Clicking on "always download pictures from this sender" crashes eM Client

Just today, emails are displayed with no pictures and clicking on the link “always download pictures from this sender” causes eM Client to crash. Launching eM Client again then requires a database rebuild which takes ages.

Also, in trying to trouble shoot this issue, I noticed that the “Manage Safe Senders” (Settings > Email > Privacy) window is empty (blank) and trying to add an email address to this field also causes eM Client to crash!

I have uninstalled eM Client and reinstalled, while retaining the database, but the above behaviour continues … looks like the issue is caused by something in the database?

Any suggestions as to what else I can try?

I am running the current release of eM Client on Windows 11 Home 24H2.