406951 - Files contained in the local folder only grow, even when their content (e.g. trash) is being deleted in TB

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[Marc Utiger]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11
Build Identifier: 2.0.0.9 (20071031)

It seems that there is no way to free unused drive space without deleting the files in the according directory. Deleting mails in a TB-folder should end in freeing drive space. But it doesn't.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Receiving large mails
2. deleting the files from the inbox
3. watching the "inbox-file" growing in the local folder
Actual Results:  
nothing as long as there is enough drive space

Expected Results:  
after deleting files within a TB folder the according file in the local folder should shrink close to zero

this behavior could be observed through the last releases without any change.

Comment 1

[Jo Hermans]

There's a "compact folders" item in the File menu !

Comment 2

[Marc Utiger]

(In reply to comment #1)
> There's a "compact folders" item in the File menu !

I know, and I tried it. But since the folders in TB are already empty the "compact folder" command is without effect!

Comment 3

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

It should affect the file size (as compact is what goes through and removes mails marked as deleted). Sure you are looking at the correct file?

Comment 4

[Marc Utiger]

Since I moved the files to the folder I am talking about myself, I assume that I am looking to the correct file. What I should add to my comments is, that the directory containing the "local folders" is not located on a local drive. It is a network drive.

Well since "you" confirmed that "compact folders" is the command which should leave to the expected behavior, I moved the directory to a local drive, without changing anything to TB except for the directories settings. After running "compact folders" the files were at about the expected size. So far so good.

Therefore it could be a network problem. Initially I was talking about the trash folder which was not shrinking. For some reasons this was the only file I could not delete after changing the directories path setting. There was an access violation. So I moved the "local folders" back to the same network drive again. But I moved it to a new directory. This time the "compact folders" command worked for the trash folder, but not for the "inbox" folder. It seems to happen something to the authorization setting when using a network drive.

I will discuss this behavior with our network supporter. As soon as I get new info I will update the case.

Comment 5

[Marc Utiger]

In the meantime I was talking to our network guy. He said that probably the virus scanner running on the server will temporary lock some files. This could be the reason why some folders left unchanged while compacting. What leaves me puzzled is the fact that there is now hint displayed by TB.
We actually have two TB installations having the same behavior.

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Marc, do you see this problem in version 3?

Comment 7

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

RESOLVED INCOMPLETE per lack of response to last question. If you feel this change was made in error, please respond to this bug with your reasons why.