607315 - Deleted/moved mail remains in hard disc folders, use huge amounts of disk space

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 341206

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Kalenz]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; nl; rv:1.9.2.10) Gecko/20100914 SUSE/3.6.10-0.3.1 Firefox/3.6.10
Build Identifier: 3.0.8

Using POP3 and local storage of mail:

When deleting/moving a message from a mail folder, the message remains on the hard disc drive in the file corresponding to that folder. The result is that every message is stored on my hard disc many times as it got moved around folders, and remains after deletion, making backups impossible. For example, while my "Trash" and "Inbox" folder are presently empty, the corresponding files weigh 272MiB and 643MiB respectively, on an install that has been running for less than two months. Other folders that I have carried with me from another PC, when opened with a text editor, show emails from as far back as 2005 that are not visible in Thunderbird (as they have been deleted).

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Have Thunderbird set up for POP3, and have some folder "A" with lots of mail in it.
2. Create a new, empty folder "B". Find the files "A" and "B" on your hard disc, you will see that "A" occupies a lot of megabytes, and "B" almost nothing.
3. Move all messages from "A" to "B".
4. Alternatively, just empty your "Trash" folder (file "Trash" will not shrink).
Actual Results:  
The file "B" becomes much larger, though possibly not as large as "A". The file "A" remains large: opening it in a text editor will show all the mail messages, even if not visible in Thunderbird. Indeed, you will find that when moving messages back from "B" to "A" (in Thunderbird), file "B" does not shrink, and "A" increases in size.

Expected Results:  
Would have expected file "A", when emptied, to shrink to almost zero size.

Currently using Linux version, but have seen same problem on recent (3.0.X) Windows version before.

Comment 1

[rsx11m]

Your observation is correct, you'll need to compact your folders occasionally to free up that space (or configure Thunderbird for automated compacting).

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders

Comment 2

[Kalenz]

Thank you rsx11m, that worked fine for me. Two issues though:

- The Dutch translation (which I use) uses the word "compressing" for compacting, which has a different meaning, and is probably the reason why I never picked up on it. Where can I report a translation error/suggestion?

- I feel strongly that compacting should be enabled by default, indeed that emails should be deleted from HD immediately. This with consideration to users in e.g. legal/medical fields, to whom it is important that deleted (confidential) data are, indeed, deleted! Is there any particular place I can report this, or any particular person/group I could annoy with my feedback on this matter?

Thanks again.

Comment 3

[rsx11m]

You are welcome. Since activating the automatic compacting by default is your primary concern, I'm marking this as a duplicate of the respective Thunderbird bug which is already pending.

> The Dutch translation (...) uses the word "compressing" for compacting

If you could file this as a new bug, either by following the link below if it works for you, or selecting New > Other Products > Mozilla Localizations, then pick the correct language. Note that there are two different language entries, "fy-NL" (Frisian) vs. "nl" (Dutch), to choose from in the "Component" list.

> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Mozilla+Localizations