Inbox grows without limit

[CurtC]

A couple of days ago, my Inbox would have to get "indexed" every time TB started, which would take a few minutes. I created a temp subfolder, moved all the Inbox messages into that, then tried compacting the Inbox (it didn't even seem to try), and the Inbox was still over 100 MB and would still spend minutes indexing it upon startup. So with all the messages out of it, I closed TB, deleted the Inbox file, then created a fresh zero-byte file called "Inbox" (I used Notepad to do so), then started TB and moved all my messages from the temp back into Inbox, and now everything works just fine.

[Freee!!]

But I'd really prefer to see if this bug fixed (though I can't find specific reference to others having encountered it). There's clearly a locking issue with mailbox access between the compaction and other operations.

To many entries will do that to you.

[Squirle]

I know this thread isn't all that new, but I just recently realized that my IMAP Inbox does the same thing. The Inbox is at 71Mb, but on the server I only have 9Mb.

Selecting not to download messages for offline viewing and then deleting the Inbox and Inbox. msf as suggested, did the trick. The Inbox won't reappear as it's only used for offline viewing it seems. When I once again selected to download for offline viewing, the Inbox was back, but this time the size was the same as on the server so it is obvious that messages downloaded for offline viewing are rarely/never deleted by either delete/empty trash/compact.

So as it seems, in order to use the Offline viewing feature, which I think is very convienient, requires regular deletion of the Inbox. Not that much work really as all it takes is deleting two files with TB shut down and then restart it again. The Inbox will be recreated automatically and the mail will be downloaded again from the server. Still, it's one of those little details that turns into a nuiscance eventually. And I'm guessing from what I've read on this forum that my e-mail load is fairly low and the rate at which my Offline Inbox grows is relatively slow. I can imagine that people who gets loads of mail everyday, and have the Offline viewing enabled, will have a very rapidly growing Inbox. Many probably without even knowing it.

So, I agree with joshlitt that fixing this bug would not be a bad idea. Especially if TB hopes to get businesses to use the client for e-mail.

That said, TB is the best e-mail client I've ever had. Guess I'm expecting perfection from it because of that .

[Branstrom]

Right now I got a nstmp folder in TB. How do I get rid of it? Do we really have to move all the mail to a different location all the time? Why can't TB handle such a basic thing a BIG inbox? :/

[gstretch]

Has this been identified as a bug, and if so, is there any promise to get it fixed?

I was popping messages off of a mailbox with about 150MB messages; it failed several times to get all of the mail at once, and after a number of such attempts, I dumped the Inbox to a temp folder, only to find the empty Inbox with a size of more than 350MB! This is a very serious defect.

[Squirle]

I searched through the reported bugs and found this one that to me seemed the most fitting https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=289840. If other people have this problem, maybe a few more comments will make something happen. It's still listed as unconfirmed.

Maybe they're not related at all, but the first comment made it seem that way to me. Maybe a separate bug should be reported?

[gstretch]

I searched through the reported bugs and found this one that to me seemed the most fitting https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=289840. If other people have this problem, maybe a few more comments will make something happen. It's still listed as unconfirmed.

Maybe they're not related at all, but the first comment made it seem that way to me. Maybe a separate bug should be reported?

I don't think the original report in 289840 is targetting this problem; however, the two additional comments are very pertinent. My company is next door, and maybe I should just knock on their door and yell at them.

[Squirle]

I don't think the original report in 289840 is targetting this problem; however, the two additional comments are very pertinent.

Well the second comment is mine, so yes . But you may be right about the original bug. Like I wrote, it was the comment that made me think it fit to this problem more than the bug report itself. I know very little about the bug filing processes so I don't know if that means nothing will happen with the bug. So if anyone feel up to making a new 'real' bug report, please do so. I'll comment that one instead .

My company is next door, and maybe I should just knock on their door and yell at them. Wink

That sounds like a good plan too .

[yoram]

Hello y'all: I use IMAP but download certain folders to my local drive. I've compacted my inbox, but my inbox file (in my ImapMail profile folder) is still 1.4 gigs. I know this shouldn't be because I can check the size of my inbox on my domain server and it's only 300 megs. I've compacted the inbox, I've emptied the trash, I've even compacted the folders using the XP utility. No luck.

I'm tempted to follow the advice I've seen elsewhere about deleting the inbox and inbox.msf files, but it would be great to have some assurance that this won't lead me astray...

Thanks!

[Daifne]

yoram,
Please start a new topic. This one is over two years old and, because of that and different versions of Thunderbird, not to mention that you are using IMAP, your question is not related to this topic.

[mini7boy]

I have paid the price for allowing my Outlook Express Inbox and Sent files to grow to enormous sizes. They have grown to the point where the compaction for these folders fails every time, usually with the loss of some emails in these folders. I had hoped that this was an issue with Outlook Express and that a switch to another more robust email system would allow me to manage and downsize these folders without losing further emails.

I have installed Thunderbird and noticed that Thunderbird will Import my Outlook Express emails. However, I am wondering if I will just be moving the problem from one place to another.

It looks as though each of my Inbox and Sent folders has reached a size of about 1GB. The Inbox is slightly larger and the Sent is slightly smaller than 1 GB.

A couple of questions come to mind:

1) Will Thunderbird be able to successfully import such large folders individually?
2) If the import is successful, will I then be able to move Inbox emails to other folders and then delete them from Inbox and in so doing make the Inbox smaller?
3) How soon will Thunderbird encourage or force me to compact this Inbox(before or after I have downsized it)?
4) Is this import + downsize scheme viable or will it collapse under the huge sizes of the Inbox and Sent folders?

5) After my email folders are successfully imported into Thunderbird, will these emails no longer be accessible by Outlook Express?

Thanks for any help you can lend.

[Daifne]

mini7boy,
This topic is from 2004. That makes it five years old and very out of date. Start your own topic about your problem. I'm locking this one so that it will stay in it's grave from now on.