Moving many emails between folders causes Thunderbird to use massive amounts of memory

[Mike Doherty]

I tried to move many emails (thousands) from one folder to another. This caused Thunderbird to use massive amounts of memory (my system has 4GB, and nearly all was allocated to Thunderbird, with swap space well on the way to being full). Thunderbird froze. Subsequently, Thunderbird brought up the "a script on this page has stopped working" dialog. Even moving about a hundred emails at once causes large and noticeable memory use.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: thunderbird 14.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-29.46-generic 3.2.24
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-29-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu12
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269VB Analog [ALC269VB Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: mike 2287 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: mike 2287 F...m pulseaudio
BuildID: 20120714045214
CRDA: Error: command ['iw', 'reg', 'get'] failed with exit code 1: nl80211 not found.
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xd4720000 irq 44'
   Mixer name : 'Intel IbexPeak HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0269,11790622,00100100 HDA:80862804,11790001,00100000'
   Controls : 31
   Simple ctrls : 13
Channel: Unavailable
Date: Tue Aug 21 22:11:20 2012
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ForcedLayersAccel: False
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20110720.1)
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.1.1 dev eth1 proto static
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth1 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.1.0/24 dev eth1 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.106 metric 2
 192.168.122.0/24 dev virbr0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.122.1
MostRecentCrashID: bp-b946efb1-8dbe-4955-80c6-9bfc92120611
PrefSources:
 prefs.js
 /usr/lib/mozilla/extensions/{3550f703-e582-4d05-9a08-453d09bdfdc6}/{847b3a00-7ab1-11d4-8f02-006008948af5}/defaults/preferences/enigmail.js
 /usr/lib/mozilla/extensions/{3550f703-e582-4d05-9a08-453d09bdfdc6}/{847b3a00-7ab1-11d4-8f02-006008948af5}/defaults/preferences/000system.js
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=14.0/20120714045214 (In use)
RelatedPackageVersions:
 icedtea-6-plugin 1.2-2ubuntu1.1
 google-talkplugin 3.2.4.0-1
 rhythmbox-mozilla 2.96-0ubuntu4.1
 gecko-mediaplayer 1.0.4-2ubuntu1
RunningIncompatibleAddons: False
SourcePackage: thunderbird
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-04-28 (115 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 08/26/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.bios.version: Version 1.50
dmi.board.asset.tag: 0000000000
dmi.board.name: Portable PC
dmi.board.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.board.version: Version A0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 0000000000
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.chassis.version: Version 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnTOSHIBA:bvrVersion1.50:bd08/26/2010:svnTOSHIBA:pnTECRAR700:pvrPT318C-00F001:rvnTOSHIBA:rnPortablePC:rvrVersionA0:cvnTOSHIBA:ct10:cvrVersion1.0:
dmi.product.name: TECRA R700
dmi.product.version: PT318C-00F001
dmi.sys.vendor: TOSHIBA

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Michal Voců (michal-vocu)]

I use thunderbird from thunderbird-next ppa (currently 15.0~b4+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1~mtn1) and I observe the same behaviour. When deleting messages (my daily dose, about a hundred), ie. moving them to trash folder, the memory consumption is 1.7GB on 4GB machine. I use IMAPs for my mail accounts.

[Michal Voců (michal-vocu)]

The problem seems to be related to the global message index. When global indexing is disabled, the memory consumption stays in reasonable boundaries. I removed the global message index (global-messages-db.sqlite) and will see if it helps.