[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       opensolaris-desktop-discuss
Subject:    Re: [desktop-discuss] Thunderbird 3 Disk Space Hog
From:       Hugh McIntyre <lists () mcintyreweb ! com>
Date:       2010-03-31 17:20:37
Message-ID: 4BB38465.5000701 () mcintyreweb ! com
[Download RAW message or body]

Karl Rossing wrote:
> While this is a Mozilla Issue, I think I might have a better chance 
> getting this addressed here.
> 
> We have noticed that Thunderbird 3 is using a lot of disk space in our 
> environment.
> 
> It seems that Thunderbird 3.0 now downloads the contents of your imap 
> folders.
> 
> I can see this as being a rather large problem with backing up large 
> home directories.

I'm not using Thunderbird 3 right now, but this seems to be listed at 
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_3.0_-_New_Features_and_Changes#IMAP_Accounts 
under the "offline folder" comments.

Meanwhile it seems you can apparently use 
mail.server.default.autosync_max_age_days and 
mail.server.default.autosync_offline_stores to limit the amount of 
downloading, however these are per-server settings, I think.  I agree 
that a global preference for "no more than X MB of offline storage" 
would seem to be better and match previous usage.

You can check existing bugs or file a bug of course, for example see 
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=511118 for a disk space 
limit.  However this is no longer marked as a blocker for TB3.1 which is 
claimed to be a prompted upgrade for all Thunderbird 2.x users.  So a 
lot of people may get surprised when they install 3.x ...

> I have figured out how to lock out some FF and Thunderbird preferences 
> but I can't seem to find a global preference(about:config) in TB 3 for 
> "Keep Messages for this account on this computer". It seems that the 
> settings are on an account basis and not on a global basis.
> 
> I also feel that this setting should be disabled by default since the 
> default has the potential of drastically increasing home directory sizes 
> and thus increasing backup times.

It certainly seems to merit a warning at least.  However the main 
release notes seem more focussed on "Thunderbird will now download IMAP 
messages in the background to allow for faster message loading" (as well 
as better offline operation) :(

Hugh.


_______________________________________________
desktop-discuss mailing list
desktop-discuss@opensolaris.org
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]