Documentation how TB uses folders to store mail and treats unused folders
My TB folder has a few GiBis now.
I am looking forward to loose some kilograms and found that there is a folder "mail/Mail" which contains "Local Folders", which make up 80% of the mess here ;-)
It also contains "smart mailboxes" and a lot of folders which seem to relate to "historical" mail providers of mine. All of these folders seem to be unused except local. Seems they were POP3 folders (except local).
Then there is a folder "mail/ImapMail" which contains my currently used accounts - and some "historical".
Questions: 1) Is there some documentation about this folder mystery? 2) How can I store/export the old mail in mail / ImapMap / local in a HUMAN READABLE and tool-independent form? is there some tool that does this? or at least an API I could call from Java etc? 3) Can I simply manually backup the old folders and remove them? What indexes have to be re-built and how?
thank you :-)
All Replies (3)
Hi, I think this article is a good start: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/compacting-folders
Have a nice day!
While this explains that Mozilla uses a MBOX format that is not the standard MBOX format, it does not describe what are the consequences of removing any arbitrary file. So I should risk the trial-and-error method to find out?
You are asking too many questions to receive a concise response. The smart mailboxes entry is how Thunderbird manages unified folders. The Mail folder is for POP accounts and any message folders not related to an account that are stored on your PC (Mail\Local Folders). If you wish to keep the Mail and Mail\Local Folders content on a backup, click help>troubleshootinginformation, scroll down to 'profile folder' and click 'open folder', then exit thunderbird, and you will be inside the profile. Highlight the Mail folder and copy to external media or elsewhere on your PC.
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