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I have a moderately big Inbox file (around 2.3Gb) and Evolution takes a lot to start (it takes over 2.5 mins until I can perform any action -read or compose mail, for instance-). During that time, the shole system becomes unresponsive, with high HD activity.

It becomes unresponsive when retrieving mail, too: it stalls for about 30 secs. Closing evolution can take yet another 1.5 minutes, also.

Is there any way I can speed things up?

Last Edit: As I have checked that reducing my inbox file size (by means of moving old mail to an 'Archived Mail' folder) does the trick of speeding everything up, while keeping a copy of every mail at hand, my ultimate question is:

Is there any "auto-archive" feature or plug-in or script or anything for Evolution? I could do it "by hand" using saved searches and such, but it would be nice to have it automatically done (as it is in Outlook, for instance)

Previous Edit:

Answering comments:

  • Evolution retrieves POP mail from gmail and a personal postfix/courier mailserver

  • I could change to any other mail client provided that A) migration is easy enough B) Speed problems are likely to vanish with the new client and C) I can sync contacts and calendar with gmail

  • I'm not experiencing high HDD activity problems with other apps, and swap is not (or at least should not be) a problem, since it's usually at 0% (I'll keep an eye on it, anyway)

Other considerations:

  • I used to work with Outlook and it managed several 2 Gb files (one was actually the inbox, and three were "archive.pst" files, to which I never added more mails, except when Outlook auto-archived old ones). I even would like to add this pst files to Evolution, so that I can be able to search old mails, but A) I don't know how and B) I'm scared... If evolution can't handle properly a 2.3 Gb file, adding load would be a bad idea, I suppose.
  • I guess things would speed up if I could "move" some old mail from my Inbox file to another one, but it should be readable and searchable. Anyway, I don't know if this can be done with Evolution, and, as stated, is just a guess.
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    Have you got the same problems with other HDD intensive applications? How much of you swap is used when running Evolution?
    – N.N.
    Jul 14, 2011 at 18:16
  • A solution that might be overkill is to get an SSD to increase read speed.
    – N.N.
    Jul 14, 2011 at 18:17
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    Evolution is naturally a little slow. Have you considered another email client, such as Thunderbird?
    – Knowledge Cube
    Jul 14, 2011 at 18:41
  • imap or pop? What email service?
    – wojox
    Jul 14, 2011 at 19:03
  • @wojox: pop.... retrieving from gmail and also from personal mail server (postfix+courier)
    – luri
    Jul 14, 2011 at 20:44

1 Answer 1

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Beware the .PST files are limited in size by design, i do not recommend using THAT big size into a single file. I use netcat for mail, when no Web avaliable.

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  • Ok..... The question is... how do I split my Inbox file (it's important to recal that I haven't added the big .pst files yet, I'm just talking about my Evolution default Inbox file) in smaller chunks?
    – luri
    Jul 18, 2011 at 10:18

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