Compact or Empty?

Call it yet another senior moment but I can't remember what I should do first! When I have several messages in my Sent Box and I want to get rid of them... do I delete them and THEN compact the now-empty Sent box OR do I compact the messages and THEN delete those compacted messages?

And Trash? Trash really confuses me. If I want to dump all my trash.... do I first compact the trash and only then compact the now-empty Trash box OR do I compact those messages first and THEN empty the trash?

 

One senior to another....

All folders other than trash..

Delete message THEN compact folder.

TRASH folder ....
The correct way to clear the "trash" folder is by the Right click context menu.
"Empty Trash" entry. or select "Empty trash on exit" (account server setting)

Interesting factoid:

1. If you delete mail to "trash folder "
2. Delete all messages from "trash Folder" via "delete key/button "
3. Empty trash via UI

4. "Trash" file size remains, does not reduce to ' "0 "
5. File size reverts to "0" if you compact "trash" folder
OR Delete another message to trash folder AND then "empty" trash....

Looks to me like emptying trash folder is only effective if there is something "visible" to empty...

HTH

regards:captjlddavis

 

Another senior joining the battle. I empty the trash, manually ,first. Then I go to the Inbox, and compact all folders. But, it is not necessary to do that. Stay witth the Trash, and compact from there.
I deleted just two messages, 21Kb. The Inbox staid at 1817 Kb. I, then emptied the Trash, which back down to zero Kb, but the Inbox did not change. I, finally, compacted folders, while still in Trash, and the Inbox decreaded exactly 21 Kb.

 

AFAIK...

Folders can be compacted individually - Right click - compact folder (singular)
ALL folders can be compacted at the same time - File - Compact Folders (plural)

Though I have no "proof" - I believe that when you "empty trash" - the "Trash" folder is REPLACED with an empty one - it appears to be "compacted" but I don't think this happens.

When I compact a folder it takes a couple nanoseconds to accomplish.

When you COMPACT a folder, the DB program ( Mork db) copies all the displayed files to a temp folder - deletes the original folder and renames the copied folder to the Original name.

When I "Empty Trash" the results are instantaneous.

But that is just what I think happens - I could be wrong.

regards:captjldavis

 

From YAS (yet another senior) ...

I hate to say it guys, but you're making the proverbial mountain out of the proverbial molehill.

It doesn't matter whether you compact the Trash folder, or not ... just empty the darned thing. It's TRASH, remember? The trash.snm folder will remain the same size (even if you compact before emptying), but the trash.msf folder will be reduced to 2KB.

Needless to say, you can't compact an empty folder, because there's nothing in it to compact.

(He stumbles off to bed grumbling, shaking his head.)

 

The confusion (for those of us who are not computer whizzes... and that includes me in spades... hey.. I do not spend hours on the computer on a daily basis! ;p) entails the "other" boxes. Here we're told that even should you "empty" (by deleting) the messages, you still must compact. Thus it only seems logical that the same would hold true for the Trash box. But apparently that logic does not hold true. Oyyy... my aching head!

 

James ...

If, by "computer whiz ", you meant me, you've got it all wrong. I know how to read the size of a file in Windows Explorer, and I just try to apply a little common sense.

I don't know who told you that you must compact your folders, including empty ones, but it's really a matter of choice. It had been some time since I compacted anything in my profile's Mail folder, and the Inbox folder, a few moments ago, was 35,645KB in size, much larger, I'm guessing, than that of most folks. After compacting, it was 32,091KB, a reduction of 3,553KB, or about 10%. The Sent folder, on the other hand was 23,431KB before compacting, 23,262KB after, a reduction of only 169KB.

Even the most modest desktop computers today have hard drives of at least 40GB (I suppose some laptops may still come with 10 or 20GB drives) and, unless your drive is full to overflowing with other stuff, it seems to me that compacting provides relatively meaningless benefits.

 

Greetings,

I did not mean to create all this "confusion" ?

As JSS says,

It is your choice....I was just trying to 'splain what is going on...and answere the original question - "the order to follow - IF you compact folders. "

Mea culpa,Mea culpa

regards:captjlddavis

 

Hi

Well.. actually it was Ramona who suggested we compact our boxes. Here's what she said back in August:

Hi James

On compacting folders, there is a setting in Edit | Preferences | Mail & Newsgroups | Offline & Disk Space "Compact folders when it will save over ____ KB. I also suggest in my Preventive Maintenance guideline:

"Compact your Mail folders frequently in order to release unused space to other applications. Compacting compresses the files, thus taking up less HDD space. Compacting should be done when messages have been moved or deleted.
In Mail & Newsgroups, click: File | Compact Folders. "

Compact all folders in all your Accounts.

Also, you are correct, that deleting messages, which moves them to the Trash folder, does not delete them from the HDD. You must compact your folders after emptying Trash.

HTH,

Ramona
__________________

 

James ...

Far be it from me to contradict Ramona but, unless you're painfully short of disk space, I see no real need to compact your folders, especially if you keep them down to a reasonable size. I do not, so I compact mine only if I happen to think of it, or if I have nothing better to do, such as when I'm tired of playing solitaire.

In other words, in the grand scheme of things I consider it (compacting mail folders) to be a non-issue.

 

As James said, the advice came from me, and still stands. Compacting folders is the only way to actually remove deleted messages from any of the Netscape, Mozilla, or Thunderbird Mail Files.

E.G., if I move Inbox messages to my "Archive" folder, then close Thunderbird, the Inbox size doesn't change. However, if I do compact folders, once I move all Inbox messages to the "Archive" Inbox folder, then close Thunderbird, the Inbox then reports 0 KB. Regardless of the size of your HDD, compacting is still a good maintenance practice.

Jim, feel free to contradict me any time you wish, as I am not that sensitive to constructive criticism. You're as entitled to your opinion as I am to mine.

Compact Folders Now and Then in Mozilla Thunderbird, Netscape or Mozilla

Tips and Tricks > Netscape Messenger

I also see this practice recommended on the Netscape, Mozilla, and Thunderbird NG's and other Forums...


Again Happy Holidays!

Ramona

 

Hi Ramona,

(With apologies to George and Ira Gershwin) "I say tomato and you say tomahto ". What you say is certainly true, except that you don't have to close Tbird for the values to change. Just open your mail folder in Windows Explorer, before doing what you describe, and you'll see what I mean.

I didn't say that compacting folders was bad practice, any more than I said that not compacting them was good practice. It's always good to keep your hard drive free of junk files. My point was that, with hard drives the size they are today, and getting larger all the time, it's not all that important whether you compact your mail folders or not.

My Tbird profile resides on a 60GB partition, of which 35GB are unused. My whole Tbird profile is only 720MB, with the Mail folder using 716MB of that. I could go without compacting for years before even doubling the size of my Mail folder.

Good housekeeping?

Of course!​

Necessary?

Wel-l-l-l ... (he waffles) ​

 

I have a 200 GB hard drive so obviously I don't need any space. I remember some years back reading an article about the corruption of Messenger boxes and one of the culprits was the failure to compact them. I think it better to err on the side of caution. It takes all of two seconds to right click and compact so I'd rather do that lest my failure to do so result in a possible corruption of the box somewhere down the line. Not saying that this is inevitable but on the chance that it "could" occur, I'd rather avoid that possible eventuality.

Hey... have a great New Year, Guys and Gals.

 

James,

Your memory serves you correctly, and you are wise to err on the side of caution, rather than to err on the side of daring.

If you allow your Mail folders to become too large, you risk losing everything. Netscape/Mozilla/Thunderbird will choke when you try to move the messages. If the browser should crash when moving them, then ALL is lost. It can also become impossible to open the Mail folders in Windows Explorer, if too large. I'm sure you recall reading some threads in this Forum and others where this has happened...

Compacting and Archiving are your best Mail maintenance friends!

Ramona

 

All the more reason to abandon Netscape or Mozilla and go with Firefox and Thunderbird. Though each can be opened from the other, they are completely separate, and such a thing can NOT happen.

OK, Ramona, I concede the discussion. Who am I to fly in the face of convention, even though I firmly believe that you're being overly cautious?

As they say at Burger King, "Have it your way ".

 

Jim,

I'm not trying to "bust your chops ". I am merely passing along information that is in the Mozillazine Knowledge Base re: Compacting Folders:

I'm not telling you, specifically, to compact your Mail folders. As you said, different strokes for different folks. If you chose not to, that's entirely up to you.

If I tend to be overly cautious in my advice to members of the Forum, it's because I feel solely responsible for any information I pass on to them.

BTW, if you try to move a large number of messages, and I'm talking multi MB, from one folder to another, and Thunderbird chokes, you will lose those messages. Thunderbird is no different from any other Mail client in that respect.

Sorry if I seem to be beating a dead horse, but I am concerned that inexperienced users will decide that never compacting folders is an O.K. thing to do...

Ramona

 

See, by playing Devil's Advocate I've given you the opportunity to pass along some important information that noobies might not, otherwise, be aware of.

(He says, trying to save face as much as possible. )​