"Home Directory Full" message "fix doesn't work for me
I tried to use the standard fix (e.g., removing the "Envelope Index" file to the desktop and launching Mail). This did cause a dialog to pup up informing me that I needed to re-index my mail file. I did that, and the process stopped with the progress indicator about two thirds through. I quit Mail and replaced the Mail folder in Library with the backup I had made before getting started.
Next, I tried the Hoover method (running the vacuum command from the Terminal. My machine grinded away for some time. I don't know how far it got (there is no progress indicator nor any other feedback of any kind), but since nothing happened for a good half hour (with no more disk activity for a long time), I quit that process, too. Get info revealed that the "Envelope Index" file had not been modified at all by this. Again, just to be on the safe side, I replaced the Mail file again with the backup copy.
Because the re-indexing in my first attempt had stopped while processing my sent items folder, I suspected that this one was the culprit. I therefore attempted to rebuild it (via the menu command in Mail). Much to my surprise, the process actually finished without an error message. However, my sent items folder now contained some 5,200 emails as opposed to the 7,00 or so it should have.
Then I saved my Mail preferences file to the desktop, made a backup copy of my Mail backup file, and launched Mail. This made the application believe that it was being launched for the first time. I used the Import command and imported only the contents of the Sent Items mailbox, specifying "Other" as the type. This imported 5,225 items; at that point, the progress indicator was showed a fully completed process, even though the "messages" folder contained 7,900 items. Checking things, I found that there was a discrepancy of 9 items (i.e., the last item that showed as having been imported was not the 5,225th item in the "messages" folder, but rather the 5,216th). I thus moved the first 5,216 items from the messages folder into a different folder and tried to import the rest. Much to my surprise, Mail imported the same 5,216 items all over again. This is when I noticed that it does not import from the "messages" folder but rather from the file called "mbox".
And this is where things stand. I still get the "Home Directory Full" message about once out of two launches of Mail (but never once Mail is up and running). I desperately need to get this fixed as I fear I'm on the brink of a disaster with my mail file.
One more clue: I cannot be 100% sure, but it seems to me that the problem began when I added a second dot mac email account to my Mail setup (we have a family pack; I always managed the main account and have more recently added one of the sub-accounts to my configuration). I also noticed that sometimes, this second dot Mac account shows up in my list of mailboxes on the left side of the screen, and sometimes it doesn't. Both these accounts are configured to be checked automatically. In addition to these IMAP accounts, I have a half dozen POP3 accounts and some 40 or 50 local mailboxes configured.
Does anyone know of a utility I can use to rebuild my entire email file instead of just the index? Or does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can manually fix things? I did do the usual stuff already (using disk utility to check the disk, fixing permissions, and so on) without detecting any problems.
Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer.
Daniel
Dual 1GHz G4 PM and 15" MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.10)