Thunderbird with Enigmail freezes

Solution 1:

I have the same problem with Thunderbird 68.10.0 and Enigmail 2.1.8 on Ubuntu 18.04.5. The system is up-to-date.

The following works for me:

• kill all thunderbird instances
• start thunderbird in safe mode with add ons disabled

$ thunderbird --safe-mode
check "Disable all add-ons"
click "Continue in Safe Mode

• disable the enigmail plugin via the plugin administration

Tools->Add-Ons->Enigmail disable

• restart thunderbird in normal mode, it should not freeze anymore.
• activate the Enigmail plugin again via the plugin administration

    Tools->Add-Ons->Enigmail enable

It works for the current session, after a restart with enabled Enigmail add on there freezes again.

Solution 2:

I had the same problem. What was not apparent to me is that in the new versions of Thunderbird, not only is the Enigmail functionality incorporated into Thunderbird (there is a message to that effect when you first start the new version), but this functionality is incorporated WITHOUT the add-on. That is, the add-on can (and should) simply be removed, and the Enigmail functionality is preserved. It is unnecessary to start in safe mode and then re-enable the add-on. To solve this problem simply remove the add-on.