Cache? Vast ist this "Cache" in Thunderbird?

[John Corliss]

I never noticed that Thunderbird used a cache until version 3:

Tools | Options | Advanced | Network & Disk Space | Disk Space

Can anybody tell me what this "cache" is used for and how often I should
empty it? Is there a setting in the Prefs.js that will make it empty
automatically when I close the program?

TIA

--
John Corliss

[John Corliss]

Eh, make that "about.config".

--
John Corliss

[Ron K.]

John Corliss on 8/4/2010 7:22 PM, keyboarded a reply:

The cache feature was finally turned on for Tb3. The capability was always
there in the Gecko backend. It will cache attachments of HTML messages and
RSS feed image content. I believe the user settings for it are in
Options/Preferences in the Advanced Tab.

--
Ron K.
Who is General Failure, and why is he searching my HDD?
Kernel Restore reported Major Error used BSOD to msg the enemy!

[JoeS]

To see whats in there type the following into your start page url (tools>>general)
about:cache?device=disk
Remote images, that you allowed as well as a lot of rss feed info.
This speeds up a lot of processes that requires remote access.
No way to turn it off AFAIK
But you might try giving it a very small value. Maybe 0 ???
Personally, I have mine quite large as it helps with newsgroup speed where a lot of images are presented.
--
JoeS Using TB3
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_3.0_-_New_Features_and_Changes
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Thunderbird/Thunderbird_Binaries
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Breakpad#Using_the_application_to_view_crash_reports

[John Corliss]

Ron K. wrote:

> John Corliss wrote:
>> John Corliss wrote:
>>> I never noticed that Thunderbird used a cache until version 3:
>>>
>>> Tools | Options | Advanced | Network & Disk Space | Disk Space
>>>
>>> Can anybody tell me what this "cache" is used for and how often I should
>>> empty it? Is there a setting in the Prefs.js that will make it empty
>>> automatically when I close the program?
>>>
>>> TIA
>>
>> Eh, make that "about.config".
>
> The cache feature was finally turned on for Tb3. The capability was
> always there in the Gecko backend. It will cache attachments of HTML
> messages and RSS feed image content. I believe the user settings for it
> are in Options/Preferences in the Advanced Tab.

Thanks for replying, Ron. Yes, I saw that the options are where you say.
That's why I put this line in my OP:

> Tools | Options | Advanced | Network & Disk Space | Disk Space

I think it would be a good idea if it were possible to make it an option
for the cache to empty automatically on program shutdown though.

--
John Corliss

[John Corliss]

JoeS wrote:
> John Corliss wrote:
>> I never noticed that Thunderbird used a cache until version 3:
>>
>> Tools | Options | Advanced | Network & Disk Space | Disk Space
>>
>> Can anybody tell me what this "cache" is used for and how often I
>> should empty it? Is there a setting in the Prefs.js that will make it
>> empty automatically when I close the program?
>>
>> TIA
>
> To see whats in there type the following into your start page url
> (tools>>general)
> about:cache?device=disk

I think you meant the "General" tab in Options window. Works like a
charm. Many thanks!

> Remote images, that you allowed as well as a lot of rss feed info.

Heck, I don't even know how to use TB for RSS feeds. I use FF for the
feeds I'm subscribed to.

> This speeds up a lot of processes that requires remote access.
> No way to turn it off AFAIK
> But you might try giving it a very small value. Maybe 0 ???
> Personally, I have mine quite large as it helps with newsgroup speed
> where a lot of images are presented.

Thanks for replying, JoeS. Good info that you have provided.

Frankly, I think it's probably a good idea to do like you did and turn
the value up. I just went with 50 mb. Do you think that's large enough?
My system is long in the tooth and light on resources (1.9 ghz P4 with
512 mb of RDRAM and a dedicated graphics card with 128 mb ram on it) and
can use all the help it can get.

I was able to add an extension to TB:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2377/

and thus put a button on my toolbar which, when clicked, empties the
cache. Not exactly the best solution IMO, but better than nothing.

I'd still prefer that an option existed which would make the cache empty
automatically when the TB is closed.

--
John Corliss