How do I get rid of old archives?
I added an old Gmail account to my Thunderbird app on my Mac (newish MacBook Pro with Mavericks). I checked "Keep messages for this account on this computer" in the "Synchronization & Storage" section of Account Settings. I ended up with an archive folder that was 285GB! It took me nearly a month to figure out why my hard disk space was suddenly disappearing. . . Mavericks hides the Library folder, so it was hard to even find the archive file. Anyway, I unchecked the "Keep messages for this account on this computer" setting and the archive file quickly went down to 192GB. However, according to my hosting provider, the other IMAP address I have on Thunderbird is only 6GB in size. I have the box checked for that account, and I do want to locally archive that address. How do I get rid of all of this extra email archive? I don't need nearly 200GB of archived email!!!! My local hard drive is only 500GB!
Chosen solution
The .msf files are indexes for the other files. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Nstmp_folders
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Can you not remove the archives from the Archives folder?
Well, yes, I guess so, but I want those archives for the other IMAP address. I'm not sure what files to delete. The attached screenshot [redacted] might help. It's a bit confusing to me, but perhaps you'll be able to understand it better. I want to save the "[redacted]" mail, but not the Gmail. It looks like most of the size is in the "[redacted]" folder, but, for example, what are the differences between the filenames? What's okay to delete and what's not? My IMAP server ([redacted]) has been losing mail (Dreamhost--don't use them), so I'm very reluctant to throw away archives. They lost a whole year's worth of sent items a few months ago and just this week a bunch of my client email disappeared. (But I mysteriously found in in two different archive folders. . . )
Modified by beachdolph
Have you compacted? It's on the file menu. That is how space that is no longer used is freed.
You can remove messages from the Archives folder from the folder pane. You do not have to go into the profile. Once you do that, compact the folders.
What does ".msf" mean in the archived file list? I have a bunch of small files and then a bunch of much smaller ones with the same name but with ".msf" as an extension. For example, I have an archive folder called "Trash" that's 1.13GB and then one that's called "Trash.msf" that's 9.9MB. Plus, the largest of all the files is just called "nstmp" and is 170GB. That file alone is taking up most of the space. What is it?
Chosen Solution
The .msf files are indexes for the other files. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Nstmp_folders