873310 - compacting does not reduce size of (pop) inbox

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(MailNews Core :: Database, defect)

Description

[mwg]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1) AppleWebKit/537.31 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/26.0.1410.64 Safari/537.31



Actual results:

 I have TB 17.0.3. 

Suddenly about 100 emails disappeared from my inbox. So I used a free version of an email recovery software ( email adept) and there I discovered that I had over 100,000 emails in my Inbox! Forget the missing 100 emails for now - I think I have to deal with this first! 

 I have only a few emails in my inbox, but it is taking up 3.6GHz. When googling, I found Bug 463359 Compacting Inbox does not reduce the size of Inbox - inbox continues to grow (IMAP, offline folder, Tb 2). Last comment was 6/7/09. 

I was trying to follow some of the instructions in Bug 463359, but some things don't seem to exist any more in Account Preferences. I could not find references to Offline in my account settings.

So can someone please tell me what the latest and greatest fix for this is? I am not very computer savvy, I have done a back up but I have not anything like deleting .msf files. 



Expected results:

If I am reading correctly, this was fixed by a patch? Since I have continually updated my versions - shouldn't this have been fixed?

Comment 1

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

What did you do on IMAP offline-store file? (if Mbox named Inbox, file named Inbox, not Inbox.msf)

"Compact" of Tb consists of (A) "expunge of mails in Mox" and (B) "compact of ofline-store file".
(A) "expunge of mails in Mox" 
(A-1) When IMAP, mail is marked as deleted by "uid xxx store +Flags \Deleted",  flag.
(A-2) This "mails marked as deleted by \Deleted flag" is removd from Mbox at server.
(B) "compact of offline-store file"
(B-1) By auto-sync, dat of new mail is appended to existent offline-store file, and offset in offline-store file is saved in .msf file.
(B-2) By delete of mails, deleted bytes are held in .msf file.
(B-3) If total deleted bytes > 0, new offline-store is created and data for active mails are copied, and offline-store ile is replaced.

So, if no mail is deleted after last Compact, and if offline-store file is started from non-null file with garbled data when folder open, (B) "compact of offline-store file" won't be initiated, because there is no deleted data.

> So I used a free version of an email recovery software ( email adept)
> and there I discovered that I had over 100,000 emails in my Inbox!

Series of Bug 463359 is already resolved.
Did you copy recovered file to file named Inbox(not Inbox.msf) for IMAP folder?

Comment 2

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

> I have only a few emails in my inbox, but it is taking up 3.6GHz.

I assume 3.6 GB.

Bug 794303, which was problem when file size > 2GB, existed in Compact of local mail folder file. That bug maight be applicable to IMAP offlne-store file.
As written in that bug, that bug in 2GB<size<4GB case looks already resolved by Tb 17. That bug occurs on file size>4GB only after Tb 17.
Did you actually try "Compact" with Tb 17, after delete of some mails?

Comment 3

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Also, you need to have enough space on your harddisk for compacting to work, because compacting keeps your original inbox while creating a temporary copy to do the work, so for a short time the space needed will *increase*, then old inbox file is overwritten compacted inbox file.
If your inbox including all the deleted messages is 3.6 GB, you need at least 3.6 GB + the space of your compacted inbox (without deleted msgs), which might be 5GB or more.

Wada, if there is not enough space on hard disk to do compacting, does TB present an error message to user?

I don't believe this is a bug in TB.

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

[e-mail], can you pls answer these questions:

1) type of affected account, is it IMAP or POP account?
2) If IMAP, can you try and answer comment 1?

Comment 5

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to Thomas D. from comment #3)
> Wada, if there is not enough space on hard disk to do compacting,
> does TB present an error message to user?

As for "manual Compact of local mail folder", as I wrote in bug 854791 comment #0, error message of "Compact fails" is shown.
Sorry but I don't know about (a) "File/Compact Folders" case, (b) "Compact by auto-compact" case, and (c) "any Compact of IMAP offline-store file" case.
IIRC, at least "Compact by auto-compact" silently fails, because it may run while user is leaving.

Comment 6

[mwg]

 I have POP, not IMAP.
I'm thinking it has something to do with the files structure
Over the years, I have had to do things like create new profiles and now I have a very odd looking folder structure. When I see the folder structure on Thunderbird it looks different than when I look at it in the app data. Is there way to post/send screen shots?
Thanks

Comment 7

[mwg]

oops - I forgot to write - someone told me how to compact the folder in POP, which I did, but it is still at 2.1 GB. The problem is I'm not really sure what that 2.1 GB really is - I have many folders called Inbox now.  
That's why I would like to send some screen shots for help. 
Thanks,
Michelle

Comment 8

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to mwg from comment #7)
> oops - I forgot to write - someone told me how to compact the folder in POP, which I did, but it is still at 2.1 GB.

You wrote followig in comment #0, original repor of this bug.
> I have only a few emails in my inbox, but it is taking up 3.6GHz.
> When googling, I found Bug 463359 Compacting Inbox does not reduce the size of Inbox
> - inbox continues to grow (IMAP, offline folder, Tb 2).

Which case? IMAP mail folder? Local mail folder(POP3 or "Local Folders")? Or both?

By the way, because file size or number relevant issue, there is no need of screen shot. "Copy of directory listig at Command prompt", "writing down mail number, size etc. shown in Tb's panel" followed by "pasting the numbers to bug" etc. is sufficient.

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

and also ...

(In reply to mwg from comment #7)
> someone told me how to compact the folder in POP, which I did, 

please describe those steps

Comment 10

[mwg]

tools, options, network and disk space. Set a maximum.
I set at 100MB but still seems to be showing a lot in my inbox, although there are no emails in the inbox

Comment 11

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

mwg, still see this when using version 24?

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to mwg from comment #10)
> tools, options, network and disk space. Set a maximum.
> I set at 100MB but still seems to be showing a lot in my inbox, although
> there are no emails in the inbox

Could be corrupted. 
Let us know if you have more information or still see this issue.