limiting IMAP email, dropbox and iphone backup ETC sizes?

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Level 1

74 points

limiting IMAP email, dropbox and iphone backup ETC sizes?

i have a 250 GB hard drive and store NO data on it. while i do put a lot of software on it i feel like some items just plain take up way too much space. does anyone know if there is a way to limit some things such as:

1. Mac Mail or Thunderbird database sizes (by perhaps using a setting that says not to download email??)

2. iphone backup sizes (these are oftentimes huge and i have to go find them to delete them.

3. dropbox or google drive (like if i buy 100 GB of space on dropbox and i USE 35 GB of this space should this take up space on my Hard Drive on my computer??)

background: right now i am sure i have a 25GB iPhone backup, 25 GB mac Mail database, 30 GB Thunderbird database and 30 GB taken up by my Dropbox folder which doesn't leave a whole lot of room for apps or data.

note:

i am also posting this in yosemite forum and apologize for also posting here but this is an issue that has been killing me for about four years and as i get ready to upgrade the laptop after upgrading the desktop i really need to figure it out!!

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1), mid 2009 13" 2.53 core2duo 8 GB RAM

Posted on May 5, 2015 8:33 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

iW00

Level 6

8,488 points

May 7, 2015 8:37 AM in response to hotwheels22

hotwheels 22 wrote:

1. Mac Mail or Thunderbird database sizes (by perhaps using a setting that says not to download email??)

If you are using IMAP accounts, then check your server settings. You might have an option to limit how many emails would be pushed to a client.

hotwheels 22 wrote:

25 GB mac Mail database, 30 GB Thunderbird database

If both of your email clients have access to the same email accounts, then make a call and choose only one of them, not both.

hotwheels 22 wrote:

2. iphone backup sizes (these are oftentimes huge and i have to go find them to delete them.

What you mean by "find them"? Open iTunes application, then go to iTunes > Preferences > Devices and right click on any of the visible backups of your iOS devies and choose delete.

But if you want to save a space on your Mac, use iCloud instead of your Mac to backup your iPhone.

hotwheels 22 wrote:

3. dropbox or google drive (like if i buy 100 GB of space on dropbox and i USE 35 GB of this space should this take up space on my Hard Drive on my computer??)

Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud... These are syncing services. Whatever is stored in any of these serivces is also physically stored on your Mac. So the answer is Yes, it will take that extra space on your Mac.

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Answer 2

hotwheels22 Author

Level 1

74 points

May 7, 2015 8:46 AM in response to iW00

hi. thanks. can i ask some follow ups please?

i will try and find server settings. am i correct in thinking that this would only somehow affect /future/ file sizes for these mail databases? i mean, i if i have one that is 25 GB and one that is 30 GB would i expect them not to get any larger or how would this work? i mean, i know there is LOCAL MAIL which i have downloaded from the server on my MAC PRO laptop but i guess i am trying to figure out how to think about the size of the databases on my laptop with NO local mail. do you know what i mean? i mean, wouldn't a setting for how many emails are pushed to the client only be a modest decrease? is there some other type of setting that i should think about? i guess i don't understand this very well.

with regards to sync services i guess i am similarly a bit slow. i /can/ see how this sync is really helpful and i have paid dropbox for 100 GB but presumably if i use all 100 GB and then go out and buy another 250 GB HD laptop i will have decreased my storage on this device to 150 GB and i am finding this is completely unworkable. i mean, right now on the 2009 this is unworkable with NO DATA on my laptop which seems just crazy to me. i guess i loaded up with so much software that i don't have any space for data at this point or am i missing something?

ALSO, i guess the workaround here would be to NOT sync the laptop with dropbox (or Google Drive or Box or whatever) and ONLY store data in the cloud and on my mac laptop and when I NEED A FILE i can go to the /website/ on my laptop and download only that file??!! i mean, seems like i should have some kind of service that isn't pushing (not sure if this is the correct term) my data to the laptop and only sends it to me "upon demand" or something.

THANKS for any more help. i'm feeling sort of dumb about this but also the 250 GB laptop has always been slow but over the last two years it has been totally unmanageable regarding HD size so i am not sure what to buy to get out of this mess...

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

May 7, 2015 1:40 PM in response to hotwheels22

You could shrink your mail database by deleting old e-mails.

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