Compress Opera mail store?

[Wai Yip Tung]

I have some .mbs files from around 2005 or before, when Opera is perhaps
on version 7. It stores multiple messages into one .mbs file. Even though
I have deleted many old messages, these files still hang around. It is
taking a lot of space for backup. Is there a method to compress the Opera
mail store? Even a export all and import all process could help.

Thanks,

Wai Yip

[David W. Hodgins]

After two years of usage, you're likely to have to problems.
Messages that have been marked as deleted, but really haven't been.
Messages addressed to accounts, that don't exist anymore.

I suggest export all, delete all of the files related to the actual storing
of email, then import.

For IMAP accounts, rather then import, after deleting the mail files,
delete, and recreate the accounts, so opera will resync with the server.

To export all messages, including those that have been marked, as deleted,
even though they haven't, use mbs2mbx.

The original author's webpage is at http://www.kmkorn.de/sw/opera/en/mbs2mbx.htm

I have not been able to contact the author, but have created a customized version,
that tries to seperate received email, and sent, by account. Incoming nntp
messages are seperated by nntp server, outgoing are grouped together, as I can't
tell from the message, which nntp server it was sent to.

You have to have python installed, to run mbs2mbx.

When you run it ---
Specify the path the the mail/store directory.
Pick a new directory (everything in that directory will be wiped), to store
the exported mbs files.
Select, and point to the accounts.ini file.
Tell it to ignore the opera status lines, then click on the start button.
When it's done, look at o7recvrssf.mbx and any file with unknown in the
name. If you find real email messages there, but with addressess from
old accounts, then add those email addresses to myaccounts.ini, in the
mbs2mbs directory, and run it again. Keep doing this, until the rss
files, and then unknown files only contain rss, and sent nttp messages.

Note that the export utility will generate messageids, for messages that
don't have one.

You can obtain a copy of my version of mbs2mbx from
http://www.ody.ca/~dwhodgins/mbs2mbx_en_v_1_7beta.zip

The command to execute it is "python -OO mbs2mbx.pyw"

After you're satisfied with the export, delete all subdirectories of
the /mail directory, and the mailbase.dat, or omailbase.dat file, in
the /mail directory, then import he exported files, one at a time,
specifying which account to import them to, and whether or not to
put the contents, into the sent file.

For email addresses, that are no longer in use, pick one of your "in use"
accounts, to assign the messages to.

Note that imported nntp articles will be marked by opera as email, so
if you respond to them, you'll have to switch to a pop3 sender, delete
the "To: address", switch back to the nntp sender, and copy/paste the
newgroups line.

Then delete/recreate any IMAP accounts.

If you have any problems, or suggestions, with this version, please email
me directly, not the original author. I've made major changes, and any
problems encounters, are likely due to my changes, not the original code.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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[Wai Yip Tung]

Thanks for the script! My mailbox definitely need some scrubbing. I will
try it out.

Wai Yip

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