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Concerning .mozmsgs folders on a Mac

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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

faithdance59
faithdance59
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1) In my internet search about what are .mozmsgs folders, I read that they are related to a Windows search function. However I am no longer using Windows, but a Mac. Does that mean they are redundant and I could delete them?

Background: I am moving my Thunderbird profile from the iMac to my Macbook when traveling. And afterwards I am moving it back. I seem to have lost mails from earlier years but just found them on the Macbook. For some reason the synchronization did not transfer all the subfolders. The strange thing is that the iMac (which did not show the older mail folders) has lots of .mozmsgs folders, while the Macbook (which showed the older mails) does not. I am using only POP never IMAP.

2) I organize my mail folders in yearly folders. After some years, when I am less likely to looking things up, I move the year folders into an archive folder. I do this inside of Thunderbird. Now I just noticed that I have empty .sbd and .mozmsgs folders in the original location (zero bites). Again I am wondering if these folders are redundant and could be deleted?

Thanks!

1) In my internet search about what are .mozmsgs folders, I read that they are related to a Windows search function. However I am no longer using Windows, but a Mac. Does that mean they are redundant and I could delete them? Background: I am moving my Thunderbird profile from the iMac to my Macbook when traveling. And afterwards I am moving it back. I seem to have lost mails from earlier years but just found them on the Macbook. For some reason the synchronization did not transfer all the subfolders. The strange thing is that the iMac (which did not show the older mail folders) has lots of .mozmsgs folders, while the Macbook (which showed the older mails) does not. I am using only POP never IMAP. 2) I organize my mail folders in yearly folders. After some years, when I am less likely to looking things up, I move the year folders into an archive folder. I do this inside of Thunderbird. Now I just noticed that I have empty .sbd and .mozmsgs folders in the original location (zero bites). Again I am wondering if these folders are redundant and could be deleted? Thanks!

Modified by faithdance59

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Toad-Hall
Toad-Hall
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Directories whose name ends with .mozmsgs , contain *.wdseml files. Each file is a partial copy (up to 49KB) of a message in the mail folder. It is used by Windows Search Integration (requires Vista or a later version of Windows) as you correctly mentioned.

You can delete those .mozmsgs folders. It does not effect any email stored in any mbox file.

Folders with .sbd extension. They are created when subfolders are created in Folder Pane.

If you have a top level folder called 'Clients' then you will have an mbox file called 'Clients' and an index file called 'Clients.msf' If you created a subfolder in Clients called 'UK Clients' then a folder called 'Clients.sbd' gets created and it will store 'UK Clients' mbox file and 'UK Clients.msf' file.

If you remove all subfolders from 'Clients' and put them in another location, so 'Clients' no longer has any subfolders, then you could delete the 'Clients.sbd' folder. But if you intend to create new subfolders in 'Clients' then there is no point in deleting that .sbd folder as it is going to be required.

If you have deleted the 'Clients' folder and all it's subfolders, then there will be no 'Clients' mbox file and therefore the 'Clients.sbd' folder is of no use because it needs the mbox file of same name in order to be seen by Thunderbird. You can delete the .sbd folder.