Finding (and deleting) large attachments

[Eliezer Broder]

I've reached 95% of my Gmail account's email capacity.  Looks like I need to start deleting...  Is there a way for me to search for all emails with attachments larger than (for example) 1 MB?  Or at least sort by attachment size?

 

Thanks!

Eliezer

[Nick Chirchirillo]

No.  The closest thing you could do is do a search for "has:attachment" and pick ones from those to delete.  GMail's motto is "Search, don't sort", so I don't think you can expect to see a sort feature any time soon.

[Eliezer Broder]

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7190 doesn't help me.  Any ideas?

On 7/16/07, Eliezer Broder <ebr...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Tyler Cheatham]

The link you provided has a CLEAR explanation on how to search for messages with attachments, I just did it and got resuls that are archived, in my inbox, and messages that have been deleted.  I dont think you can get any more specific, you will just have to open each message and see what it contains.

[J Rudick]

The has:attachment search worked great for me to find and delete some
of the largest discussions in my account. I hadn't known of this
before seeing it in this thread. Thanks!

On Jul 25, 3:33 pm, "Tyler Cheatham" <tcheath...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The link you provided has a CLEAR explanation on how to search for messages
> with attachments, I just did it and got resuls that are archived, in my
> inbox, and messages that have been deleted. I dont think you can get any
> more specific, you will just have to open each message and see what it
> contains.
>

> On 7/25/07, Eliezer Broder <ebro...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> >http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7190doesn't help me.
> > Any ideas?

[Rob Yeichner]

The link answered A QUESTION, just not the question that was asked.
Yes, the sky appears blue. No, it did not help me find large
attachments. :) Would have been great if the question/title was
"Finding (and deleting) attachments" but it wasn't.

Anyone making any more progress on this? I have hundreds of e-mails
with attachments, if I have to open each one to find attachment size,
gail obviously isn't the solution I was hoping for.

On Jul 25, 2:33 pm, "Tyler Cheatham" <tcheath...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The link you provided has a CLEAR explanation on how to search for messages
> with attachments, I just did it and got resuls that are archived, in my
> inbox, and messages that have been deleted. I dont think you can get any
> more specific, you will just have to open each message and see what it
> contains.
>

> On 7/25/07, Eliezer Broder <ebro...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> >http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7190doesn't help me.
> > Any ideas?

>
> > On 7/16/07, Eliezer Broder <ebro...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > I've reached 95% of my Gmail account's email capacity. Looks like I
> > > need to start deleting... Is there a way for me to search for all emails
> > > with attachments larger than (for example) 1 MB? Or at least sort by
> > > attachment size?
>
> > > Thanks!

> > > Eliezer- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Zack (Doc)]

It sounds like GMail may not be the solution for you, cause there is
no way to search by size. There's not even an easy way to see the
size (since it's not presented in list view).

There are, however, ways to handle this that you don't seem to be considering.

You can search like this "filename:jpg" and find just the attachments
with certain extensions. Some filetypes we know tend to be larger, so
that way you'll be finding the larger ones.

You can set up another GMail account, set this one to forward and
delete. That way this one retains everything it has, you start fresh
with the other one, and people can still use this address to send to
you, so they don't have to change. This keeps you from having to
delete at all.

You can turn on POP and download all messages, then delete ALL mail
that has an attachment. You have the attachments downloaded via the
POP, so there's no danger in loosing anything. Your mail client will
likely have a way to sort/search by size, so you could do that there
while your GMail account remains much smaller due to the mass
deletion.

[ausurfer]

No need to get nasty -- the person offered a suggestion. Remember,
both gmail AND the advice you get are free, so show some manners.

On Jul 26, 12:12 pm, Rob Yeichner <rob.yeich...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The link answered A QUESTION, just not the question that was asked.
> Yes, the sky appears blue. No, it did not help me find large
> attachments. :) Would have been great if the question/title was
> "Finding (and deleting) attachments" but it wasn't.
>
> Anyone making any more progress on this? I have hundreds of e-mails
> with attachments, if I have to open each one to find attachment size,
> gail obviously isn't the solution I was hoping for.
>
> On Jul 25, 2:33 pm, "Tyler Cheatham" <tcheath...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > The link you provided has a CLEAR explanation on how to search for messages
> > with attachments, I just did it and got resuls that are archived, in my
> > inbox, and messages that have been deleted. I dont think you can get any
> > more specific, you will just have to open each message and see what it
> > contains.
>
> > On 7/25/07, Eliezer Broder <ebro...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

> > >http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7190doesn'thelp me.

[Nate]

I just got thinking about this a bit. In gmail, the attachment size
is show in the email. Some really smart person out there has got to
know how to incorporate that little number into the search, right? I
mean, it's stored somewhere in a database, can we figure out how to
sort by that number, or "search" as Gmail is all about, for numbers
higher than a certain amount?

> > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[amsguy]

We need an enhancement where you only delete the attachment. Sometimes
the email itself is still useful, but the attachment has been moved
offline.

[Zack (Doc)]

Just forward the mail to yourself, but don't include the attachment.
Then delete just the one message with the attachment, not the whole
conversation. You can even use the forwarded message to include notes
about the reason you're keeping it, and where the attachment is now
housed.

[kengr...@gmail.com]

I've wrestled with the same problem. Luckily, I thought of a solution
while I only had <10% of my capacity filled.

MY SOLUTION: Create a label called "BIG" and apply it to emails with
attachments larger than 1MB.

Hope that helps.

Ken

[Vijay Marath]

I have a question that might be related to the first query. Is the attachment size calculated on-the-fly by Gmail?

I looked at the original of a mail that I had received which had attachments and I saw that the file size information is not encoded into the message (or there's no field like X-File-Size or X-Attachment-Size), That could be the reason why we don't have an option to search using the file size.

Vijay

[Nate]

Ken,

How exactly do you go about applying a label to all emails with
attachments larger than 1MB? If we could do that, then that would
answer the very problem of this thread!

Nate

On Aug 8, 6:06 pm, "kengreen...@gmail.com" <kengreen...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Zack (Doc)]

When a message comes in with an attachment, when you read the message,
the size is displayed. If the size is over 1MB, you apply that label.

I think Ken's point is the active anticipation. If you have an
ongoing process, as he does, then you don't have a problem later.

[Tyler Cheatham]

Zack,

My question is, can a filter do the same thing??  Can you set a filter to detect the attachment size and apply the >1MB label?

TC

[Zack (Doc)]

No, since there is no search term for size, you can't exactly.
However, sites like this:
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/05/keeping-your-gmail-inbox-size-under.html
Offer tips on how to find the largest attachments (.txt are often not
large, but .tif are huge).

[Nick Chirchirillo]

No you can't.  You can only set up a filter to apply a label to a message with an attachment, but that will apply it to all emails with attachments.

On 8/9/07, Tyler Cheatham <tchea...@gmail.com> wrote: