Apple Mail taking up 50GB???

[Apple!Fre@k]

According to DaisyDisk, I've got a 27GB folder at Library/Mail/V2 and then another 23GB folder at Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail/V2. Are these duplicates? Any idea which one I should delete?

Also, since my email is hosted via Gmail and is IMAP, shouldn't all of my email be stored on the server? Is this just a copy of all of my mail being stored on my computer so that I can access it quickly and without having to be connected to the Internet? That's fine with me as long as it's only 27GB or 23GB, but 50GB is too much space as my hard drive is only 128GB.

[chrfr]

Originally Posted by Apple!Fre@k

According to DaisyDisk, I've got a 27GB folder at Library/Mail/V2 and then another 23GB folder at Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail/V2. Are these duplicates? Any idea which one I should delete?

My ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail/V2 is only a tiny fraction of the size of my ~/Library/Mail folder so it seems like something went wrong in your case.
Yes, Apple Mail (and Outlook) cache your IMAP mail locally. If all of your mail is IMAP, you can always delete the accounts on your computer and make sure everything is gone, then make the account again.

[Apple!Fre@k]

Originally Posted by chrfr

My ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail/V2 is only a tiny fraction of the size of my ~/Library/Mail folder so it seems like something went wrong in your case.
Yes, Apple Mail (and Outlook) cache your IMAP mail locally. If all of your mail is IMAP, you can always delete the accounts on your computer and make sure everything is gone, then make the account again.

So is it safe to delete the Containers V2 folder without anything bad happening?

[Apple!Fre@k]

Anyone know?

[justperry]

Originally Posted by Apple!Fre@k

Anyone know?

Simple, move the folder to the desktop, see if you get problems, watch it for a week or so, if all is well delete the folder.
You could also copy it to an external disk, then delete the original and see how it goes.

[Apple!Fre@k]

Originally Posted by justperry

Simple, move the folder to the desktop, see if you get problems, watch it for a week or so, if all is well delete the folder.
You could also copy it to an external disk, then delete the original and see how it goes.

So simple I don't know why I didn't think of it.

Thank you!!

I moved the Containers folder to the desktop, reopened Mail, and it started up as though I've never used Mail before. Not good! I put that folder back, reopened Mail, and it was back to normal. Then I moved the V2 folder in Library to the desktop, reopened Mail, and it was still normal... nothing different. So it seems obvious to me that the Containers folder is where my mail is really being housed and needs to STAY and I can delete the Library/Mail/V2 and be 27GB richer!

[justperry]

Originally Posted by Apple!Fre@k

So simple I don't know why I didn't think of it.

Thank you!!

I moved the Containers folder to the desktop, reopened Mail, and it started up as though I've never used Mail before. Not good! I put that folder back, reopened Mail, and it was back to normal. Then I moved the V2 folder in Library to the desktop, reopened Mail, and it was still normal... nothing different. So it seems obvious to me that the Containers folder is where my mail is really being housed and needs to STAY and I can delete the Library/Mail/V2 and be 27GB richer!

I've been on OS X since the very beginning, yes even sllloooowwww 10.0 but since 2 weeks I have a Mini on ML, last previous version was 10.5.8 so I still have to learn where some things are.
Odd that your mail is not really located in Library/Mail/V2

I have to look into this myself, I am the kind of guy which wants to know the whole lot.