If you use Apple’s Mail.app, check out this tip. It really works. It’s like night and day for me.
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If you use Apple’s Mail.app, check out this tip. It really works. It’s like night and day for me.
hp
on 02 Mar 07Just gave it a try and it works really well. Thanks for the tip.
Ben
on 02 Mar 07It’s interesting to hear that you still use a desktop application to check e-mail.
For some reason I thought 37signals used GMail or another web-based solution.
JF
on 02 Mar 07I really like Mail.app which is why I use it. We use Gmail for technical support email stuff, but for my own personal mail I use Mail.app.
Ben
on 02 Mar 07For what it’s worth, you can setup Mail to “auto-vacuum” your mail. This will help keep Mail app always humming.
:DK
on 02 Mar 07I like using Mail on my Mac. I have gmail forward all my mail. The interface is just much more intergrated with my other Mac apps.
Anonymous Coward
on 02 Mar 07How do you do that Ben?
Anonymous Coward
on 02 Mar 07Yes, DO TELL!
Warren Henning
on 02 Mar 07I’m not a Mac user. You’re telling me Mail.app didn’t have a big shiny button in preferences/options labeled, e.g. “automagically make this application run a lot faster” which would then vacuum the database?
That’s kind of negligent of Apple, should that be the case.
And don’t say “that feature doesn’t matter,” obviously it does for Jason and many others.
Argus
on 02 Mar 07Thanks for the cute input, Warren. :-|
Oren Miller
on 02 Mar 07Doesn’t Mailbox -> Rebuild do exactly the same thing?
Ben
on 02 Mar 07For auto-vacuum, I believe (but an not certain) that to turn auto-vacuum on, run the following command:
sqlite3 -a ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum;
Note the “-a”, that should turn on auto-vacuum. I am currently away from my Mac, so I cannot verify if this is correct.
Anonymous Coward
on 02 Mar 07Can anyone verify Ben’s comments? Sounds great if that’s all it takes.
Justin Reese
on 02 Mar 07Mail.app + IMAP is a web app, Ben. :)
Justin Reese
on 02 Mar 07Actually, to expound upon that: the primary advantage to a web app vs. a desktop app are “omni-accessible” data and (usually) operating system agnosticism. The primary disadvantages are speed and offline accessibility.
My favorite apps are those with persistent online accessibility and a rich desktop client. IMAP is a perfect example of this in action. I could use Mail.app at home, Outlook at work, and a webmail interface on the road, and my data stays in sync the entire time.
Computing is just data manipulation; make that data portable, and the battle of “web app vs. desktop app” disappears.
carlivar
on 02 Mar 07Ah Mail.app – the most Microsofty piece of software Apple offers. Mail.app ignores the IMAP RFC involving folder subscriptions. It will not obey them. It pulls down all IMAP folders whether you want it to or not. This angers me.
Andy Kant
on 02 Mar 07I tried this earlier this morning. I recently switched from Win/Outlook to Mac/Mail and the load times for the program and emails have been pretty sluggish. Running this command reduced the initial Mail.app launch from something like 10 seconds down to 2-3 seconds (sorry, I will not benchmark in “bounces”).
Jean-Pierre
on 02 Mar 07Strange…...
A leading Change Manager is using/promoting a desktop thing and not living in Africa (with respect for Africa that don’t have access anywhere yet/anytime)
Strange ….
Please comment on the vision.. I would like to learn !
Johnny
on 03 Mar 07This is a great tip. You guys do know that you can setup Mail with your Gmail right? I did this a while ago and it works great. I can send and recieve flawlessly.
Manuel Martensen
on 03 Mar 07BEN, looks like the sqlite version in tiger doesnt sport auto vacuum. but i guess you could set up an automator that quits mail.app and then terminal’s sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum once a week or so :)
sneJ
on 04 Mar 07Ben: sqlite does have an auto_vacuum mode that would do this kind of cleanup automatically, but it has to be enabled at the time the database is created, so it’s not possible to use a command to turn it on for Mail’s database. Moreover, the version of sqlite that shipped in 10.4 has a bug that can [rarely] corrupt databases if auto_vacuum is on … which is probably why Mail.app doesn’t do it.
Warren: This is called a “bug”, and I’ve heard Windows and Linux have bugs too, so don’t get all hoity-toity. Apple didn’t intentionally make Mail not clean up its database. A big “Vacuum” button is more of a Windows or Linux-style solution, actually; the Mac Way would be to just have Mail do it automatically every few days without involving you at all. Wiping the app’s bottom is still wiping the app’s bottom, even if you use a shiny GUI button instead of a nasty command line tool.
Clark
on 05 Mar 07In terms of speed, searching within Mail.app has gone from insanely unusable to acceptable. Great tip.
Kula bácsi
on 05 Mar 07Mail is p.o.s. I use Thunderbird.
Narendra
on 05 Mar 07First, thanks Jason, that worked like a charm.
I just wanted to echo that Mail.app is one of the unsung heroes of the Mac world. When I finally switched to Mac I was trailing 12 years of email in assorted files that could no longer be brought into MS products. With the help of a program called emalichemy I was able to bring in gigabytes of old email into Mail.app and rediscover years of my life.
It is simple and it works. I’d love to see a built in ability to annotate (just a simple text field—MailTags is a bit overkill) but other than that it is a perfect email solution.
This discussion is closed.