Address book slow
Barbara
load the first time I use Thunderbird. Later e-mails, the address books
seems to speed up and give me the names much faster. My address is book
is 268 KB, which doesn't seem large enough to cause drag.
Any suggestions how to improve this?
Barbara
--
Using WindowsXP SP2 Home Edition (all patches updated), Pentium IV 1.6
GHz, 1 GB memory, 160 GB HD, Zone Alarm Pro 6.1.744.001, PCcillin 2006,
Firefox 1.5.0.4, TB 1.5.0.4
Nir
> I notice that when I compose a message, the address book is very slow to
> load the first time I use Thunderbird. Later e-mails, the address books
> seems to speed up and give me the names much faster. My address is book
> is 268 KB, which doesn't seem large enough to cause drag.
> Any suggestions how to improve this?
>
> Barbara
Never faced such problem with address book ( size 700+ KB ) . probably any other
program ( or process ) , consuming CPU highly ( " first time I use Thunderbird"
) caused that problem. Does this problem occur frequently?
John McWilliams
> I notice that when I compose a message, the address book is very slow to
> load the first time I use Thunderbird. Later e-mails, the address books
> seems to speed up and give me the names much faster. My address is book
> is 268 KB, which doesn't seem large enough to cause drag.
> Any suggestions how to improve this?
>
Barbara-
I just wrote this a few hours ago. Please let us know if this cures your problem.
I'd suggest you open your AB, run Export of it into .ldif format, put
that file in a safe place. Now quit the app., and remove the file ending
in .mab from your Profile. Reopen 'Bird, and open AB, which should be
empty. Now import the .ldif file you just created.
This does two things: Gives you a great backup copy, and can remove
oddities from the AB itself.
-- John McWilliams
Barbara
To answer the other question, it had been happening every time.
I tried John's suggestion and it seems to be better so we'll see how it
goes.
Thanks :)
Barbara
Barbara
The slowness came back, so I've deleted my 2nd Address Book to see if
that helps longer.
Barbara
Bernie
> I notice that when I compose a message, the address book is very slow to
> load the first time I use Thunderbird. Later e-mails, the address books
> seems to speed up and give me the names much faster. My address is book
> is 268 KB, which doesn't seem large enough to cause drag.
> Any suggestions how to improve this?
>
> Barbara
I may be having a similar problem. I rarely actually open the address
book, but when using autocomplete it now often takes a long time. I've
wondered if the feature that tries to remember most commonly used
addresses has developed too long or too complex a list, but I really
don't know how that feature works or where the info is stored. And it
is pure speculation on my part that that is the reason for the slowness.
Bernie
Nir
There is no such 'extra' file which contains 'most commonly used addresses".
When you type something in to ( or CC or BCC ) field , TB starts to search all
those address book entries which contains that typed word and if it get any,
instantly shows them as suggestion.
But now speed of search depends on total no. of entries you have in the address
book , so searching speed varies with size of Address book.
Nir
Hi Bernie,
I think John has a very good solution for Address Book problem ( See John's post
in thread "where is address book located?" )
John's idea is simple but much effective . if somehow "abook.mab" file get
affected by errors , save contact list in a ".ldif format". Note, this file (.ldif)
generally doesn't contains any error. Now delete old "abook.mab" file and open
TB. It will create a new ( clean ) "abook.mab" file automatically ( as soon as
you click on "Address Book" icon in toolbar.)
Now import all your contacts in your new ( initially empty ) address book.
Ron Hunter
I suspect that little emphasis was given to efficient search coding for
the addressbook search, given that most people will have less than 100
entries. However, even a basic search of only 6000 items on a fairly
current computer should be very fast.
So, what kind of times are we looking at here? And what is the computer
speed, ram, and Hd speed? All are factors.
Nir
algorithm. Actually searching time depends on lots of factors ( as you
already mentioned ) , basically CPU speed, size of RAM , other processes
, running behind, consuming CPU speed and size of Address Book.
Probably Barbara's problem is not related with CPU speed ( 1 GB RAM size
is good enough even CPU speed 1.6GHZ) but related with two huge process
( ZoneAlarm and PCcillin ) that always keeps running background .
( No, I personally believe that searching time of 100 and 6000 entries
will be 'almost' same. if you decrease the number '6000' to '600' only
then i will agree with you;-) )
Barbara
I actually think it's more to do with changes in Thunderbird, because
this hasn't always happened, but has been noticeable in the past few months.
To test the theory that ZoneAlarm and/or PC-cillin are causing the
problem, I disconnected from the Internet,closed TB and turned on the
memory monitor (from Windows Task Manager)
Test 1. Shut down PC-cillin (left ZoneAlarm running) and opened TB,
did a compose message. Typed in the TO box: AB (I have several entries
that start with that). Results: Memory went to 100% (the memory box
went full green) and finding the first entry took several seconds to
give me back a list. Next compose
message went almost instantaneous.
Test 2. Shut down Zone Alarm (PC-cillin still closed), opened TB, did
a compose message. Results: Same as above.
Test 3: Went over to Netscape 7.2 mail, which I haven't used in quite a
while to compare results. The compose window when I enter "AB" in the
TO field, takes about 1 second to pull up a list of matches. Memory
went high (the memory monitor box from Windows Task Manager in the task
bar went full green) when the program first loaded, but not when trying
to pull up a name.
Test 4: Went back to TB. Watched memory as it loaded - went quite
high (memroy box went almost full green). Opened a compose window,
entered "AB" in the TO line and waited
15 seconds (this time I actually counted) before the list of choices
popped up. The memory box went full green while it was waiting.
Test 5:Checked my C:temp folders and they were almost empty. Only 3
Windows files in the c:\windows\temp folder. Just to be sure, I deleted
everything I could out of there, and it took 18 seconds the next time I
opened TB to get a list of names in the TO area of the compose window.
Bottom line: I get the same lag with or without Zonealarm and/or
Pc-cillin running. The only other program running right now is Firefox
and I've just turned on my PC so should be no residual "stuff" hanging
around.
I just upgraded 2 weeks ago from 512 meg of memory to 1 GB and still
see the slowness in TB that I had been noticing. That was part of the
reason I thought more memory might help.
My earlier message described that I have removed all entries from the
Collected Address book, turned off the feature to put entries in there
and deleted my 2nd address book that was just people at my office to
rule out multiple address books causing the
problem. I also did the suggestion to export all address book entries,
deleted my Personal Address book and re-imported all of them.
I counted the number of entries in my exported Personal Address Book:
734.
It seems to be that the lag I'm seeing is related to the way TB (but
not Netscape) first access the Address Book when composing mail. Hope
this clarifies the problem and the results I'm seeing here.
Thanks all :)
Barbara
--
Using WindowsXP SP2 Home Edition (all patches updated), Pentium IV 1.6
GHz, 1 GB memory, 160 GB HD (brand new drive 2 weeks ago), Zone Alarm
gwtc
news://news.mozilla.org:119/6NadnX-bM_fasVzZ...@mozilla.org
or
http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.support.thunderbird/msg/ca692a8f624f6c88
--
So, You Think You Know Everything?
Did you know that Almonds are a member of the peach family.
Barbara
On 7/22/2006 8:32 AM Pacific Time, Nir wrote thusly:
> Just a little query ( really feeling sorry for suggesting you another
> Test:-[ ) : open Address Book ( click on "Address Book" icon ) .Type
> "AB" in 'search field'. still same problem occurs ?
Test 6: Opened Address Book, memory window went full green opening the
Address book (and the time lag of about 14 seconds), then when I typed
AB, it took about 2 seconds to find the list.
Barbara
Nir
gwtc
I'm confused. Isn't that what those links provide? Isn't that the
message?
Nir
Chris Ilias
> Bernie wrote:
>> I may be having a similar problem. I rarely actually open the address
>> book, but when using autocomplete it now often takes a long time. I've
>> wondered if the feature that tries to remember most commonly used
>> addresses has developed too long or too complex a list, but I really
>> don't know how that feature works or where the info is stored. And it
>> is pure speculation on my part that that is the reason for the slowness.
>
Sure there is. It's the collected addresses book. You can turn off
address collection, by going to
Tools-->Options-->Composition-->Addressing, and unchecking
"Automatically add outgoing email addresses to my:"
See <http://ilias.ca/screenshots/tb-AddressCollection.png>
The file name of that address book is history.mab.
--
Chris Ilias
mozilla.test.multimedia moderator
Mozilla links <http://ilias.ca>
(Please do not email me tech support questions)
Nir
> _Nir_ spoke thusly on 22/07/2006 7:50 AM:
>> Bernie wrote:
>>> I may be having a similar problem. I rarely actually open the address
>>> book, but when using autocomplete it now often takes a long time. I've
>>> wondered if the feature that tries to remember most commonly used
>>> addresses has developed too long or too complex a list, but I really
>>> don't know how that feature works or where the info is stored. And it
>>> is pure speculation on my part that that is the reason for the slowness.
>>
>> There is no such 'extra' file which contains 'most commonly used
>> addresses".
>
> Sure there is. It's the collected addresses book. You can turn off
> address collection, by going to
> Tools-->Options-->Composition-->Addressing, and unchecking
> "Automatically add outgoing email addresses to my:"
> See <http://ilias.ca/screenshots/tb-AddressCollection.png>
>
> The file name of that address book is history.mab.
Thanks Chris but if you set to add outgoing address to "personal address book"
then 'history.mab' will not contain any information.
Nir
> _Nir_ spoke thusly on 22/07/2006 7:50 AM:
>> Bernie wrote:
>>> I may be having a similar problem. I rarely actually open the address
>>> book, but when using autocomplete it now often takes a long time. I've
>>> wondered if the feature that tries to remember most commonly used
>>> addresses has developed too long or too complex a list, but I really
>>> don't know how that feature works or where the info is stored. And it
>>> is pure speculation on my part that that is the reason for the slowness.
>>
>> There is no such 'extra' file which contains 'most commonly used
>> addresses".
>
> Sure there is. It's the collected addresses book. You can turn off
> address collection, by going to
> Tools-->Options-->Composition-->Addressing, and unchecking
> "Automatically add outgoing email addresses to my:"
> See <http://ilias.ca/screenshots/tb-AddressCollection.png>
>
> The file name of that address book is history.mab.
...probably if you set it to add it to 'collected address book' then only
outgoing address will be included in 'history.mab' file.
Barbara
Be aware that using that option loses all the group lists. When I
realized that, I restored a backup copy since doing the export/re-import
has not solved the slowness I experience.
Barbara
Nir
Never faced such problem even i have set "mail.collect_email_address_newsgroup"
and "mail.collect_email_address_incoming" set to 'true'
Ron Hunter
There are several search algorithms, some of which are quick to write,
and slow to run, best for organized data with few entries, and others
for disorganized data and many entires. Using the wrong one for a give
application is fatal (to the intended result). Using the right one for
the correct data type, but wrong entry count can result in very slow
times. A search intended for 100 entries in an ordered database can
work very well, but with 6000 entries, it may become noticeably slow,
even given today's processors.
Searching and sorting are complex subjects, with some really esoteric
theoretical aspects and some real surprises can come up.
Mark Banner
> Test 6: Opened Address Book, memory window went full green opening the
> Address book (and the time lag of about 14 seconds), then when I typed
> AB, it took about 2 seconds to find the list.
Now I know this bit, I think you're seeing the effects of bug 230580.
There was a bug in the address book code whereby extra invalid address
books could be saved into preferences accidentally, on loading the
address book processing of the invalid address book setups can cause the
delay that you're seeing.
We've fixed the main part of the bug (where they get created) but
haven't come up with a way of removing the invalid address book items
yet, but you can fix it manually:
1) Close Thunderbird
2) Find your profile folder (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Folder)
3) Take a backup copy of prefs.js
4) Open up prefs.js with a text editor.
5) If you look through you'll see lots of entries such as:
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_<nn>.filename", xxx);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_<nn>.replication.lastChangeNumber",
xxx);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_<nn>,uri", xxx);
and/or
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.user_directory_<nn>.filename", xxx);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.user_directory_<nn>.replication.lastChangeNumber",
xxx);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.user_directory_<nn>,uri", xxx);
Note that <nn> will be a number and that xxx is a value that I can't
remember what it is normally set to.
Anyway, each ldap_2.servers.* set effectively defines an address book.
If the ones above occur, with just 3 entries as I've shown they are
invalid and can slow down the loading of the address book.
So, delete all those triplets similar to the above (this is why I said
to back it up, just in case you take out too much and lose data).
6) Now save prefs.js and open up Thunderbird and then the address book,
it should appear almost straight away now.
Hope this helps
Standard8
Ron Hunter
I suspect that your address book data has become corrupt. You might
benefit by exporting the data to an .ldif file, and making a new address
book file, and importing. Then see if that is also slow. Worked when
my wife's address book showed similar symptoms.
Kenn
I've got 54 such triplet entries, where <nn> is 1 to 54
all of the following format:
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_1.filename", "_nonascii_1.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_1.replication.lastChangeNumber", 0);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_1.uri",
"moz-abldapdirectory://_nonascii_1.mab");
Are they all invalid???
Kenn
Mark Banner
> I've got 54 such triplet entries, where <nn> is 1 to 54
>
> all of the following format:
> user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_1.filename", "_nonascii_1.mab");
> user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_1.replication.lastChangeNumber", 0);
> user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_1.uri",
> "moz-abldapdirectory://_nonascii_1.mab");
>
> Are they all invalid???
Yes as long as you've just got those items in each triplet, and to
confirm it you can look in your profile directory and check you haven't
got a _nonascii_<nn>.mab file.
Just to confirm, the bug which creates these invalid entries has been
fixed in time for Thunderbird 2.0a and SeaMonkey 1.1a, we've just not
got an eliminator for them yet.
Standard8
Barbara
Ron,
Sorry, tried that several times. No help. See Mark's suggestion -
that did work.
Barbara
Barbara
Mark,
There were a ton of entries in there as you described of both sets.
Deleted all of them and my prefs.js file went from 432 kb to 55 kb, and
AddressBook opens quickly :):):):)
I've saved your excellent instructions in case I ever have that
problem in the future.
Many thanks for taking the time to help !!!
Barbara
Barbara
To add to that, the number of entries in my prefs.js file went from
5,535 to 912. Whew!! No wonder it was slow! Many thanks again for
your excellent help and to everyone else who offered suggestions.
Barbara
Kenn
Address book loads and searches much faster after eliminating the bogus
entries and also TB loads in about 1/3 the time it did before.
Kenn
Bernie
Mark, thank you. That fixed my problem too. I had over 1,000 of those
"nonascii" triplicates in my prefs.js, and a large number of
"user_directory" entries also.
Question: I've deleted the redundant nonascii entries, but I've left
the first of the user_directory entries. If I deleted the first one,
even though it has the <nn> type entry in the triplicate, then I would
have no "user_directory" entries at all. Does it sound correct to have
no "user_directory" entries? I do not have any user address books,
except the default, and I have never turned on "collect addresses".
I thought I had read, with one of the Thunderbird releases, that an
enhancement was popping up the most frequently used addresses at the top
of the autofill suggestions, rather than simply alphabetically. I
thought that might be related to the problem, but I can't find any
reference to that enhancement now. Maybe I dreamed it up?
Thanks for your help,
Bernie
Barbara
Mark,
Even though I deleted thousands of those triple sets, a bunch have
come back (actually 99 of them). Here's the first few. Should they do
this or is this related to that bug?
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii.filename", "_nonascii.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii.replication.lastChangeNumber", 0);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii.uri",
"moz-abldapdirectory://_nonascii.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_1.filename", "_nonascii_1.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_1.replication.lastChangeNumber", 0);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_1.uri",
"moz-abldapdirectory://_nonascii_1.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_10.filename", "_nonascii_10.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_10.replication.lastChangeNumber", 0);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers._nonascii_10.uri",
"moz-abldapdirectory://_nonascii_10.mab");
They continue like that up through nn=32, then nn=4,5,6,7,8,9, then no
more.
I deleted them all (with TB closed) and they came right back the next
time I opened it.
I don't see any of the triple series with
"ldap_2.servers.user_directory" in my prefs.js file; there were a tons
of them before I followed your guidance and deleted them.
Barbara
gwtc
--
So, You Think You Know Everything?
Did you know that Al Capone's business card said he was a used
furniture dealer.
Barbara
GWTC:
They're not read-only. I went over and read about the bug that
causes this - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=230580.
Apparently, others report the same situation and are aware of it. If I
notice the slowness again, I've saved the instructions so can clean it
out easily.
I have to amend what happened. The extra
"ldap_2.servers._nonascii.filename" entries only come back if -- 1) I
open the address book, or 2) I try to compose mail and type a name that
triggers autocomplete, which opens the address book.
Barbara
Kenn
I did a little playing and discovered that they show up in sets of 6 on
my machine is I just open the address book and close it again.
Also - two of the sets disappeared when I went to reply to a newsgroup
item and then cancelled it.
I guess this another reason to get the update when it becomes available.
Which reminds me - is TB going to be updated same time as Firefox????
Kenn
gwtc
> If I
> notice the slowness again, I've saved the instructions so can clean it
> out easily.
>
why go through all that trouble again. Clean it out once, then save a
copy of the cleaned out prefs.js file. Now, whenever you have that
problem again, just replace the old file with the new one.
Bernie
> Barbara wrote:
>> If I notice the slowness again, I've saved the instructions so can
>> clean it out easily.
>>
>> Barbara
> why go through all that trouble again. Clean it out once, then save a
> copy of the cleaned out prefs.js file. Now, whenever you have that
> problem again, just replace the old file with the new one.
>
file? Looking at the file I see that there are last file, etc settings
saved there, and some printer settings.
Like Barbara, after a very few hours use and sending about 20 notes, the
system has recreated about 50 triplets.
Incidentally, I noticed that the size of my pref.js file went from about
452KB to about 54KB when I cleaned out the extraneous triplets.
Bernie
Ron Hunter
> gwtc Spoke Thus and So about This and That:
>> Barbara wrote:
>>> If I notice the slowness again, I've saved the instructions so can
>>> clean it out easily.
>>>
>>> Barbara
>> why go through all that trouble again. Clean it out once, then save a
>> copy of the cleaned out prefs.js file. Now, whenever you have that
>> problem again, just replace the old file with the new one.
>>
>
> I'm in the same boat as Barbara - I saved the instructions rather than
> thinking of the obvious.
>
> Kenn
Perhaps you could try making a new profile to see if something in the
profile is causing the problem. Obviously, most users aren't seeing it.
Mumia W.
>
> Perhaps you could try making a new profile to see if
> something in the profile is causing the problem.
> Obviously, most users aren't seeing it.
My WAG is that a corrupted address book entry is causing that
bug.
Mark Banner
Sorry, but you're wrong. It mainly appears to be to do with sorting
mailing lists on the display. I haven't worked out the specifics but I
believe its worse with more mailing lists you have.
Standard8.
Mark Banner
>
> Mark, thank you. That fixed my problem too. I had over 1,000 of those
> "nonascii" triplicates in my prefs.js, and a large number of
> "user_directory" entries also.
Good, nice to know :-)
>
> Question: I've deleted the redundant nonascii entries, but I've left
> the first of the user_directory entries. If I deleted the first one,
> even though it has the <nn> type entry in the triplicate, then I would
> have no "user_directory" entries at all. Does it sound correct to have
> no "user_directory" entries? I do not have any user address books,
> except the default, and I have never turned on "collect addresses".
You should be safe to delete the user_directory entries as well,
especially if you have just the default two address books (Personal &
Collected).
> I thought I had read, with one of the Thunderbird releases, that an
> enhancement was popping up the most frequently used addresses at the top
> of the autofill suggestions, rather than simply alphabetically. I
> thought that might be related to the problem, but I can't find any
> reference to that enhancement now. Maybe I dreamed it up?
You're right that enhancement has been made, I think it was for the up
and coming 2.0, though it may have been 1.5, but it wasn't the cause of
this problem. I think this has been around since before 1.0 but I can't
tell you exactly when.
Standard8
Mark Banner
> Mark,
> Even though I deleted thousands of those triple sets, a bunch have come
> back (actually 99 of them). Here's the first few. Should they do this
> or is this related to that bug?
Unfortunately until you upgrade to 2.0 alpha (which hasn't been updated
yet) or a nightly build you won't be able to pick up the fix, so they
will keep coming back :-(
However I am just going to do a quick investigation to see if the fix
can be applied to a 1.5.0.x maintenance release of Thunderbird, there's
one already in the pipeline for a couple of days (1.5.0.5), so it
probably won't make that, but it might make 1.5.0.6 if it works ok and
its accepted. No guarantees though (but at least its fixed for 2.0 in
any case).
Standard8.
John McWilliams
Just another line of exploration: How are you and Barbara addressing
E-mails? Typing in a few letters? Drag and drop? Other?
--
John McWilliams
Irwin Greenwald
> Barbara wrote:
>> If I notice the slowness again, I've saved the instructions so can
>> clean it out easily.
>>
>> Barbara
> why go through all that trouble again. Clean it out once, then save a
> copy of the cleaned out prefs.js file. Now, whenever you have that
> problem again, just replace the old file with the new one.
>
That solution presumes that there will be no other changes to prefs.js
in the interim, which may not be the case. For example, Quick Text
messages are saved in prefs.js.
--
Irwin
Managing TB Profiles: http://www.mozilla.org/support/thunderbird/profile
Managing FF Profiles: http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile
Irwin Greenwald
Have you checked your prefs.js lately? I see the problem in mine,
though not to the extent that Barbara does.
Barbara
I start typing the person's name into the TO box.
Barbara
Barbara
Mark,
Thanks for all your help on this :) Nice to know someone has found a
fix for it. I'll bet there are a lot of people who have the problem and
just haven't been bothered enough to ask, or just live with it as I did
for months.
Barbara
Kenn
selecting their name from the list.
Either way I get the triplets added to prefs, they also add just by
opening a new mail via write or reply.
I also have the contacts sidebar pane open by defaults.
I'll try with it closed to see if I still get the triplets.
Kenn
Kenn
my error by opening and closing the address book.
ks
Bernie
I never have the contact list sidebar open, so that isn't the cause of
the problem.
Bernie
Barbara
What's even more interesting, is that since I restarted my computer over
the weekend, those strange entries have not returned. I deleted them
about a half dozen times one day. Maybe they got the hint they weren't
wanted :)
Barbara