Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Thunderbird automatic compact does not appear to work

  • 1 reply
  • 2 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by Wayne Mery

K7ZWuCN5t27pcwvX
K7ZWuCN5t27pcwvX
more options

Thunderbird menu option Edit > Preferences > Advanced tab > Option: "Compact all folders when it will save over 20 MB in total" is selected and has been selected since Thunderbird was installed over a year ago.

Today, while researching another unrelated matter, I learned that it is a good idea to weekly invoke menu option File > Compact folders. I had never invoked this menu option so I did so today. After it completed the status bar indicated "Done compacting (approx. 248 MB saved)."

Today, and everyday since Thunderbird was installed, have been normal days reading some emails (~5/day), writing some emails (~2/day), and emptying the Junk folder (~10/day). There has been no recent wholesale deletion of emails.

If the option to "Compact all folders when it will save over 20 MB in total" has been selected, how is it possible that 248 MB was made available when I manually selected menu option File > Compact folders? I appears to me the automatic compact does not work.

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS updated everyday. ThunderBird 52.1.1 (64-bit) (this version appeared couple days ago).

Thunderbird menu option Edit > Preferences > Advanced tab > Option: "Compact all folders when it will save over 20 MB in total" is selected and has been selected since Thunderbird was installed over a year ago. Today, while researching another unrelated matter, I learned that it is a good idea to weekly invoke menu option File > Compact folders. I had never invoked this menu option so I did so today. After it completed the status bar indicated "Done compacting (approx. 248 MB saved)." Today, and everyday since Thunderbird was installed, have been normal days reading some emails (~5/day), writing some emails (~2/day), and emptying the Junk folder (~10/day). There has been no recent wholesale deletion of emails. If the option to "Compact all folders when it will save over 20 MB in total" has been selected, how is it possible that 248 MB was made available when I manually selected menu option File > Compact folders? I appears to me the automatic compact does not work. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS updated everyday. ThunderBird 52.1.1 (64-bit) (this version appeared couple days ago).

All Replies (1)

Wayne Mery
Wayne Mery
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

> I learned that it is a good idea to weekly invoke menu option File > Compact folders.

Only true ("a good idea") if the automatic compact has been failing - which of course is not normal. But it's a good thing you learned this.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1157256 covers this issue. We very much need your help to determine what is causing the automatic to fail.