it looks as though the Thunderbird coders have finally solved the 4gb mbox limit!!!
I see that in Options, Advanced tab, Advanced Configuration, there's an (apparently) choice called Message Store Type for New Accounts. The options are the usual singe Mbox file per message folder and a new choice called File per Message. I presume this means each message will be store as a separate file and therefore there will be no limit to the number or size of message storage anymore. This is WONDERFUL! Why didn't you announce this in the What's New page? I had to install eMClient earlier this year for my boss because his mail storage had too large to permit proper operation of Thunderbird. That - and lack of Vcard support - was the only thing which bedeviled me with your program.
I wish you would include an exporter/importer or converter for existing accounts. Then I could put my boss back on Thunderbird. Exporting 100,000 or so messages from MBox databases to individual files and then importing those back into a new account in Thunderbird is just too much to face.
Otherwise I find Thunderbird to be the program I use most - other than Firefox - and find the most trouble free - including Firefox!
Chosen solution
Why didn't you announce this in the What's New page?
It is mentioned in the release notes. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/38.0.1/releasenotes/
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Chosen Solution
Why didn't you announce this in the What's New page?
It is mentioned in the release notes. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/38.0.1/releasenotes/
This explains why https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/maildir-thunderbird
> This explains why https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/maildir-thunderbird
Indeed. Caution is important since we are dealing with issues fundamental to the storage of user data.
That, and the fact that we don't yet have a converter.
Matt said
This explains why https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/maildir-thunderbird
So does this mean this feature is still dodgy? I really need it to work and I'd say it's overdue.
Wayne Mery said
> This explains why https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/maildir-thunderbird Indeed. Caution is important since we are dealing with issues fundamental to the storage of user data. That, and the fact that we don't yet have a converter.
Yeah, a converter... I don't know why the 'team' doesn't make this a first priority since the rest of Thunderbird is quite usable and generally stable. Just about the only crashes I've gotten have been over the mbox.
> Just about the only crashes I've gotten have been over the mbox.
I deal with lots of crashes. I am not aware of any related to foler size. I'd be interested in seeing your crash reports. Can you post your crash IDs? See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-crash-reporter#w_viewing-crash-reports
Wayne Mery said
> Just about the only crashes I've gotten have been over the mbox. I deal with lots of crashes. I am not aware of any related to foler size. I'd be interested in seeing your crash reports. Can you post your crash IDs? See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-crash-reporter#w_viewing-crash-reports
I guess I should have written 'crashes'. Thunderbird hung repeatedly or took so long to do basic tasks that my boss got angry and insisted it was unusable. To be fair, he insisted on keeping a score of tabs open and wouldn't archive messages so his Inbox and Sent folder got well above 2 Gb. Outlook Express had this problem too and we ditched it years ago for Thunderbird.
I've never had a problem with the other 4 installations of Thunderbird.
> Thunderbird hung repeatedly or took so long to do basic tasks that my boss got angry and insisted it was unusable.
Most performance issues end up being antivirus software. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Antivirus_Related_Performance_Issues
> he insisted on keeping a score of tabs open
Wouldn't be related
> and wouldn't archive messages so his Inbox and Sent folder got well above 2 Gb.
Might have a bearing. However, unless the delays are compact related then it will be easiest to first eliminate AV software as possible cause. Eliminating compact as a cause is easily done by disabling automatic compact at tools | options | advanced | network and disk
None of the other 4 installations had a problem. 3 of the machines are running Windows 7 and the last is running Xp 64 bit. All are running Microsoft Security Essentials and nothing else. The problems got progressively worse as the folder sizes increased. Compacting took a long time, but so did many basic tasks in Thunderbird near the end.
EM Client now handles my boss's e-mail with ease. I hate its interface and won't get up to speed enough to support it - and it needs support. I'd love to re-install Thunderbird, but without a converter, it's not happening anytime soon.
Interestingly a few years ago I was using MSE on XP and Thunderbird was so slow as to be unusable (back about V12). I could type much faster than it could display it and I am a poor typist.
I got rid of MSE and my troubles stopped over night. That was a a time when Thunderbird support folk were recommending MSE and I was installing it on people computers for them. Personally, I now think it is about the worst thing you can have except nothing.
Yeah. On one of my machines I too had to EXPLITICTLY exclude Thunderbird profile directory in MSE. That might be sufficient.
That said, lots of people seem to think that maildir will solve tons of performance issues. I don't believe it.