Emptying Mail Folders

Hi All, .............. Recently I posted and Christer replied as to how to reduce the size of my Thunderbird (v. 2.0.0.24) Profile folder. Now I would like to be able to remove the contents of some of my mail folders. To me, Trash is trash and when I place a mail response in the Trash folder, it means I'm no longer interested in that content. Similarly, I'm not interested in mail received four years ago. So now my question is: How do I see zero content in those Mail folders? In other words, starting the folders over again and allowing them to resume adding new content.

 

If you want to start with a clean slate, but still save your old mail (you can get rid of any mail, any time later), close your TB, go to Windows Explorer (if you have a PC), and depending on your operating system, you may have different paths to your Profile|Mail|mail account. If you know, or are pretty sure that you know, delete your Inbox.msf file, right click|rename Inbox to Inboxold or Inbox2 (anything different from Inbox). Close Windows Explorer, and reopen Thunderbird. Your account will have an empty Inbox (or a folder with the very latest stuff), and a large Inboxold. You can break up your Inboxold, any way you want, by subject or date or both. It will take a while, but it will be worthwhile at the long run.
And, of course, delete trash and unneeded folders, then compact all folders to make sure that you lose any association of deleted or moved mail.
Of course, if not sure, give details.

 

Hi Westside, ................ After following your advice I now have the mail folder's content where I want them. My mistake was probably trying to make adjustments with Thunderbird open. Thank you for your help.

 

Bare in mind that the authors of software don't always implement things the way we might.

So now that you have cleaned up your email folders, keep in mind you still have to "take out the trash" by deleting the content of the Trash folder and compacting it to remove the vacated space from the folder. That is pretty much how most of the email clients out there operate.

 

Learned long time ago each User has their own bag of little tricks and ways to manage and organize their computer.

My method of keeping old mail while holding down folders and profile volume size is to stow my mail in monthly sub folders off the Inbox and I name those folders simply 01 tru 12 and this way they sort in order by the month.

Other thing I do is create a new Profile at the beginning of each new year and I name my Profiles RAY-2009 - RAY-2010, etc. ect.

Bottom Line I have all my mail old and new mail separated and sorted by Years and Months.

AND Yes I trash a lot of it too.

My 2 Cents -- Ray Smyth

 

Of my wife and my accounts, no Inbox is larger than seven to eight MB, with the exception of one of my wife's accounts which is exclusively forwarded from her work mail.
Every day mail is being deleted, or moved to a specific folder. Only one is getting unwieldy. It is, simply a case of being unable to decide if it is worthwhile to keep some type of mail.