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Number of files in Thunderbird e-mail "profile" folder

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  • Last reply by JimC

JimC
JimC
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Several versions of Thuderbird in the past, e-mail was stored in roughly one file per e-mail "folder". A few versions ago this changed and the number of files in my "profile" folder exploded from around one hundred to almost 120 thousand!

What happened and why? How can I reduce the number of files?

This is important to me because I synchronize my e-mail "profile" folder between multiple computers for backup and the number of files has made this become very painful (time consuming and hard to manage). I am unable to do this some other way due to my e-mail account servers and the fact that some of the computers are not turned on all of the time.

Thunderbird is 31.4.0 running on Windows XP Pro 32-bit.

Several versions of Thuderbird in the past, e-mail was stored in roughly one file per e-mail "folder". A few versions ago this changed and the number of files in my "profile" folder exploded from around one hundred to almost 120 thousand! What happened and why? How can I reduce the number of files? This is important to me because I synchronize my e-mail "profile" folder between multiple computers for backup and the number of files has made this become very painful (time consuming and hard to manage). I am unable to do this some other way due to my e-mail account servers and the fact that some of the computers are not turned on all of the time. Thunderbird is 31.4.0 running on Windows XP Pro 32-bit.

All Replies (4)

Zenos
Zenos
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As far as I know, Thunderbird still uses a mbox file type to store email messages. Each mbox file represents a Thunderbird account folder.

Can you name some some examples of the files resulting from the "explosion" in file numbers?

JimC
JimC Question owner
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In my "Profile" folder are the following-- - Disk folder RecycleBin.ffs_tmp is 1.34Gb and contains 578 files even though I have made multiple attempts to "Compress folders" and typically delete e-mail permanently. - Disk folder Inbox.mozmsgs is 82.5 Mb and contains almost 11K files like: 0.0.0.1DC.1CBC221817A786C.0%40mail6.idgpublishing.com.wdseml - Disk folder Trash.mozmsgs is 882Kb and contains 142 files even though my Trash folder has less than 40 files. Example file names: 0.0.9.BF4.1CFAA6AF4294548.0%40omp.e.tigerdirect.com.wdseml 3W98B75I.4527022%40roperusa.com.wdseml

For each of my e-mail folders, there now appears to be a disk folder with the same name as the e-mail folder and a "file extension" of ".mozmsgs". And at least some of these appear in both the "Profile" folder, "...\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\5yx36fcc.default", and in a folder within that one, "..\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\5yx36fcc.default\Mail\Local Folders".

Zenos
Zenos
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mozmsgs and wdseml files are a "digest" of your messages which allow Windows' search to find text in your email messages.

Have a look for wdseml here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Files_and_folders_in_the_profile_-_Thunderbird

JimC
JimC Question owner
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The link you supplied is VERY helpful. I have been wondering where to look for this information ever since the "explosion" occurred.

I want to clean up my "Profile" as much as possible. What will happen if I delete all .mozmsgs and .wdseml files and any disk folders that contain only these files? I really don't care to have Windows search look through my e-mail messages.

I have not yet read all of the information pointed to by the link you sent but would appreciate information on any other files/folders I can delete to whittle down my "Profile" as much as possible.

Thanks for your help!