Apple’s Mail.app utilizes a SQLite database to manage the mail index. In my case, that’s approaching 10,000 email messages. Constant deleting and moving wreaks havoc over time on this database, resulting in slow-downs and hiccups (or, in the worst case, failure). You can force Mail.app to rebuild its index, resulting in much snappier performance, a reduction in glitches, and a substantial savings in space. Performing this action has caused my mail folder to shrink in size from 780 MB to 363.9 MB. Continue reading →