EWS Folder - old messages I would like to delete

[FHayek]

All,

I have a folder that contains old emails that I would like to delete, but I want to insure I am not deleting any folders/files required for the Mail app in Mountain Lion to run properly.

The folder is EWS-(my name@my hosted exchange provider), located in Library->Mail->V2->…The EWS folder holds various folders with .mbox suffixes and they in turn hold folders with different messages. What is the EWS folder, and can I delete it? At one point, I tested using the native Mail app w/my exchange provider. Perhaps this is a vestige of that, not sure.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[ricede]

In my V2 folder there are 3 folders - 'Mailboxes' 'Maildata' & my @gmail a/c folder.
Mailboxes contains all my user installed folders installed in Mails sidebar.
Maildata is .plist files etc
@gmail contains my a/c Inbox/Drafts/Sent messages etc.

If EWS is your only a/c folder in V2 then DONT delete it.
If you want to delete emails from that a/c then open the .mbox and drill down till you get to a folder full of .emix files. These are your emails as stored on the mac. You will have to open each .mbox file ( i.e. Inbox/sent/trash etc ) to remove emails from those folders. Also if you have created folders in the sidebar then you will have to do the same in the Mailboxes folder.

Make sure you have an uptodate Time machine backup before deleting anything. That way you will at least be able to retrieve stuff if necessary.