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I have 500GB of Mail files stored on my hard drive! My Mac is slowing down. How do I get rid of them?

My mac has been running slow, and while its getting on, its a pretty good machine with 16meg or ram and a 1 TB fusion drive.

I checked storage and Ive got almost 500GB of the hard drive taken up by 'mail'! I assume that's the copies of emails, as Ive done my best to clean up the Mail app. Maill app isn't showing anything like that much (Its like 1GB)

Ive researched this a little and think there are library files full of copies of emails? How do I find them, and can I get rid of them?

TIA

iMac 21.5", 10.14

Posted on Jan 30, 2019 3:22 AM

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Hello tonyfromcaldicot,


​Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities. I understand you have a concern about storage used by Mail on your Mac.


The information and steps here may be of use: Keep mailboxes from getting too big in Mail on Mac. Generally speaking, it's best to avoid deleting any contents of the Mail library folders on your Mac. If the link above doesn't help you free up this space, you might want to give this a try next: Optimize storage space on your Mac.


I hope this helps get you started.


Take care.

Posted on Jan 31, 2019 8:34 AM

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Question marked as Best answer

Jan 31, 2019 8:34 AM in response to tonyfromcaldicot

Hello tonyfromcaldicot,


​Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities. I understand you have a concern about storage used by Mail on your Mac.


The information and steps here may be of use: Keep mailboxes from getting too big in Mail on Mac. Generally speaking, it's best to avoid deleting any contents of the Mail library folders on your Mac. If the link above doesn't help you free up this space, you might want to give this a try next: Optimize storage space on your Mac.


I hope this helps get you started.


Take care.

I have 500GB of Mail files stored on my hard drive! My Mac is slowing down. How do I get rid of them?

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