Which folder(s) are where 30gig are? You can install the standard version and keep the same profile.

Hi David and thanks a lot for your help. about half here: AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\jyp2dlc1.default\Mail With then half of it (25% of the 30GB) in the folders localhost to localhost-4 and half (25% of the 30GB) in the folder pop.googlemail-1.com with a file Sent that's 5GB alone

The other half of the 30GB is here: \AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\jyp2dlc1.default\ImapMail mostly in the folder imap.gmail.com with a file "nstmp-1" that's 7GB alone, and another INBOX that's nearly 2GB

Could these be storage files whose old versions are not erased? Or could this come from the multiple emails copies (with weird code inside, possibly html misinterpretation) that appeared when I first switched to the beta version? (the "remove duplicate" app could then claim deleting about 40 000 emails that would reappear, while these odd copies were still here. A later update to a new beta version left zero duplicate messages targetted by the "remove duplicate" app but still left these weird copies). Sorry if all this makes little sense I am not sure if the IMAP or POP protocols had issues in the beta versions.

How can I install the standard version? When I try, it says I cannot revert to an earlier version. I would need to reinstall TB from scratch and thus lose the emails I have no longer access to online (closed accounts) or I would have to copy the profile folders and thus have 30GB again, no?

Okay. Yes, you are confusing me a bit. You mention online accounts that are closed? Does that mean the accounts no longer exist, but you still have downloaded copies? It appears you have multiple accounts, at least one POP and one IMAP. True? Are localhost through localhost-4 in use? TB, from my experience, has changed folder names only when it stops using one. Check dates of last use there. NSTMP-1 'sounds like' a temporary folder. Date of it? I'm just trying to gather information here, but it seems there are some folders that may be obsolete. Have you compacted all of them? (My experience with TB is that I must compact each folder individually - File>Compact Folders has never worked for me.) Other helpers may join in here who have more experience with cleaning up folders; I'm hesitant to advise as I don't want you to lose anything.

On reverting to standard version. You could uninstall the beta first and then install the standard. This does not affect your profile.

Yes, I have multiple accounts including old professional email accounts I have no longer access to. Thanks to TB, I still have the local copy of these emails on my computer. But basically, I cannot retrieve these emails simply by installing TB. I have many accounts, some no longer active online, while others are. Some with POP some with IMAP.

And no the big files are not that old. Perhaps from automatic compacting? I've never done it myself but I really suspect some weird email multiplication when I installed the beta which let to too much memory use. It seems to have passed on through updates though. See screenshot attached as example of such weird emails. Basically copies of very old emails (several years old, this one from 2007) popping as new ones with weird HTML code reading. So many of these copies (hundreds at least) are now dated as from 02/10/2008 in my inbox

Thanks again for your time

Can you post screenshots of the mail folder and the imapmail folder? And screenshots of the mail and imap folders that have the larger amount of storage, so that inbox, sent, etc. are visible?

Sure, there they are

Okay, the NSTMP folders are temporary during a compaction and are still there because some previous attempt was interrupted. I suggest renaming and starting TB. If all looks well, they can be deleted. That will save a bit over 7 gig. The inbox is almost 2 gig. I suggest compacting it. Please post a screenshot of Local Folders, as that is over 14 gig.

Thanks, how do I compact ? It's the ensemble of the three selected folders on the screenshot that weigh 14GB.

Select each folder individually. Can you post a screen shot of that?

Hi David, sorry for the delay. Here are the screenshots. How do I implement your suggestion of "renaming and starting TB"? Also how do I proceed to compacting? Thanks again for your help.

From the screenshots, it appears you can just start TB, rightclick the inbox and select 'compact', repeating the same for the sent folder. For trash in local folders, just right-click and 'empty trash'. I may have forgotten some of your concerns on this. Once you compact the folders, I suggest uninstalling TB Beta and installing TB. All should be okay after that. I think the regular version of TB should work with the profile. You may need to rightclick the desktop icon and modify the Target line to include a space after thunderbird.exe" with -P --allow-downgrade Let me know how it goes.

Thanks again, it didn't help and soared to about 35gb. Affecting updating process of the computer and preventing restoring. I really need to do something about it :) I replaced the pop accounts by imaps and only synchronised for some years instead of everything. Deleting the pop accounts didn't free as much as I expected. Do you know if unwanted copies of pop accounts can be stored in the localhost folders or somewhere else?

I despite switching my gmail account to imap and deleting the pop account, including its profile/messages automatically when asked while deleting, I still find pop.gmail folders (and older pop folders for accounts i no longer have) as well as a "local folders" file that contains a "trash" file of 5gb. What are they? should I delete them by hand? Screenshot attached Thanks

Also, I deactivated the sync of "all mail" which seems redundant when I already have inbox, sent mails, draft etc. However, the "all mail" folder in TB is still quite full. Can I delete all the emails inside without it deleting my actual emails on my gmail account? also, I asked to download only for a short period but get all emails since 2007. Perhaps are they only headers but I don't know ho to find out.

First, I encourage copying the profile folder elsewhere temporarily, just for safekeeping.

Now, all files and folders that are not visible from within TB can be deleted for Allmail from pop account, if you have unsubscribed from allmail and it does not appear in TB, then it can be deleted. yes, trash can be deleted. Yes, copies of old pop accounts can be store elsewhere if you think you may want to review the messages in future.

Thanks! And for the newly created imap, even when I ask to only sync the past few days and not the "all mail", I still get thousands of all emails and the "all mail" folder filled up.

Be sure you unsubscribe from Allmail. That folder can then be removed with File Explorer after TB is shut down.

I by going in account setting/Synchronization & Storage/Message Synchronizing/Advanced/ I then tick off in the box "items for offline use" the box for "All Mail" but it keeps synchronizing

All I know is to be sure you've unsubscribed and also unsync'd. Shut TB down, delete whatever allmail folder you're seeing. AND, log onto gmail. I think there's a setting there to specify what folders are accessible. That may help.