Mail folder size

Hi,
I am moving from Outlook to apple mail. one of my outlook mail folders hat around 4GB. Whats the max folder size in Apple Mail?
Thank youi for your answer,
best regards
Robert

Ok, I've been working a little on the problem at hand.
If I use the "Rebuild" command on the mailbox, I get duplicates of all message.
I decided then to use the script found on www.homepage.mac.com/aamann/ (great tool btw) to remove duplicate message. The script take a little time for the 800 so messages but finds all the duplicates and moves them to a "duplicate" mailbox from where you can trash them. Trash, empty trash in Mail, quit Mail, relauch Mail...
The mbox folder now contains the right number of message, but the size is still bigger than expected. Digging in, the mbox folder contains two folder (Message + Attachments) as opposed to only one (Message) in Leopard. By observation, it is clear that the attachments (found embedded in the message file in the Message folder) can also be found in the the Attachments folder... therefore the reason for the apparent doubling size of the "Mail" folder!
Ok, now there is some sort of solution (rebuild, duplicate removal) but that doesn't sort out the fact that attachments are found in two places, thus eating up twice the disk space.
Still need help!
Bisondesprairies

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Mail Folder Size in SL

Has anyone else noticed that their same Mail folder from Leopard is almost double the size in Snow Leopard?

Ok, I've been working a little on the problem at hand.
If I use the "Rebuild" command on the mailbox, I get duplicates of all message.
I decided then to use the script found on www.homepage.mac.com/aamann/ (great tool btw) to remove duplicate message. The script take a little time for the 800 so messages but finds all the duplicates and moves them to a "duplicate" mailbox from where you can trash them. Trash, empty trash in Mail, quit Mail, relauch Mail...
The mbox folder now contains the right number of message, but the size is still bigger than expected. Digging in, the mbox folder contains two folder (Message + Attachments) as opposed to only one (Message) in Leopard. By observation, it is clear that the attachments (found embedded in the message file in the Message folder) can also be found in the the Attachments folder... therefore the reason for the apparent doubling size of the "Mail" folder!
Ok, now there is some sort of solution (rebuild, duplicate removal) but that doesn't sort out the fact that attachments are found in two places, thus eating up twice the disk space.
Still need help!
Bisondesprairies

Trying to compress Mail folder size

I like to archive all my emails, but I noticed that the folder for Mail was getting rather large (4GB). I thought if I manually removed all the various attachments, it would make the folder size a little more manageable. But after trying with a few of the archive mailboxes (even though the attachments have successfully been removed), it seems the size of the folders are still the same. Does Mail still save the attachments despite not having them attached to messages? Am I going about this the wrong way? I don't want to lose the actual correspondences but most of the attachments are unnecessary. Please help. Thanks.

Hi , and a warm welcome to the forums!
Depending what you want to archive...
First Quit Mail, then I'd backup these two Mail folders, by right clicking on them in the Finder, then choose Archive/Compress.
Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail
Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail Downloads
(Could be a different folder here if you chose such in Mail Prefs)
Right click on that Mail folder, choose archive, you'll get everything in the folder, and the folder itself in a file called Mail.zip, move it to a safe place, same for the Mail Downloads folder... only the plist is separate.
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

Folder size in new Lion Mac Mail is Huge

Anyone know how I can adjust my folder size (pixel height/width)? Before I upgraded they were much smaller and easier to see on my screen.
Large Folder Size : http://screencast.com/t/gKF441D2Op6
Thanks for the help,
Daniel

I found the solution on another thread.
Thread: https://discussions.apple.com/message/15667362#15667362
You need to go to 'System Preferences, General, Sidebar Icon Size'
-http://screencast.com/t/Iibc8***
Thanks for your reply and for trying to help. I appreciate it.
Cheers,
Dan

Mail Database Size Limit?

Hello,
I have an Entourage DB that is over 6GB. Does anyone know if there will be any issues importing a DB this size into Mail and does Mail have a DB size limit? Thanks!

Hello,
I cannot speak to how well Mail will import from Entourage, but there is no limit on the Mail folder (which is the database for Mail). Mail has an account folder for each email account you have, as well as still another folder for custom On My Mac mailboxes (folders) you create. Within each account folder there is a set of standard mailbox folders -- INBOX.mbox, Sent Message.mbox, etc. It is only on each xxxx.mbox folder that there are any limits -- roughly each xxxx.mbox should not reach or exceed 2 GB in Mail 2.x or Mail 3.x (Leopard's version).
Currently my Mail folder is 7.5 GB in total.
Ernie
Message was edited by: Ernie Stamper

Where is the mail folder in 10.8

I recently changed from 10.6.8 (snow leopard) to 10.8 (mountain lion). In 10.6, in the finder window, under the library tab, there was a folder for "Mail". I was able to copy the folder "Mail" and take it to another computer I have at a different location and keep both computers synched.
In 10.8, the Mail folder is not there.
Where is the application Mail, storing the mail folders with their content? I want to do the same thing of synching another computer with all of my current mail boxes and content.
Lee

It did work!
Thank You.
I did notice that the "Mail" folder in the Library maintains the same date, (the date when I installed Mountain Lion, June 11 2013 6:15 PM) even after there are updates and new E-mails comming in.
The size of the folder does change when I delete (put into trash E-mails) or receive new E-mails, but the date of "date modified" never changes. It stays on June 11, 2013 6:15PM.
Because the date never changes, it makes it hard to know when i look into "Time Machine", which is the most current Mail folder.
HELP PLEASE!
Lee

How to solve the mail box size limit for thunderbird

Hi,
I tried to do archiving for my mails but everytime it will prompt me mail box size limit has reached and ask me to delete older mails and the problem is my HDD is more than enough to contain those archives so am asking if there's anything which i can get this solved for good?
Regards.
Andrew Koh

Background info:
Emails are downloaded and stored in the Inbox file written one after the other.; they are not stored as individual emails in their own file. So the Inbox folder in the FolderPane is actually a file.
Any email you delete is marked as deleted and from your point of view it disappears from eg: Inbox and reappears in 'Deleted' folder. In reality it is still in the Inbox taking up space, marked as deleted and hidden from view. Compacting removes all traces of 'marked as deleted' emails and reduces the file size. If a file becomes corrupted and you compact that file you may lose good emails. this can occur if you do not compact on a regular basis.
It is wise to create a backup on a regular basis.
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
'''RE: Archiving'''
Archiving is not a backup. It is a means of storing old emails in smaller files accessible within your Profile mail account. So releasing space in other folders.
If you have been archiving all emails into just one Archives folder, then you are putting all of your emails into one file.
Did you set up Archive Options?
See info at these links:
* https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/archived-messages
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Archiving_your_e-mail
Did you choose to archive by month and retain folder structure?
By using these options, if you archived last months Sent emails and say you had another folder called 'Family' and you did the same, they would be stored as follows into smaller files, so you should not reach a mailbox limit.
There will be no emails stored in the actual 'Archives' folder, nor the '2014' or '2014-5' folders, they will be in the relevant folder name - see below
eg:
> Archives
>->2014
>->->2014-05
>->->->Family (one month of emails here)
>->->-> Sent (one month of emails here)
Suggest you do the following and in this order:
* create a backup
* delete any emails not required
* compact folders
* set up Archive options and organise emails as shown above, so that emails are only in that months eg: Sent archive Folder.
* Create another backup when everything is organised.

How reduce mail folder

Hi, I´ve got a 12GB mail folder, and dont know how can I make it smaller without lossing more mails, Ive just trash all the old mail but, the weight change just a bit, is there another way to clean it?
thanks a lot.

Hello,
Did you originally use Mail in version prior to 2.x, and convert when upgrading to Tiger? If so, then you might want to examine all your mailboxes to see if some original files, no longer used in Mail 2.x, are unnecessarily making your Mail folder larger. See:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301315
This issue of leftover files applies not only to mailboxes you have previously created (which are in the Mailboxes folder the article mentioned) but can also apply to those mailboxes in account folders created prior to the upgrade to Tiger.
It may also be useful to compare the size of any file named "mbox" with that of the Messages folder. If the mbox is greater in size than the Messages folder, then not all messages have been converted to be in the Messages folder.
The path to the Mail folder, as I believe you know, is Home/Library/Mail -- within the Mail folder are one or more account folders and the Mailboxes folder.
Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have, if you confirm there are leftover files.
Ernie

How large is too large for an Apple Mail folder?

My Apple Mail folder is around 3 GBs. Is there a limit to how big Apple Mail's folder can be?

Individual mailboxes are limited, but not the size of the Mail folder. In Mail 2.x, the limit for a single mailbox is 2 GB. Since each account has its own set of mailboxes, the limit for an Inbox, let's say, would be 2 GB per account.
Ernie

Where is the mail folder in Mtn. Lion?

I am setting up Time Machine to back up the files on my iMac. I want to exclude Applications, the System, and related files for space reasons, but want to make sure that I get a backup of my e-mail files. I have searched for the MAIL folder but can't find it. What is the path to where the e-mails are stored in Mountain Lion? Thanks

Hmm - out of curiosity - would the User Library be part of the System deep down in the file hierarchy?
@ ReidMac:
Not sure if excluding the System (or Applications for that matter) would be wise - it may prevent you from being able to restore from Time Machine in case your system is borked? If size is of concern - and since Time Machine keeps making backups until the disk/partition is full - have you considered a different backup strategy, such as a bootable clone which needs exactly the same amount of space as your system currently uses?

Folder size showing for some, not all folders

I am Mountain Lion 10.8.5.
This is a common problem, but couldn't find any answers specific to Mountain Lion or my exact problem.
I wanted to see folder sizes in Finder, which is turned off by default. I went into "Show View Options" and then checked "Calculate All Sizes". I then click on "Use as Defaults" button, which goes from black to gray when I click it.
I would assume "Use As Defaults" would apply for the entire hard drive. But it seems to be applied randomly. Some folders have sizes, some don't. Sometimes folders will not have the size shown but subfolders will.
Any ideas?

Thanks to everyone for their replies - I thought that it was just me with this issue but clearly not. Also thank you to Mil_Prep and S2Linda's suggestions, unfortunately all three of my email accounts do not have a "Mail Days To Sync" option - I believe that this option only appears in Mail settings if the account is an exchange email account. Even if I was able to adjust the time period of emails to sync, I don't think that it would help because the email(s) that are going missing can be as recent as one day old, leaving all my earlier emails in the same folder intact - some of which can go back to the year 2002 for instance. I am still convinced that it is a bug with headers in iOS5. Last week I even had a related problem where I had a new email merge with an old email. The senders email address, subject title and date remained the same but the body of the text was replaced with an old email from 2006! Very odd....

Sort by folder size

Hello every one! I have this script:
$log = ".\logfile.log"
$startFolder = "C:\VMs"
$colItems = Get-ChildItem $startFolder | Where-Object {$_.PSIsContainer -eq $True} | Sort-Object
foreach ($i in $colItems){
$itemSum = Get-ChildItem ("$startFolder\" + $i.Name) -recurse | Measure-Object -property length -sum
"$startFolder\$i -- " + "{0:N2}" -f ($itemSum.sum / 1KB) + " KB" >> $log
import-csv $log -delimiter "`t" | export-csv .\TEST.csv
$body = Get-Content $log | Sort | Out-String
Send-MailMessage -From [email protected] -To [email protected] -Subject "Test Theme" -attachment .\TEST.csv -Encoding ([System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8) -Body $body -SmtpServer test123.test.local
Remove-Item $log
Remove-Item .\TEST.csv
When this script done I
receive something like this in email message:
C:\VMs\Backup -- 0,00 KB
C:\VMs\Vbox -- 82 874 750,42 KB
C:\VMs\VMWARE_BACKUP -- 182 818,77 KB
How I can change this script to sort by folder size?
Not alphabetically.
Thanks in advance!

Hello Darkwind,
you can do this, but it'll require some reformatting your script. I've done the honors:
$startFolder = "C:\VMs"
# Get folders
$colItems = Get-ChildItem $startFolder | Where-Object {$_.PSIsContainer -eq $True} | Sort-Object
# This one will do the measuring for us
$fso = New-Object -ComObject Scripting.FileSystemObject
# iterate over each folder and measure length
$FolderReport = @()
foreach ($i in $colItems)
# 1: Get Size
$folder = $fso.GetFolder($i.FullName)
$size = $folder.size
# 2: Set Properties in a hashtable
$props = @{
name = $i.FullName
size = $size
displaysize = (("{0:N2}" -f ($size / 1KB)) + " KB")
# 3: Add to results
$FolderReport += New-Object PSObject -Property $props
# Sort results
$FolderReport = $FolderReport | Sort size
# Build CSV attachment
$FolderReport | export-csv .\TEST.csv
# Build body
$lines = @()
$FolderReport | %{$lines += ($_.name + " -- " + $_.displaysize)}
$body = $lines -join "`n"
# Send mail
Send-MailMessage -From [email protected] -To [email protected] -Subject "Test Theme" -attachment .\TEST.csv -Encoding ([System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8) -Body $body -SmtpServer test123.test.local
# Cleanup file
Remove-Item .\TEST.csv
As you can see, some slight modifications :)
Now, just what did I change ...
I used the Scripting.FileSystemObject Comobject to measure size, since that's a bit faster.
When selecting the size, I built custom objects containing the information (Name & size), since if we want to sort by size, we need to keep it as a separate property.
Then I sorted by size, and exported the result into a csv file for attachment
I built the body from strings in memory - no point writing it to a file, just to reread it. (that "`n" should work as a linebreak)
Cheers,
Fred
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
Thank You! It's work for me!
But this script first shows the
folders from the small to the larger
size. Is it possible to do the opposite?

Can I move the MAIL folder off my System drive?

Hi there,
I'm running Snow Leopard 10.6.7 and using Apple's MAIL email.
I have a very small 32gig SSD on my Mac G5 8 Core and the folder in USERS>(My name)>LIBRARY>MAIL is 11GB in size. I'd like to move this to a different internal drive, but I imagine if I do so I will find that my mail doesn't work.
Can anyone help me with the correct procedure for getting this folder off my SSD and onto a different internal drive?
Maybe if I moved the MAIL application and that MAIL folder to a different internal drive it would work ok? Or can I continue to run the MAIL program from the SSD and move the MAIL folder, the program will find it?
Any ideas greatly appreciated.
With thanks,
Harry.

Move the Home Folder
http://macs.about.com/od/diyguidesprojects/qt/Move-Your-Home-Folder-To-A-New-Loc ation.htm

Library/mail folder storage very large

Background: Using an IMAP account, I switched from Outlook Express (under VM Ware on same MacBook) to Apple Mail because I wanted better archive control (generic .mbox versus proprietary MS .dbx archive format) and to get past the OE 2gb message file limitation. As an Attorney, I download every message and attachment to local drive and backup and archive.
Q1: Gmail says I am using 6.1gb out of 7.6gb with 8,146 "All Mail" messages. Apple Mail "Account Info" says I am using 6.1gb out of 7.4gb (close enough), BUT counts 14,392 messages at the same time. Why the difference in message counts?
Q2: "Get Info" for Users/.../library/Mail reports 13.24 gb, over DOUBLE the actual storage for all the messages and attachments. Why the increased hard drive space?
Q3: Mail Preferences "Accounts/Advanced" has a setting for "Compact mailboxes automatically" which is selected and greyed out so that I cannot change it. In theory this sounds good, BUT I am finding that Apple's documentation for Mail is very poor and imprecise, and I do not know what Apple "compact" actually does. In other email programs, "compact" can actually strip the message and leave only the tracking and Subject data, which I do not want to do.
What is actually happening in "compact", and why can't I changed it?
NOTE: when I setup Apple Mail, I was not sure exactly what some of the Preferences should be to get the same end result as with Outlook Express. I told Mail to sync with Gmail and let it download ALL messages and attachments, which I think it did. When I noticed the message count discrepency, I checked to see if anything was missing, but found not evidence of loss. I did a quick lookup on "Rebuild" and gave it a try. It took all night at 3megs DSL download speed and it appears from the data storage size that everything is downloaded, even thought the message counts differ. I do not know if "Rebuild" first makes a "Copy" and then duplicates the message store, and then deletes the "Copy" as cleanup, OR if it duplicates the existing data files. I have not found any duplication in the files or in the messages, but this may explain the doubling from 6.1gb to 13.24gb. Any ideas what is happening?

shonamelissa wrote:
Could you please tell me if MailAccounts.plist will hold all my IMAP messages if I back it up?
No, it will not, it's only a 2-byte file, almost nothing. That file only contains settings about your mail accounts, not the contents of the accounts.
Your mail messages are in the Library/Mail folder. If you "keep copies of messages for offline viewing" with IMAP, complete messages and attachments will be stored in that Mail folder. You can tell by looking at how the file size of that folder grows and grows, and also by digging into that folder and looking inside the account subfolders. Messages are stored as RTF files that you can open in TextEdit or Word, so that is another way to verify that the messages are indeed being stored locally as well as on the server.
To completely back up your Mail messages and configuration, you should back up the Mail folder with all your messages (after making sure you are keeping local copies), MailAccounts.plist for your account prefs, and com.apple.mail.plist for other preferences.
I don't really worry about it because both my Time Machine and clone backups are of the entire Mac. Mail is naturally included.
I think the tech note you were reading might be assuming that "Keep Copies of Messages..." is off, because that's the default. But if you turn it on, then sure you can back up the local copies of messages that are there. After you give Mail a little time to cache them all.

HT204093 Where is my mail folder on my mac

Okay I hope to make sense here....
I had all my mail in the icloud. I then created a folder on my mac for mail older than 6 months. Then mail that was older than 6 months in cloud I moved to my mac.
In mail I had renamed the older than 6 month folder. I still see my old mail in mail. I can't find the corresponding folder on mac, or when I do it really is odd size. Mail in folder on mac is housing 10 years worth of email and coming in at 300MB when I think it would be way bigger, like 1 TB.
I created a new folder in mail, but I can't find the coorseponding folder in documents---> mail folder.
Where is the mail folder on the mac? Where does it naturally default too?
Thanks,
Andy

Thank you of the quick reply and I kind of now have more info.
Since posting my question I "exported" the mailbox and voila, 2.6GB of info. So I think I have some solution.
"Are you desiring to Archive mail older than six months and remove that from Mail?" Not from Mail, but the iCloud, but when I did remove from icloud, I want to make another back up, even though I have time machine. I want to basically burn a DVD or put old email on other storage media.
"With a better understanding of your goal -- I can help you to a solution." Okay great, appreciate it! I hope I made/make sense.
"If you haven't done a Rebuild lately, I'd highly recommend you start there:" Ummm I've never rebuild.... so I also wanted to back up the data before I rebuild I think, right? I have no other copy, these emails were removed from the iCloud, and put in a mail folder on my mac (which I can't find the mailbox (mbox) on the mac, user name--->documents---> mail folder---> there is no corresponding mbox that I just created, this folder/get info says circa 2012), so the mail on my mac is not copied from iCloud. Technically I do have the time machine backup.... but you never know if that gets corrupted.
So my thought prior to rebuild is to export, as a back up, then rebuild? As to mailbox naming, since I have no idea where the corresponding folders are on my mac, exporting first, might be best option. If I rebuild, will that break or possibly lose data?
Thoughts?
Andy

Mail folder size

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