[X Newbies] Mail constantly indexing

[Kevin Stevens]

On Saturday, Apr 26, 2003, at 13:18 US/Pacific, J Patrick Draine wrote:

>> Again, what do you mean by "indexing"?  Please provide a stepwise 
>> procedure by which someone can replicate your problem.  Machine specs 
>> are also relevant at this point.  I'm using a 17" PowerBook with 
>> remote IMAP mailboxes.
>
> At the left hand upper corner of the "in" window it says "2978 
> messages", to which is often added "sorting messages" and taking its 
> time then "indexing messages" then "Updating index",  "Writing changes 
> to disk". All the

Ok, that's the status bar, which I usually have turned off.  Turning it 
on - I don't see that behavior.  Upon opening mail or changing 
mailboxes, I see it briefly say "Sorting messages" (less than 1 second 
worst case), but nothing regarding indexing.

This is probably to do with my having the mail files stored remotely 
and accessing via IMAP; though it's a little hard to understand as 
we're not talking about the message bodies, but the header list; which 
is stored locally in any case.

I saw Derr's response to you, which basically said "don't do that".  
While most people may not keep 3000+ messages in a single mailbox, 
doing so isn't necessarily a pathological idea (my 3000+ mailbox is 
Trash, which automatically purges messages over 7 days old).  I see 
your frustration, especially since IMAP-accessed mail doesn't have the 
same issue.  I have zero performance difference between mailboxes with 
300, 1000, and 3000 messages in them.

The only useful thought I have is to turn off disk indexing on the 
volume your mail is on, and see if that makes a difference (Finder, 
highlight volume, Info).  It shouldn't - disk indexing should be 
happening in the background, and I don't see why Mail would be 
reporting on it anyway.

Other than that I'm going to have to turn you over to someone who has a 
local mail spool - I can't replicate your symptoms here.  Good luck!

KeS