Strange things when compacting inbox in NS7.2

When I open up my inbox in Netscape 7.2 e-mail, I often get a window that asks something like "Do you want to compact your files and folders to save disk space?" I always say yes because who can refuse saving disk space?

In the past few days, something new has started to happen. Usually, but not always, when I say "yes" to compacting, all the e-mail in my inbox window disappears!

When I click on the inbox or open it up again, all the e-mail there is back, as if nothing happened, except that my Work Account has a new folder called "nstmp" which also contains all the e-mail in my inbox. I send this "nstmp" folder to trash, since I don't need it.

This whole process is annoying, though not catastrophic. Does anyone know how I can get rid of this new phenomenon, and why it happens? It seems to me that it started about the time I installed the new version of Google Desktop (which works very well). I don't know if the two are connected, but the timing is suspicious.

 

Ah, this is a confusing one to tackle.

The problem arises from how messages are actually stored and how the software author expects you to use the program.
In netscape, mozilla mail, thunderbird and yes even Outlook Express ; each folder in your email is saved as a single file not as a folder. In Netscape, the inbox folder is actually two files inbox (no extension) with the data and a summary inbox.msf . In OE, it is just inbox.dbx.

These are in fact compressed files. This is why the more you have in your inbox in OE , the longer it takes to open OE. Netscape and mozilla get around this by using the .msf summary file. It opens and displays the summary while it is busy decompressing the actual file.

Now the idea is that you will download your new email and it goes to the inbox (and if you have filters also to the junk file for spam or trash). You read your emails and sort them appropriately by moving things from the inbox to one of a number of folders you created, say one for work, one for family, one for windowsbbs, etc.
Now lets assume you follow this pattern. There is a folder you rarely access. The idea is that you right click that folder and choose compress. IT is then not only compressed beyond its normal compression, but the .msf summary file is removed. This way it is not decompressed automatically when you reopen netscape. This saves space and time , but means that if you open it, it will at first appear empty while it is decompressed and a new summary file is built.

I hope that explains it. Basically you are compressing the file and delete its summary as if it were not going to be accessed again for some time, then you turn around and decompress it and store it as it was only minimally compressed.

 

xelaw,

The nstemp folder issue usually occurs during the compression event, as explained, and can also be caused by an oversized Inbox. As I have repeated often, the Inbox isn't intended for archiving, and should be kept lean.

I would also delete all MSF files in your Mail Account folder, if you haven't already done so.

Another user posted that removing the Google Desktop Search fixed the problem . If you have numerous extensions, that too can create unusual problems.

 

oshwyn 5 and Ramona, thanks for your answers. However:

1. As I stated, the phenomenon of an empty Inbox window is new; it just started a couple of days ago. Before that, it never happened. Not even if I compacted files.

2. My Inbox is spare and lean: all junk mail automatically goes to the junk mail folder, a lot of incoming goes to trash, and I place most of the rest into their own folders. I rarely have more than 10 messages left in my Inbox.

Like I said, the phenomenon is annoying. Any way to get rid of it?

 

Ramona, I forgot to ask you about MSF files in the posting I just sent.

In the folder .../Mail/mail.(ISP name) I find that I have an MSF file for every folder in my Work Account, including an Inbox.msf file (which is all of 9 KBytes). Are you saying to delete all these MSF files? Will they reappear once I open Netscape again? And why did the problem start just a few days ago? I don't see anything unusual about the files in this folder (except for a junklog.html file which is almost 1.3 MB and seems to list the provenance of every junk message I've received in the past year and a half, and which now takes the prize for the most useless piece of information I now have on my PC).

 

The .msf files are the header files, they are small and disposable. If you delete the file(s) from the Hard Drive, with your program closed, they will be rebuilt. I had this problem only once, with up to ten accounts, and up to five similar mail clients, and I have no clue why the problem occurred, and it did not reoccurred.
I have never found the junklog file to be of any particular use, but they could come handy, should you want to set up filters, which is useless. And, you can clear the contents whenever you feel like it. And, I thought I was getting a lot of Junk Mail. My folder had a tad over 50Kbs of junk site listed.
Most important for you is to see what is the size of the Inbox, the file with no extention, where your mail is located.
One of my Inboxes has 17 e-mails, mostly newsletters, and it is 260Kb in size.
Don't get fooled by the size of the .msf file!
But, how do you get rid of the problem? It depends on a number of things, and you may have to create a new profile, if all else fails.
I am not familiar with the Google Desktop, but has problems . Get rid of it, since all your mail is affected.
I was almost fooled by your last message, until I reread the first.

 

Westside, Ramona, oshwyn5 - I waited a few days before describing what happened to the fixes you suggested so that I could determine what was going on with the phenomenon I described in NS7.2 e-mail.

Well, I first decided to do nothing, just to see my Inbox window go blank again - and it didn't happen. Not when left NS7.2 running, not when I turned it off and on, and not when I rebooted the PC. I knew that this is a very effective forum, but I didn't know that it could solve my problem just by sending you a posting!

Since I really don't believe in technological miracles, I will keep an eye out in case the phenomenon returns, and inform you.

 

Magic or routine weirdness? It does not matter, if it works, but don't count on this approach.
You must have a check mark in the account settings Disk Space. I don't, because I never know which amount of Kb to enter. But, I compact files every time I dump the trash. It may take a bit more time, but once I have determined that I did not want to see an e-mail again, I may as well get it completely out of the way.