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Default folder size



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 30th 08, 10:11 PM posted to microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress
Dori A Schmetterling
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 220
Default Default folder size

I run Win XP SP3, OE 6.

Following this NG has certainly enhanced my understanding of OE.

I have a question regarding the default folder size. This issue is
mentioned quite frequently in various contexts.

Under "December updates" Bruce Hagen yesterday said { again... :-) }

"Do not archive mail in default OE folders, Inbox, Sent Items, etc., as
they will eventually become corrupt. Create your own user defined folders
for storing mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly. Keep user created folders under 100MB, and Default folders as
empty as is feasible."

= I am assuming "archive" means storing long term.

Background: My default Inbox contains about 1.6 GB, my Deleted Items box
about 0.8 GB, the Sent box about 0.2 GB.

These sizes are far greater than recommended here but I have had few
problems. I have had some loss of msgs in the inbox but they have
reappeared on clicking on another box and then returning to the Inbox, or
restarting OE.

Just for background my Deleted Items box contains a month's worth of
messages. I check it every day and delete anything over a month old. I
find this useful as I often need to check msgs sent/received in the recent
past (I use it a bit like the Windows Recycle bin, but far more often).

Only Compacting tends to fail on the two very large mailboxes, showing an
error msg about the mailbox being in use by another application.

= Why is that?

To get round this problem I move most of the messages out of the two very
big default mailboxes into newly created temporary folders and then compact
the default folders. Then I move the messages back into the default
folders. This always reduces the size of the default mailbox.

Once not long I broke the big boxes into smaller boxes in order to compact
the lot, including the Pop3uidl.dbx file. It has been recommended here to
ensure that the Pop3uidl.dbx file is compacted and I think Compacting All
Folders is the only way to get to it.

Normally I compact individual folders. I have quite a few user-created
folders but they are hardly used so I don't compact them.

To minimise the risks I back all my stuff -- incl OE files -- up daily or
more often (online to a remote server). I have had to restore my OE Inbox
in the past more than once because of damage or loss. From this NG I have
learned why this happens.

= Is there anything I can do to stop the compaction process for the large
default mailboxes failing besides breaking them up into small chunks?

Any other comments welcome, too.

Many thanks.
DAS
--
To send an e-mail directly replace "spam" with "schmetterling"
---




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  #2  
Old December 30th 08, 10:28 PM posted to microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress
Bruce Hagen
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,210
Default Default folder size

= I am assuming "archive" means storing long term

Yes.

Background: My default Inbox contains about 1.6 GB, my Deleted Items box
about 0.8 GB, the Sent box about 0.2 GB.


You are flirting with danger. I have nothing in my Inbox more than a day
old.

Only Compacting tends to fail on the two very large mailboxes, showing an
error msg about the mailbox being in use by another application.

= Why is that?


Because the size is becoming unacceptable for OE.

= Is there anything I can do to stop the compaction process for the
large
default mailboxes failing besides breaking them up into small chunks?


No. I would move the messages out of those folders and leave them out. You
may find that those folders are able to be compacted, especially if you do
it more often than you probably do.

100MB is a very conservative size. You can go larger, but please not in a
default folder.

I hope your backup program is reliable.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA



"Dori A Schmetterling" wrote in message
...
I run Win XP SP3, OE 6.

Following this NG has certainly enhanced my understanding of OE.

I have a question regarding the default folder size. This issue is
mentioned quite frequently in various contexts.

Under "December updates" Bruce Hagen yesterday said { again... :-) }

"Do not archive mail in default OE folders, Inbox, Sent Items, etc., as
they will eventually become corrupt. Create your own user defined folders
for storing mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly. Keep user created folders under 100MB, and Default folders as
empty as is feasible."

= I am assuming "archive" means storing long term.

Background: My default Inbox contains about 1.6 GB, my Deleted Items box
about 0.8 GB, the Sent box about 0.2 GB.

These sizes are far greater than recommended here but I have had few
problems. I have had some loss of msgs in the inbox but they have
reappeared on clicking on another box and then returning to the Inbox, or
restarting OE.

Just for background my Deleted Items box contains a month's worth of
messages. I check it every day and delete anything over a month old. I
find this useful as I often need to check msgs sent/received in the recent
past (I use it a bit like the Windows Recycle bin, but far more often).

Only Compacting tends to fail on the two very large mailboxes, showing an
error msg about the mailbox being in use by another application.

= Why is that?

To get round this problem I move most of the messages out of the two very
big default mailboxes into newly created temporary folders and then
compact
the default folders. Then I move the messages back into the default
folders. This always reduces the size of the default mailbox.

Once not long I broke the big boxes into smaller boxes in order to compact
the lot, including the Pop3uidl.dbx file. It has been recommended here to
ensure that the Pop3uidl.dbx file is compacted and I think Compacting All
Folders is the only way to get to it.

Normally I compact individual folders. I have quite a few user-created
folders but they are hardly used so I don't compact them.

To minimise the risks I back all my stuff -- incl OE files -- up daily or
more often (online to a remote server). I have had to restore my OE Inbox
in the past more than once because of damage or loss. From this NG I have
learned why this happens.

= Is there anything I can do to stop the compaction process for the
large
default mailboxes failing besides breaking them up into small chunks?

Any other comments welcome, too.

Many thanks.
DAS
--
To send an e-mail directly replace "spam" with "schmetterling"
---





  #3  
Old December 31st 08, 09:28 PM posted to microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress
Mark F
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3
Default Default folder size

On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:28:38 -0800, "Bruce Hagen"
wrote in part:

Background: My default Inbox contains about 1.6 GB, my Deleted Items box
about 0.8 GB, the Sent box about 0.2 GB.


You are flirting with danger. I have nothing in my Inbox more than a day
old.

This is a good practice for many email programs. In fact,
even if you use an email program that sorts incoming messages into
more than one folder you should keep these input folders empty.

Aside from the possibility of software or hardware error messing
things up, sometimes the mail host decides to make treat some or
all of your already downloaded messages as new messages. (In
particular I have found that Verizon and Gmail sometimes
decide that all of my messages stored there are new. This in
turn means that each of the 4 machines that I use gets a
couple of thousand "new" messages when I download. It doesn't
matter if I use Outlook Express or Agent, both programs see all
of the messages as new.)

Moving everything out the "primary" folders means that I can
cleanup from such problems much faster.

For example:
from Gmail InBoxGmail
I then delete, file appropriately, or move each message
to UrgentlyRequiringMyActionFromGmail
The next time I download messages InBoxGmail was empty before
I started, so the 2000 old messages and 10 new messages that
Gmail thinks are new don't get mixed in with the 500
of so messages the are urgently requiring my action from
Gmail and I can easily tell the 2000 old messages from the 10
new messages by sorting by date.



 




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