- Compacting a folder adds the X-Mozilla-Keys: header if it does not exist [mozillazine],[googlegroups thread],[bugzilla].
- You can force a folder compact by deleting an (unimportant) email and then compacting the folder. (Just clicking compact will do nothing to a folder if there is nothing to be deleted).
- Thunderbird, once it sees the X-Mozilla-Keys: header, will actually use it to store tags.
- You can verify this by deleting the .msf file and seeing if the tagging persists
- You can now move this email around (from inside Thunderbird) and the tags move with the email, even to a folder that, in general, does not have the X-Mozilla-Keys: header! True metadata.
- You can tag a folder that doesn't have the X-Mozilla-Keys: header and afterwards compact it and Thunderbird will move the tags into the header. Just make sure you really compact the folder (pt 2. above)
- Thunderbird stores tag definitions (highlight color etc.) in prefs.js
gattach was a handy tool to use for webmail clients like gmail. I couldn't find it anymore, but then from this discussion I found out that gattach is now affixa.
Interesting!
ReplyDeleteWhat about subfolders? If I delete an email in folder Local Folders>Inbox>John and compact Local Folder, will Thunderbird compact ALL folders that are a subfolder of Local Folders such as Local Folders>Sent>Smith?
First of all, thanks for the tip! It solved my problem of migrating tags to another mail client!
ReplyDelete@John: Unfortunately, no. Each subfolder has its own mailbox file (or so I'm told), and you'll need to compact each folder individually.
I did exactly that, yesterday.
Also, I found a less destructive way to force compaction - you don't need to delete a mail, it suffices to just move a mail to another folder (e.g. a temporary empty one) and then move it back (and click Compact of course).