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Thunderbird newsgroups folder is too large and slow

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  • Last reply by christ1

Yousuf
Yousuf
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I have a Giganews account which I use mainly for various tech support help messages. The folder in which it exists, there are over half a million files in it, and even though the total size of the files is only 1.4 GB, it's actually been allocated 2.4 GB of space on the drive! When I run my backup software on that folder it takes between 8 to 12 hours to complete, even on an SSD! I had been backing up the whole Users folder, in which this Thunderbird news folder exists, but I had to exclude this folder and run it in a separate backup job, once a week rather than daily.

It looks like Thunderbird stores all of this newsgroup individual messages on separate files, rather than in a single database file. There is no problem when using the same backup software on the Thunderbird email folders, it completes backing it up very quickly. The the rest of the Users folder is about 390 GB, and it can typically back that entire thing up in less than 2 hours, but this particular folder is less than 100x smaller, and yet takes 4 to 6 times longer!

I have a Giganews account which I use mainly for various tech support help messages. The folder in which it exists, there are over half a million files in it, and even though the total size of the files is only 1.4 GB, it's actually been allocated 2.4 GB of space on the drive! When I run my backup software on that folder it takes between 8 to 12 hours to complete, even on an SSD! I had been backing up the whole Users folder, in which this Thunderbird news folder exists, but I had to exclude this folder and run it in a separate backup job, once a week rather than daily. It looks like Thunderbird stores all of this newsgroup individual messages on separate files, rather than in a single database file. There is no problem when using the same backup software on the Thunderbird email folders, it completes backing it up very quickly. The the rest of the Users folder is about 390 GB, and it can typically back that entire thing up in less than 2 hours, but this particular folder is less than 100x smaller, and yet takes 4 to 6 times longer!

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christ1
christ1
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even though the total size of the files is only 1.4 GB, it's actually been allocated 2.4 GB of space on the drive!

You'd need to explain this in more detail.

When I run my backup software on that folder it takes between 8 to 12 hours to complete

Assuming you're downloading an offline copy of all your newsgroup messages, and there are some large files, it's quite possible your anti-virus software takes that long to scan the file(s) during backup. Just copying a 2.4 GB file shouldn't take 12 hours. Try to add an exception for the Thunderbird profile folder to your anti-virus software.

It looks like Thunderbird stores all of this newsgroup individual messages on separate files, rather than in a single database file.

I don't think so. There should be one file per newsgroup without a file extension, an index file of the same name with a .msf file extension, and a .dat file of the same name to keep track of which messages have already been downloaded from the server for that group.

Modified by christ1