mail logs filling up disk space: why? ok to delete?
Computer spec’s: 2GHz Mac Mini with 4GB of RAM and a 250GB flash storage. I am running OS 10.9.5 and Mail 7.3.
Problem: My storage has been mysteriously filling up, with about 200 GB in “other” in “about this Mac.” I would delete files and then it would fill up again. Using WhatSize, I determined that Mail logs took up 107GB, with two files accounting for most of this (details below).
Questions: Is it safe to delete Mail logs? Why are some so big? Why are dates so random? Can I prevent large mail logs in the future?
In Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Logs, here are the dates and size of the largest files named in format: [long stream of numbers and letters]=imap.gmail.com.txt
July 15: 55.8 GB
Sept 3: 47.17 GB
Aug 6: 5.43 GB
Aug 6 3.64 GB
Then there are six files between 312GB and 867.2 GB and many others named in the above format and multiple files named in this format: [date]_GmailDelete.log dating back to May 21.
Thank you for your help.