As of right now if you have the pref set in options menu to compact files after a certain size would be saved, you get an annoying popup dialog cofirming if you want to compact the folders. I feel that the dialog does not need to be shown and that TB should automatically compact the folders but only as long as some kinda of indication is given to what TB is doing incase users with older computers start feeling sluggish. Related to SeaMonkey bug 115499 and bug 198936 But they do have a point in the seamonkey bugs. We really don't want this to be done and not know about it because if/when the computer gets sluggish for the older computer users they won't know why and automatically assume TB sucks. Probably a good idea to leave it how it is now or somehow incorporate a pref which hides the confirmation dialog but also displays some message in the status bar.

There is already an indication in the statusbar about the folders being compacted during compact so the dialog should be removed completly and in the options dialog change 'Compact folders when it will save over' to 'Automatically compact folders when it will save over'

I second this feature request. It is indeed quite annoying to have this dialog in the way; this is all the more true as it steals focus from the current window when appearing. I am using TB version 1.5 (20051201) under Linux. I think the solution proposed on bug#198936 (a "Do no ask from now on" checkbox) is the way to go.

(In reply to comment #2) > I think the solution proposed on bug#198936 (a "Do no ask from now on" > checkbox) is the way to go. Ack, this is a good way to let users get rid of the dialog, without introducing yet another setting in the pref window or a hidden pref that is (by definition) not very discoverable. Adding as dependency.

I agree that this dialog box is a nuisance and users should have the option to prevent it from appearing; but if this is allowed, any user who disables the dialog will lose the only way we now have to block a worse problem: bug 115499.

Not Thunderbird-specific as it's called from shared backend code, moving to core.

As noted elsewhere, the big problem with automatic compaction is the various reports of lost mail, and other broken behavior such as failure to filter, while compaction is going on. See e.g. bug 218001, bug 233833, bug 274330, bug 330977, bug 337814. (Some of these are probably dupes.) The backend change that would prevent this would be something that turns off mail fetching entirely (not just biff, but also via a click on the Get New button) while compaction is going on. Once that was in place, automatic compaction would be safe.

This has been fixed by bug 198936 *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 198936 ***