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Set limit to number of messages downloaded in Mail
- Thread starter paieye
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Are you using POP, or IMAP?
If it's IMAP, seems to me that actual message "content" isn't downloaded to your drive, just the "message headers" (which you see in the Mail "inbox").
When you click a header, it downloads the content so you can read it, but I don't believe it actually saves "a copy" of the message to your [local] drive. In other words, when you quit Mail, the downloaded message will be gone (although the msg header will still be there).
To save the content of a message to your drive, you need to create a mailbox in the "on my Mac" area. Then, drag the message from the inbox to the mailbox you created, and the content WILL be downloaded and stored locally.
I may have this wrong, and I welcome correction from others who may explain the process better.
If it's IMAP, seems to me that actual message "content" isn't downloaded to your drive, just the "message headers" (which you see in the Mail "inbox").
When you click a header, it downloads the content so you can read it, but I don't believe it actually saves "a copy" of the message to your [local] drive. In other words, when you quit Mail, the downloaded message will be gone (although the msg header will still be there).
To save the content of a message to your drive, you need to create a mailbox in the "on my Mac" area. Then, drag the message from the inbox to the mailbox you created, and the content WILL be downloaded and stored locally.
I may have this wrong, and I welcome correction from others who may explain the process better.
I don't know the process but the folder under ~/Library/Mail that contains my Office 365 Exchange account is using 6.2GB of space. The admin page at Office 365 reports that I'm using 7.6GB and I only use the account for email. That's not much of a difference.
Apple's Mail app won't do what you're asking for. Other email clients…I dunno.
If you only have one email account there's always webmail. Additionally, I'm thinking there are some webmail pages that can handle multiple accounts from different providers but I don't know how they work.
Apple's Mail app won't do what you're asking for. Other email clients…I dunno.
If you only have one email account there's always webmail. Additionally, I'm thinking there are some webmail pages that can handle multiple accounts from different providers but I don't know how they work.
I have 2 accounts, and use iMAP for both. When I got to an Inbox to check my recent correspondence, I am obliged to look at hundreds, oor it may be thousands, of headers. I understand that Thunderbird enables one to set a limit to the number of these headers downloaded, but have not so far fathomed the method !
"Thousands of legitimate messages to or from me."
Does your email provider give you the option to "archive" files on their server?
If not, couldn't you create a "local mailbox" (on your Mac), then download them to there?
(once downloaded to your Mac, you could then manually "archive them" somewhere else.
Final thought:
Are these "business-related" emails?
If not, what's the purpose of saving thousands of emails?
How could one go back and read them all?
Does your email provider give you the option to "archive" files on their server?
If not, couldn't you create a "local mailbox" (on your Mac), then download them to there?
(once downloaded to your Mac, you could then manually "archive them" somewhere else.
Final thought:
Are these "business-related" emails?
If not, what's the purpose of saving thousands of emails?
How could one go back and read them all?
So this isn't a question of disk space. You're just leaving all your emails in your inbox…emails that are important enough to keep.
I don't see how limiting the number of emails downloaded would even help. If they're legitimate emails I'd think you'd want to see them.
Maybe I'm not understanding the issue.
I don't see how limiting the number of emails downloaded would even help. If they're legitimate emails I'd think you'd want to see them.
Maybe I'm not understanding the issue.
I wish. I don't need all of my mail folders downloaded completely and cached on my laptop, but mac mail insists on it.
I've tried a few other clients over time but all that I've tried end up frustrating me in some fashion with the interface.
If that's the biggest need you have, it's definitely worth trying out other clients. The one I did end up paying for, but not using, is Postbox, which as I recall is a mac UI built on the Thunderbird codebase.
www.postbox-inc.com
I've tried a few other clients over time but all that I've tried end up frustrating me in some fashion with the interface.
If that's the biggest need you have, it's definitely worth trying out other clients. The one I did end up paying for, but not using, is Postbox, which as I recall is a mac UI built on the Thunderbird codebase.
The Power Email App
Postbox is the power email app for busy professionals, like you.
I have reached what is for me, at any rate for the time being, an acceptable result by:
1. Creating a rule in Mail, Preferences, to limit by reference to age -- again, only for the time being, 21 days -- the number of messages downloaded.
2. Choosing an arbitrary point in my Inbox from which to carry out a wholesale Move To Archive.
The gigantic size of my Inbox has always been the irritant, and this seems a satisfactory, if distinctly inexpert, result.
Thank you and others that have come to my aid.
Glad you've got something that works for you.
A few years back I went with the "inbox zero" method…leaving emails that require action in the inbox and moving the ones that don't to various folders. It was a big chore initially.
A few years back I went with the "inbox zero" method…leaving emails that require action in the inbox and moving the ones that don't to various folders. It was a big chore initially.