Maildir in Thunderbird
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- Revision id: 96955
- Created:
- Creator: Roland Tanglao
- Comment: wip don't approve
- Reviewed: No
- Ready for localization: No
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Thunderbird has had hidden support (Maildir is disabled by default) for the Maildir mail storage format for several years but Maildir is still not 100% ready for users. This article explains the format change.
Maildir is a single file per email (EML) unlike the current default monolithic single file format which is one file per folder (known a mbox). This storage format has significant benefits:
- Backups are easier because amount of data needed to be backed up is reduced to just those emails that have changed since the last backup.
- It is easier for anti-virus to scan emails in individual files and infected mails can be removed without the loss of all the other mail in the folder as often occurs today with anti-virus software which cannot handle multiple emails in one file.
This is a major change for Thunderbird because it changes the mail storage mechanism. The development team have spent a significant amount of time developing maildir . However due to a lack of time, and testers, before Thunderbird 38 was released the actual underlying changes have not had the extensive manual testing that would normally occur for such a major change.
While you are encouraged to try the format and report bugs.
How to turn on Maildir
Turn on mail dir as follows:
- Backup your email. If you don't know how to backup your email, then you are not qualified to test Maildir.
- Click the Application menu button .
- Click . and then
- Click and then click .
- Next to "Message Store Type for new accounts", select
- Any email account created in Thunderbird will now use Maildir (existing accounts will continue to use mbox). Please file a bug if you encounter any Maildir issues.