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the last update of thunderbird (the version is now 52.1.1 (64-bit)) on ubuntu 16.04 causes my mail client to get stuck with the message

Status: Creating mail message...

then nothing happens anymore. i can cancel but not send the mail again... this happens often. i then have to start a new message and try again until the message is sent.

is there a fix for that? is that a bug? i have not changed anything in the configuration of the mail accounts since the update.

update: as Debora Weber-Wulff pointed out this may be an enigmail related issue only. (confirmed!)

update: there is a bug report for enigmail.

hiro protagonist
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  • Same thing here, but on a Mac OSX 10.11.6. Just one account (that uses Enigmail) has the same behavior. I can send encrypted emails from other accounts with no problem, but for this account (posteo.de) it just hangs. – Debora Weber-Wulff May 23 '17 at 20:16
  • @DeboraWeber-Wulff: it may very well be that this is enigmail related. i don't think i have ever seen it happen with contacts i do not use gpg for... thanks! – hiro protagonist May 24 '17 at 06:54
  • I have this problem as well on MacOS. I found that there are gpg processes running in the background. If I kill those processes, tb immediately crashes. This is definitely an interaction between tb/enigmail/gpg. – Christopher Schultz May 24 '17 at 15:08
  • And I can send unencrypted emails from the posteo account without problem. I can also accept encrypted emails at the posteo account and decrypt them without problem. So it seems to be a general Thunderbird/Enigmail/GPG interaction, not so much an Ubuntu problem. Now, where do we find help? ;) – Debora Weber-Wulff May 24 '17 at 16:06
  • Just found a bizarre workaround: save the email in the drafts folder by selecting that from the menu. Then it will send just fine.... – Debora Weber-Wulff May 24 '17 at 16:19
  • I'm experincing exactly the same issue since I've recently updated Thunderbird in my Ubuntu 16.04. What I have seen is that even if it cannot send the message, after cancelling you can still save the draft and then I can try again sending the draft. – Julian May 31 '17 at 11:47
  • @DavidFoerster -safe-mode disables enigmail... did not try thunderbird 55. but thanks for the hint! – hiro protagonist Jun 05 '17 at 17:17
  • Yes, add-ons are disabled in safe mode; that's the whole point. You said you had not confirmed whether this is related to Enigmail. Also, Enigmail may be incompatible with or buggy in pre-release builds of Thunderbird. – David Foerster Jun 05 '17 at 17:20
  • @DavidFoerster: i am pretty certain by now that it is enigmail related. sorry, should have stated that more clearly. – hiro protagonist Jun 05 '17 at 17:47

3 Answers3

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Yes, it appears to be this bug: #687 Enigmail hanging on send - Thunderbird 52.1.1

Work-around

One suggested work-around (confirmed by multiple bug report commentators) is to kill all GPG processes,

killall gpg gpg2

and try again.

Beta-version with fix

You can also install the pre-release version 1.9.8-a3 of Enigmail that's supposed to contain a fix.

David Foerster
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the developer of enigmail has released a new pre-release (1.9.8-a4) of enigmail; as announced in a post on the bug tracker.

the bug has never shown up in this version.

hiro protagonist
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I have had this problem but my work-around is just to click on the 'X' to close the compose window, then choose the option to save the draft. Then open, edit and send the draft and it has always then gone without any further problems.

I also changed the location of my drafts folder to a local folder because prior to that I ended up with lots of encrypted 'drafts' that had to be manually deleted as each draft, when encrypted, was unique. With a local drafts folder the drafts are unencrypted and are deleted automatically when sent.

Paul Taylor
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