For people using the imap delete model, the compact now toolbar button is very useful. However, it is disabled for cross-folder saved searches. I suppose it should compact each of the folders in the scope of the saved search...

This bug makes the (otherwise very cool) "Smart Folders" feature unusable for IMAP "mark-as-deleted" users. -> wanted for Thunderbird 3

There is a workaround with the folder display layer patch from 474701... use the mail view that only shows messages that are "not deleted".

This is pretty visible in smart folders mode, marking wanted.

workaround - expand the inbox smart folder, click an account's inbox, "compact folders" works against the entire account

workaround works against a single, entire account 1. expand the inbox unified/smart folder, 2. click the account's inbox, 3. File > Compact Folders

The workaround does not work... or it doesn't work as I am lead to believe. I have about 15 email accounts (don't ask...) that I pull from my thunderbird. I need to compact each and every folder once every week or so. What I'd like to do is to run "empty" command on "junk" and "trash" unified folders, then run "compack" command on inbox/sent/junk/trash unified folders. As it is now, I need to empty about 30 folders and compact about 60 folders. Not a back-breaker by any measure, but is certainly a very tedious and cumbersome weekly task for me.

perhaps with autocompact enabled, this issue becomes less necessary. Note - bug 473642 explicitly disabled compact.

we only compact the offline store automatically; we don't automatically do an expunge for imap folders.