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Mail Vacuum 1.1
Function: Optimizes the Apple Mail database, drastically improving performance (your mileage may vary). Quits and relaunches Mail during execution.
Author: Automator World
Notes: This workflow is based on a discussion at Hawk Wings. This workflow is probably best used as an iCal plug in, set to run once a month or so:
- Open the workflow in Automator, and go to File > Save As Plug-in…
- Choose iCal Alarm from the pop-up. iCal will launch, placing the workflow on today’s calendar box.
- Select the Repeat pop-up from the day’s info window, picking the frequency desired (once a month is probably fine). Also set a time of day it won’t be obtrusive, like 2am.
.1 update: no longer requires separate “Quit” action.
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Thanks for this. I was going to set up my own, but now I don’t have to! :)
Comment by Kevin Donahue — March 3, 2007 @ 11:03 am
Wish your workflow included quitting and reopening Mail around the sqlite command.
Comment by Ben — March 3, 2007 @ 12:48 pm
Oops, I had uploaded the wrong version. The correct one is up, with quit/relaunch Mail. Sorry about that.
Comment by Steve — March 3, 2007 @ 4:46 pm
Automator complained about a missing Quit Application (or something like that). So I replaced it with another Run Shell Script using:
osascript -e ‘tell app “Mail” to quit’
I suppose this could be added to the part that runs the sqlite3 command.
Comment by Jim — March 4, 2007 @ 1:49 pm
Jim – I had removed the Quit action for that reason (which I didn’t realize was a 3rd party action, available here), and replaced it with the same Applescript step you posted.
Comment by Steve — March 4, 2007 @ 1:57 pm
Wonderfull, wonderfull!! my Mail.app was getting soooo slow I was thinking of trying other email applications. Thought Mail couldnt handle that many emails…. Now, after using this Mail runs as smooth as when i started using it. No more waiting 15 secs when looking into another folder. And after this cleanup the envelope file is still +50 MB which, i get the impression, is quite big…
thanks!
Comment by Edo — March 5, 2007 @ 2:28 pm
YES YES YES YES!
Holy cow… this is the greatest little app I’ve ever seen.
Why doesn’t apple just make my mac do this on its own?
The improvement in speed was INSTANT and AMAZING.
Comment by JC — November 15, 2007 @ 2:42 am
Wow! Nice. Finally, I can use mail without fumbling around for the terminal and the vacuum script! SWWEEEEET.
Comment by Shauna Kinney — July 20, 2008 @ 5:40 am
[...] has created a clever Automator (based on an AppleScript no longer available) workflow “Mail Vacuum“ that cleans out the Mail storage database thereby improving the performance of the Mail [...]
Pingback by Power up your Mail experience | Smoking Apples — December 8, 2008 @ 4:30 am
Is this safe also with current Mail in Leopard? I see that this is quite a while ago and perhaps there are updates?
Comment by Jorritsma — February 20, 2009 @ 9:18 am