Hawk Wings » database http://www.hawkwings.net Tips and add-ons to make Apple Mail / Mail.app even better Tue, 26 Jul 2011 07:44:09 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Rebuild your database and speed up Mail.app http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/02/08/rebuild-your-database-and-speed-up-mailapp/ http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/02/08/rebuild-your-database-and-speed-up-mailapp/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2006 13:57:16 +0000 Tim Gaden http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/02/08/rebuild-your-database-and-speed-up-mailapp/ Envelope Index (see “What’s in your Mail folder?”) is an SQLite database that stores key information about your emails. Over time it can get terminally corrupted (see “The dreaded ‘your home directory is full’ message”).

It can also suffer a large number of smaller hiccups and corruptions which slow Mail down, although they don’t knock it out.

A poster on macOSXHints explains how his database stored phantom messages from an Exchange server he used over Summer.

Quitting Mail, dragging the Envelope Index to the Desktop, restarting Mail and allowing it to reindex his emails, cut its size from 200MB to 2MB. The speed increase was significant. Rob Griffiths reduced his from 25.9MB to 4.5MB.

My result was less dramatic (21.6MB -> 17.6MB) but Mail.app still feels a little more zippy.

Worth a shot for you too, perhaps? If so, first make sure you have a backup of your ~/Library/Mail folder in case something goes wrong. Dragging it out of Finder onto your Desktop will do the trick.envelope index, database, corruption, phantom emails, Mail.app, slow, apple mail, speed bump, tipsSimilar Posts:

]]> http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/02/08/rebuild-your-database-and-speed-up-mailapp/feed/ 59 The dreaded “your home directory is full” error http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/02/01/the-dreaded-your-home-directory-is-full-message/ http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/02/01/the-dreaded-your-home-directory-is-full-message/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:26:09 +0000 Tim Gaden http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/02/01/the-dreaded-your-home-directory-is-full-message/ I just noticed three searches for this error message this morning, and I’ve not blogged it before. Oddly.

If the Mail.app database that indexes your emails becomes corrupt, you may see the following error message when you try to open Mail.app:

“Mail cannot update your mailboxes because your home directory is full. You must free up space in your home folder before using Mail. Delete unneeded documents or move documents to another volume.”

It actually has nothing to do with the amount of space on your harddisk and it’s not hard to fix.

  1. Quit Mail.
  2. Navigate to your ~/Library/Mail folder.
  3. Move the file called “Envelope Index” to your Desktop. It’s an SQLite databse—see “What’s in your Mail folder?” (maybe after you’ve finished).
  4. Launch Apple Mail. It will prompt you to “import” your mailboxes, although it is really just rebuilding its index. Select OK.
  5. Mail.app will rebuild and re-index the messages and create a new copy of the Envelope Index file.
  6. When you are sure that everything is working properly again, you can delete the old Envelope Index file on your Desktop.

Bob’s your uncle.error message, home directory is full, database, mail.app, apple mail, envelope.index, tips, corrupt, mailboxes Similar Posts:

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