Regarding size of Apple Mail file

Robert Paris wrote:

Hi... I recently purchased a new MacBookPro (running macOS Monterey) that will soon replace my existing MacBookPro (late 2016) that is running macOS 10.5.7 Catalina. I use Apple Mail and have for many years. I have years of saved/stored emails and attachments. It all works and continues to work for me...

However, when I go to user/library/Mail/v7

and look at the size of that V7 folder, it is pushing 24 GBytes in size...

My only issue with Mail is it does tend to take a long time to load when first launching and sometimes it takes quite a while to quit on the logoff end of things...

Is it ok to have such a huge mail storage location??? Is there someway I can parse out my old mail (archive doesn't seem to be helpful at all) such that I can still access it someway but have NEW mail be storing to a smaller file/folder location???

Plus how would one ever backup mail if every time you get an email, this huge folder and the 15 subfolders I see contained within have to be updated on some backup system??? I don't backup it up currently.

Instead, I clone the entire drive quite often which serves as my backup for things like this huge mail folder...

Thoughts??? Any help would be much appreciated... Wanting to start this new computer off in the best way possible...

Well, it is relative the size of the Mail folder...it should make no difference. Something is not right.

First I would ask to verify — Uninstall any and all third party Antivirus, Cleaners, Optimizers, VPN, speeder uppers....

Third party AntiVirus is not recommended— it typically does nothing but add issues to the macOS and competes directly with Apples own built in security:

macOS - Security - Apple macOS - Security - Apple

Apple Platform Security - Apple Apple Platform Security - Apple Support

more—https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1902/en_US/apple-platform-security-guide.pdf

Also verify your software is up to date the current stable release of your Catalina is 10.15.7 February 14, 2022.

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

Robert Paris wrote:

Hi, Your very first statement confuses me... It is,

"Well, it is relative the size of the Mail folder...it should make no difference. Something is not right."

What does that mean??? It is relative TO the size I assume you meant??? And then you say "it should make no difference"??? What should make no difference??? Then you say "something is not right"??? Why, because my mail folder is so large in size??? Confused!!!!

The size of your Mail folder should make no difference, 24 GB in size is not the issue —the size is relative to you only and and the amount of data stored within—this should make no difference on the Mail.app performance. Full Stop.

Therefore something is not right here, you have an issue— I offered a way to help narrow down the issue....

If no insight or resolve to trouble shoot further you can:

—Try a SafeBoot How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, etc.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

In Safe mode third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled, it removes malware, etc hampering smooth operation, however a reboot will put it back to normal mode.

This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac - Apple Support

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

I was having a similar problem with Mail but my V9 folder was around 300 GB. I was having problem cloning my boot drive to an equally sized external SSD with Carbon Copy Cloner.

Thru emails with CCC developers it turned out that I had rebuilt the mail boxes a number of times to try to fix the erroneous unread indication on a smart album of "Unread".

Here's how I fixed my problem.

1 - I ran the shareware app Find Any File to search for the following folders:

I then deleted all of the Data_Rebuild folders which were unreasonably sized and then booted into the Recovery volume and ran First Aid on the volume. Haven't had a problem since.

FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.