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Thunderbird occupies 14 gb on my hard drive

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  • Last reply by sfhowes

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I think my only out is to wipe it all out and start over, but of course I want to save my address book and my recent email. Any ideas of how to cure this "cancer?"

I think my only out is to wipe it all out and start over, but of course I want to save my address book and my recent email. Any ideas of how to cure this "cancer?"

Chosen solution

Did you copy the mbox files, the large files in Mail/<popservername>, ImapMail/<imapservername>, Mail/Local Folders, and sbd subdirectories, named after folders, e.g. Inbox, from the old profile, to Mail/Local Folders in the new profile, with TB closed? Ignore the .msf files, then restart TB in the new profile and find the folders under Local Folders in the Folder Pane.

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Hmm my profile is 54Gb, so just what is using your space? Do you have the option to allow windows to index your mail set? This doubles (or about) the storage used.

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Interesting, but if I think 14 GB is grossly excessive.... Still want to dump it all and start afresh, but don't know how. Bill

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I had a problem with the IMAP Syncronisation eating up my diskspace. As a first step, i changed the account-option under 'Syncronistion and diskspace' from sycronising all messages to only syncronise the last 30 days. Now in 91.3.2 the issue seems to be soved.

Cheers, Andreas K.

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That suggestion sounds helpful. Meanwhile, Tbird is now not functional, and I still want to get it uninstalled and start over, but don't know how to do that without loosing critical files. That is where I need help. Bill

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Launch your current profile and export your address books to LDIF format (Address Book, Tools/Export...Save as type: LDIF) and export local calendars (Events & Tasks, Export...). Then, Help/More Troubleshooting, about:profiles, create a new profile and add your accounts, import the address books (Tools/Import) and local calendars (Events & Tasks, Import...). Local mail, filters etc. can be transferred from the old profile to the new, if necessary, and TB can run in the old or new profile from about:profiles. Once you have set up the new profile, set it as default in about:profiles, and delete the old profile, also from about:profiles.

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Sounds great. I saved the mailbox, which took many attempts, but it finally worked. Then I went through your very clear instructions about a new profile. Then two things undid my confidence. First, the mailbox file vanished, and second, most of the files in the new profile are tiny compared to the files in my old profile. I can't bring myself to pull the plug by extinguishing the old profile. Bill

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Chosen Solution

Did you copy the mbox files, the large files in Mail/<popservername>, ImapMail/<imapservername>, Mail/Local Folders, and sbd subdirectories, named after folders, e.g. Inbox, from the old profile, to Mail/Local Folders in the new profile, with TB closed? Ignore the .msf files, then restart TB in the new profile and find the folders under Local Folders in the Folder Pane.