc.
 
Gmail is able to receive ICS files and add them to my calendar. If I needed in application email support or the ability to send a gmail by right clicking a file, I could add it for about $20/year.
 
I have no problems with Thunderbird with a bazillion email addresses. Try disabling automatic image download.

Rich
 
You can still download Windows Live Mail; I have six email addresses; it works fine (on Win10).
 
Can't help with Thunderbird but something is going on with Mozilla; it decided to stop running on my laptop. I've been using web based email for a long time now like the others say, so I can log into it anywhere. I used gmail for a while but google reads all your stuff so now I use zoho.
 
I had a few similar problems. It was solved by getting a Mac and using the native mail, works best for my 7 addresses. Not trying to be cheeky, but I have found no reason to keep a windows machine even updated anymore. In fact, two boxes have turned into permanent Ubuntu platforms, and the other for parts. I even have the latest distro on my Mac for funsies. I haven't needed to in many years, but parallels works great.

The new parts to SharePoint are so decent that I can finally reliably work from somewhere else.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
 
Thunderbird's mailbox indexes get corrupted every so often, and if even one is corrupted, it can cause the whole application to slow to a crawl. There's a built-in repair tool that usually works, but you have to repair them all until you find the offending one(s).

A corrupted sqlite database can also cause problems. There's only one of those, and the solution is to delete it (with T-Bird shut down, of course), start T-Bird, and let it rebuild it. It can take a while.

Many cases of slowness on installations where there are multiple email addresses, however, are caused by automatic image downloading be enabled. I disable it as a first step simply because it's easy and quick to check. If that doesn't solve the problem, then fixing the indexes is the next step.

Rich
 
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