Delete Mail from Lib. Container

Question

Level 1

78 points

Delete Mail from Lib. Container

In a resent Mail search I stumbled over a folder that I did not know existed. The folder resides here - Library > Containers . com.apple.mail > Data . Library . Mail Downloads. Upon browsing that folder I discovered that any downloads in Mail reside there, dating back a number of years. As a matter of fact, that folder now contains more that 2 GBs of downloaded files that I have saved to the proper folders on my HDDs.

My question - Would there be any negative effects to deleting all of those downloads, since there is no reason for having them stored in a folder other than backup work folders?

Gary

Mac Pro, macOS High Sierra (10.13), 3-1TB HDs, 2-2TB HDs, NEC PA271W

Posted on Feb 12, 2018 5:16 AM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

155,300 points

Feb 12, 2018 6:43 AM in response to Garnick

Do not alter the contents of that folder. Delete the Mail messages containing those files instead.

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Answer 2

Garnick Author

Level 1

78 points

Feb 12, 2018 9:02 AM in response to John Galt

On one of my Mac Pros I did delete the contents of that folder and Mail seems to be working fine. On my Work Mac Pro I've left the folder as is. From the first Mac Pro I saved all of the entries before deleting. Should I perhaps reinstalled those Mail entries?

ALL of the files I checked in the Library folder I referred to were very much out of date and have been deleted from Messages, some a few years ago. Why would they still be in that folder? And, why should I leave them there, just taking up space? As I mentioned, some of those files dated back to 2011 and have been long gone.

Gary

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Answer 3

etresoft

Level 9

56,326 points

Feb 12, 2018 1:06 PM in response to Garnick

Hello Garnick,

Never go into a hidden directory like the Library folder. All you could accomplish is corrupting some database.

Although I cringe at the idea, you can use Apple Mail to remove attachments. In the Message window, there is a menu option to "Remove attachments". You can select multiple message and apply this command if you want.

But really, those are years worth of attachments for 2 GB? Isn't that the same as a minor OS update these days? If you are running that short of drive space, 2 GB is not going to help. You need a bigger hard drive. Maybe use Omni Disk Sweeper (https://www.omnigroup.com/more) to see where all your drive space is really being used.

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Answer 4

John Galt

Level 10

155,300 points

Feb 12, 2018 5:24 PM in response to Garnick

It's kind of difficult for me to visualize or understand what's going on with your Mail attachments that you perceive are redundant or occupying needless space, but if you have reason to believe deleting the Mail messages containing those attachments is not removing them from Mail's Library as it should, then the absolute minimum I recommend is creating a backup (Time Machine or the equivalent) before messing around attempting to remove them.

I really, really don't recommend using the Finder to delete anything from Mail's Library. It is almost certain to corrupt it and cause your messages to become irretrievably lost. As long as you have a backup strategy though, you are free to experiment.

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Answer 5

Garnick Author

Level 1

78 points

Feb 12, 2018 12:32 PM in response to John Galt

Thanks for that John. I had never had any reason to Rebuild, so hadn't used it. On the Mac Pro on which I deleted the Mail Downloads in Library, Mail is working fine. All of my Mailboxes contain the emails that I would expect and I have no problem accessing them.

However, your advice is good information to have for any future problems. Would you suggest that I should perhaps copy all of the files back into the "Mail Downloads" folder as they were originally, or just let it build a new set of files to fill that folder. As I mentioned, on my Work Mac Pro I left that folder as is, no deletions. I now have 1,879 files residing there, which equals 2.03 GBs. Seems like a lot of storage space wasted, since all of those files have been allocated to their proper folders long ago.

Thanks John,

Gary

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