Comments on: Can Mail.app cope with heavy loads? http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/can-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/ Tips and add-ons to make Apple Mail / Mail.app even better Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:57:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: 4miler http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/can-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-282005 4miler Thu, 22 Nov 2007 09:14:07 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/cam-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-282005 My current favorite setup is to use Gmail's IMAP as my repository of email, and to sync it using Leopard Mail 3.0. I am very careful to not allow mailboxes each to get too large, hence, I archive according to year, e.g. 2007, 2006, 2005 etc. for general emails. For specific issues: letters, business projects, each of these are in separate nested folders and subfolders, hence, no one mail box gets too large. I have emails going back to 1996, and I've kept almost everything. For people who don't think email archives are important -- it occurs very rarely, but sometimes you need to find the contact of someone, or some small piece of information. That's where a lifetime email archive comes in. I am in the legal profession, and I find it imperative to keep email archives of business correspondence, in case a client refutes something. You can then dig into your email archive, and prove it in writing. Nothing beats keep records. People who don't bother keeping email records don't need this level of detail in their life, but there are those of us who do. I'm very happy with Gmail IMAP synching with Leopard mail. I can't comment on size limits because I have not pushed the system to its limits yet. It is purring along nicely. The advantage of using Gmail IMAP is that you can use Google Desktop search to index the gmail archive. If Spotlight can't find it, maybe Google search can. With my setup, Spotlight indexes the IMAP emails on my Mac, while Google Desktop indexes the same IMAP emails on the Gmail server. Giovanni Pau @ Nov 18th -- can't you split your 181,000 into several subfolders, e.g. 2007, 2006, 2005, or some filing system like that. I have thousands of emails, but no one mbox gets any larger than around 2,000 emails. Admittedly, my file structure is very complex. My current favorite setup is to use Gmail’s IMAP as my repository of email, and to sync it using Leopard Mail 3.0.

I am very careful to not allow mailboxes each to get too large, hence, I archive according to year, e.g. 2007, 2006, 2005 etc. for general emails.

For specific issues: letters, business projects, each of these are in separate nested folders and subfolders, hence, no one mail box gets too large.

I have emails going back to 1996, and I’ve kept almost everything.

For people who don’t think email archives are important — it occurs very rarely, but sometimes you need to find the contact of someone, or some small piece of information. That’s where a lifetime email archive comes in. I am in the legal profession, and I find it imperative to keep email archives of business correspondence, in case a client refutes something. You can then dig into your email archive, and prove it in writing. Nothing beats keep records. People who don’t bother keeping email records don’t need this level of detail in their life, but there are those of us who do.

I’m very happy with Gmail IMAP synching with Leopard mail.

I can’t comment on size limits because I have not pushed the system to its limits yet. It is purring along nicely.

The advantage of using Gmail IMAP is that you can use Google Desktop search to index the gmail archive. If Spotlight can’t find it, maybe Google search can.

With my setup, Spotlight indexes the IMAP emails on my Mac, while Google Desktop indexes the same IMAP emails on the Gmail server.

Giovanni Pau @ Nov 18th — can’t you split your 181,000 into several subfolders, e.g. 2007, 2006, 2005, or some filing system like that. I have thousands of emails, but no one mbox gets any larger than around 2,000 emails. Admittedly, my file structure is very complex.

]]> By: Giovanni Pau http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/can-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-276826 Giovanni Pau Sun, 18 Nov 2007 08:30:56 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/cam-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-276826 Hello All, I have the following problem I have a 181000 mail inbox on apple mail and it crashes every other second. I'm using Apple mail 3.01, i rebuilt the envelop etc. The total mail folder is about half million mail for about 12G. my inbox is a way over 2G. Entourage works but is damn slow. Can anybody help Me? Hello All,

I have the following problem I have a 181000 mail inbox on apple mail and it crashes every other second. I’m using Apple mail 3.01, i rebuilt the envelop etc. The total mail folder is about half million mail for about 12G.
my inbox is a way over 2G.

Entourage works but is damn slow. Can anybody help Me?

]]> By: john http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/can-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-61676 john Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:45:20 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/cam-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-61676 Incidentally, I am an Apple engineer / admin at a hospital in Los Angeles, about 120 plus Macs and we just upgraded to Exchange 2003 (finally, thank heavens) and we are using the Exchange setting in Apple Mail. It works very well, as I anticipated, since the Exchange engineers did a type of clustering to maximize email performance, etc. It is not uncommon for a user to have 5000 plus emails and a few have 13,000 emails. They now have a quota of about 1 GB to 2 GB of space, (keep in mind attachments in your inbox and sent will count against your space quota). E-mail is coming down (caching) pretty quickly now, even on the initial setup with 5000 plus emails, the cache download is about 15 minutes, if that. On the Exchange 5.5 / NT 4 servers, this would take hours and more often crash Apple Mail. People were mistakenly thinking Apple Mail app was horrible, but it was the Exchange 5.5 / NT 4 servers (of course we the engineers knew this), heck even the Windows Outlook clients were slow and crashing. Apple Mail is pretty solid and getting better. New servers, all is great now. Another thing on Exchange Servers and Apple Mail, Public Folders. A nightmare for Apple Mail app connecting to Exchange (2003, via IMAP / Exchange). If your site has tons of items in Public Folders (and we have 51,000), Apple Mail just interprets these as Mail messages and wants to cache /dowload them (Apple Mail default). (Yes you can use an IMAP Prefix Path, but that can also block you from seeing other folders, etc). This sucks, since now you are congesting Mail app unnecessarily with traffic and e-mails you can care less about, and it is constant activity / syncing. Solution: I sent an email to our Exchange admin with all of my Mac users (this will eventually be handled by Active Directory). He will make a script to "Exclude" these Mac Mail App users from seeing Public Folders. Can't wait for Leopard Mail 3.0, should be great Anyone who wishes to correspond on Apple Mail and especially in an Enterprise / MS Exchange 2003 environment, feel free to email me, I am thinking of getting a Blog / correspondence on this, it is huge and all of us Mac users, Mac / Windows admins could use the knowledge. macguitarman@mac.com Incidentally,

I am an Apple engineer / admin at a hospital in Los Angeles, about 120 plus Macs and we just upgraded to Exchange 2003 (finally, thank heavens) and we are using the Exchange setting in Apple Mail.

It works very well, as I anticipated, since the Exchange engineers did a type of clustering to maximize email performance, etc.

It is not uncommon for a user to have 5000 plus emails and a few have 13,000 emails. They now have a quota of about 1 GB to 2 GB of space, (keep in mind attachments in your inbox and sent will count against your space quota).

E-mail is coming down (caching) pretty quickly now, even on the initial setup with 5000 plus emails, the cache download is about 15 minutes, if that.

On the Exchange 5.5 / NT 4 servers, this would take hours and more often crash Apple Mail.

People were mistakenly thinking Apple Mail app was horrible, but it was the Exchange 5.5 / NT 4 servers (of course we the engineers knew this), heck even the Windows Outlook clients were slow and crashing.

Apple Mail is pretty solid and getting better.

New servers, all is great now.

Another thing on Exchange Servers and Apple Mail, Public Folders.

A nightmare for Apple Mail app connecting to Exchange (2003, via IMAP / Exchange).

If your site has tons of items in Public Folders (and we have 51,000), Apple Mail just interprets these as Mail messages and wants to cache /dowload them (Apple Mail default). (Yes you can use an IMAP Prefix Path, but that can also block you from seeing other folders, etc).

This sucks, since now you are congesting Mail app unnecessarily with traffic and e-mails you can care less about, and it is constant activity / syncing.

Solution: I sent an email to our Exchange admin with all of my Mac users (this will eventually be handled by Active Directory).

He will make a script to “Exclude” these Mac Mail App users from seeing Public Folders.

Can’t wait for Leopard Mail 3.0, should be great

Anyone who wishes to correspond on Apple Mail and especially in an Enterprise / MS Exchange 2003 environment, feel free to email me, I am thinking of getting a Blog / correspondence on this, it is huge and all of us Mac users, Mac / Windows admins could use the knowledge.

macguitarman@mac.com

]]> By: john http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/can-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-61672 john Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:18:32 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/cam-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-61672 My own follow up, clarification on IMAP and Apple Mail In Apple Mail's default state (in IMAP configuration) one's mail is on the server (so mail is acting like a viewer) you just view your email on the server and it STAYS on the server (the beauty of IMAP) assuming your settings are set to and they are by default in Apple Mail. But, Apple Mail also "caches" your mail locally into the above location I stated above, this is useful for laptop users (if they use a laptop for example at their work and bring it home, they will be able to view/read their email since it is cached, Apple calls this, "Keep copies for offline viewing" in the Advance tab in Mail App. If you have multiple computers (and these days many of us do, heck even if you do not) IMAP is the way to go, it is backed up (depending on who you use (.Mac). I have been using .Mac since its inception and have never been without an email connection or lost data, (it is backed up). Of course you still have your local "cached" mail you can go to as a safety measure. My own follow up, clarification on IMAP and Apple Mail

In Apple Mail’s default state (in IMAP configuration) one’s mail is on the server (so mail is acting like a viewer) you just view your email on the server and it STAYS on the server (the beauty of IMAP) assuming your settings are set to and they are by default in Apple Mail.

But, Apple Mail also “caches” your mail locally into the above location I stated above, this is useful for laptop users (if they use a laptop for example at their work and bring it home, they will be able to view/read their email since it is cached, Apple calls this, “Keep copies for offline viewing” in the Advance tab in Mail App.

If you have multiple computers (and these days many of us do, heck even if you do not) IMAP is the way to go, it is backed up (depending on who you use (.Mac). I have been using .Mac since its inception and have never been without an email connection or lost data, (it is backed up).

Of course you still have your local “cached” mail you can go to as a safety measure.

]]> By: john http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/can-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-61668 john Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:08:43 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/cam-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-61668 If the server accidentally wipes out my email and I connect and “synch” then my email locally gets wiped out too, right? No, not if you have Apple Mail (in its default state /settings) it is bringing down your mail locally (yes, Cached). So /Users/'username'/LIbrary/Mail Copy / backup this folder and you are good to go. But IMAP is the way to go, and this new push-IMAP I can't wait to see (with regards to the iPhone and Yahoo) Anyone care to specualte where Apple is going with this new Yahoo (push Mail), very interesting. What does this mean for .Mac, where is Apple going with this Yahoo connection, very interesting. If the server accidentally wipes out my email and I connect and “synch” then my email locally gets wiped out too, right?

No, not if you have Apple Mail (in its default state /settings) it is bringing down your mail locally (yes, Cached). So /Users/’username’/LIbrary/Mail

Copy / backup this folder and you are good to go.

But IMAP is the way to go, and this new push-IMAP I can’t wait to see (with regards to the iPhone and Yahoo)

Anyone care to specualte where Apple is going with this new Yahoo (push Mail), very interesting.

What does this mean for .Mac, where is Apple going with this Yahoo connection, very interesting.

]]> By: Doug Lerner http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/can-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-61407 Doug Lerner Thu, 11 Jan 2007 01:29:33 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/cam-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-61407 Victor wrote: >"I don’t trust local mail clients, so I tend to archive my mail on the IMAP server..." I thought that comment was interesting. I've been interested in trying IMAP more, because I use multiple computers, but was worried about trusting the server. If the server accidentally wipes out my email and I connect and "synch" then my email locally gets wiped out too, right? doug Victor wrote:

>”I don’t trust local mail clients, so I tend to archive my mail on the IMAP server…”

I thought that comment was interesting. I’ve been interested in trying IMAP more, because I use multiple computers, but was worried about trusting the server.

If the server accidentally wipes out my email and I connect and “synch” then my email locally gets wiped out too, right?

doug

]]> By: Fed’s Bolsoblog » Blog Archive » 11 settembre 2001: cronaca da una mailbox http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/can-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-21548 Fed’s Bolsoblog » Blog Archive » 11 settembre 2001: cronaca da una mailbox Mon, 11 Sep 2006 18:15:32 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/cam-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-21548 [...] Per chi è vissuto di Internet negli ultimi anni la mailbox diventa un archivio permanente, anzi una vera autobiografia come ha detto Steven Frank (poi approfondito nel suo blog). [...] [...] Per chi è vissuto di Internet negli ultimi anni la mailbox diventa un archivio permanente, anzi una vera autobiografia come ha detto Steven Frank (poi approfondito nel suo blog). [...]

]]> By: Dave Hamilton / Dave The Nerd » Blog Archive » E-Mail Woes Coming To An End? http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/can-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-15626 Dave Hamilton / Dave The Nerd » Blog Archive » E-Mail Woes Coming To An End? Fri, 01 Sep 2006 19:02:18 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/cam-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-15626 [...] As many of you know, I’ve been in flux with my e-mail management system, and I think I’ve found a very workable solution for me. Though I discussed it on the most recent Mac Geek Gab podcast, enough of you have e-mailed me about this that I thought I’d type about it here, too. [...] [...] As many of you know, I’ve been in flux with my e-mail management system, and I think I’ve found a very workable solution for me. Though I discussed it on the most recent Mac Geek Gab podcast, enough of you have e-mailed me about this that I thought I’d type about it here, too. [...]

]]> By: mangaphreak http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/can-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-14507 mangaphreak Sat, 26 Aug 2006 23:14:33 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/cam-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-14507 Well, as I said before -- I didn't mean to offend or insult anyone...! And of course there is no wrong or right, everyone can do with his mails what he (or she) wants...! :) I still consider it a bit weird and strange though...and ..getting back to the initial topic -- I also think that none of the current mail apps are actually built for handling such amounts of messages...!? Maybe some apps should have like a Pro version that can cope with such -- still rather unusually large -- numbers of mails and directories...?! Well, as I said before — I didn’t mean to offend or insult anyone…! And of course there is no wrong or right, everyone can do with his mails what he (or she) wants…! :)

I still consider it a bit weird and strange though…and ..getting back to the initial topic — I also think that none of the current mail apps are actually built for handling such amounts of messages…!? Maybe some apps should have like a Pro version that can cope with such — still rather unusually large — numbers of mails and directories…?!

]]> By: Adrian http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/can-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-14029 Adrian Fri, 25 Aug 2006 12:57:12 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/21/cam-mailapp-cope-with-heavy-loads/#comment-14029 I'm amazed and fascinated at the numbers quoted: 10 years of email, quarter of a million messages,etc. But then I have 2GB RAM and 1TB of hard disk space which I can't imagine ever filling up. Naive? Probably, but compared to my previous Mac it's cavernous. But as stevenf points out, it's less than 1%. So nowadays we keep more things simply because we can. Dave Hamilton, I think, is a self-fulfilling prophecy: as the amount of information kept grows then the butt-saving chance increases. Be wise - archive! Thanks to everyone for making me think about this before my emails number in the thousands. From now on I'll be asking another important question when I receive email: can I be 100% certain that I will never need to refer to this again? If there's any doubt I'll keep it. It is also blindingly obvious that MailTags is essential. I’m amazed and fascinated at the numbers quoted: 10 years of email, quarter of a million messages,etc. But then I have 2GB RAM and 1TB of hard disk space which I can’t imagine ever filling up. Naive? Probably, but compared to my previous Mac it’s cavernous. But as stevenf points out, it’s less than 1%. So nowadays we keep more things simply because we can.
Dave Hamilton, I think, is a self-fulfilling prophecy: as the amount of information kept grows then the butt-saving chance increases. Be wise - archive!
Thanks to everyone for making me think about this before my emails number in the thousands. From now on I’ll be asking another important question when I receive email: can I be 100% certain that I will never need to refer to this again? If there’s any doubt I’ll keep it.
It is also blindingly obvious that MailTags is essential.

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