452968 - faster search algorithm or add-on for huge Thunderbird IMAP email folders

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 450494

(Thunderbird :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Rich Barger]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Build Identifier: version 2.0.0.16 (20080708)

I have a huge storehouse of email messages on an IMAP server. If I need to do a quick search of those messages, or even of large email folders, Thunderbird is moss-growing slow.  To complete large searches, I have to load the dreaded Outlook Express! But it really is fast.  I've tried the comprehensive, built-in Thunderbird search, of course, but for a thorough search of my mailboxes, I must move to Outlook Express.  Desktop searches don't seem to work, presumably because the message bodies are on the distant IMAP server.  I'm looking for suggestions, help, add-ons, or advice.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Place huge volume of email on distant IMAP servers.
2.  Use Thunderbird "Search Messages" function to locate specific text.
3.  Wait, wait, wait.
4.  Try the same IMAP search using Outlook Express.
5.  Search completes very quickly.
Actual Results:  
With extremely large mailboxes, I've waited more than 15 minutes for a Thunderbird search to complete, while the same search completes in less than a minute using Outlook Express.

Expected Results:  
Thunderbird's search of IMAP mailboxes should complete in roughly the same amount of time as an Outlook Express search.

The Outlook Express IMAP search seems to perform similarly to the various desktop search functions available for local machines -- that is, its speed seems similar to indexed search systems.  However, I do not believe that Outlook Express has indexed my IMAP mailboxes; it appears that the speed comes from different programming, a different algorithm or approach.

Comment 1

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

I suspect this will get fixed by the gloda work (bug 450494 and related work).

Comment 2

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

duping.

when Thunderbird 3 is released, if you find it still doesn't meet what you are asking for, please reopen the bug.

Comment 3

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

(In reply to comment #2)
> duping.
> 
> when Thunderbird 3 is released, if you find it still doesn't meet what you are

Open a new one :-)