Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Thunderbird AppData data is much larger than the equivalent Outlook .pst data

more options

Outlook is used on one PC with POP3 data retrieval. Messages are only deleted by the email service provider if they are deleted in Outlook.

Thunderbird is also used to access the same accounts with IMAP access to the online accounts. All of the messages online have been downloaded by Thunderbird.

I am comparing the .pst Outlook files, and the various Thunderbird data files stored by the PC.

The Thunderbird data files are much larger than the Outlook files. For example, the largest Outlook .pst file is 2G. But there is a Thunderbird data file that is 8G.

Any reason or problem or cleanup suggestion regarding 20G of Outlook .pst data that appears as 30G of Thunderbird locally stored downloaded IMAP data?

John

Outlook is used on one PC with POP3 data retrieval. Messages are only deleted by the email service provider if they are deleted in Outlook. Thunderbird is also used to access the same accounts with IMAP access to the online accounts. All of the messages online have been downloaded by Thunderbird. I am comparing the .pst Outlook files, and the various Thunderbird data files stored by the PC. The Thunderbird data files are much larger than the Outlook files. For example, the largest Outlook .pst file is 2G. But there is a Thunderbird data file that is 8G. Any reason or problem or cleanup suggestion regarding 20G of Outlook .pst data that appears as 30G of Thunderbird locally stored downloaded IMAP data? John

All Replies (5)

more options

Any suggestions?

Helpful?

more options

> The Thunderbird data files are much larger than the Outlook files. For example, the largest Outlook .pst file is 2G. But there is a Thunderbird data file that is 8G.

File name?

Name of mail provider?

Helpful?

more options

Largest local Outlook POP3 data file: Archive2019.pst 2.3G There are multiple other accounts in Outlook with similar sized local *.pst files.

Thunderbird large file samples for same email, linked to various accounts. C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\*.*

Filename: Size: 5053e00do9-2 9.6G INBOX 3.5G INBOX 2.9G 3)Jul sender3322b 2.9G

Helpful?

more options

I suspect that the giant file is the search indexing file which covers twelve different accounts. This is speculation - perhaps someone else can confirm?

Helpful?

more options

Cervantes said

I suspect that the giant file is the search indexing file which covers twelve different accounts. This is speculation - perhaps someone else can confirm?

I highly doubt it. The global search index database is quite efficient.

> Filename: Size: > 5053e00do9-2 9.6G > INBOX 3.5G > INBOX 2.9G >Jul sender3322b 2.9G

This alone totals almost 20gb and you indicated the total profile size is 30gb. Look for nstmp files. If you find none then look for any other large files.

Otherwise I'd say your problem is those folders mentioned above, maybe most likely whatever 5053e00do9-2 matches to.

Helpful?

Ask a question

You must log in to your account to reply to posts. Please start a new question, if you do not have an account yet.