Another TB3 failure…
james January 20th, 2010
The conclusion here is that there is little to no reason to upgrade to TB3 when using large gmail imap accounts. In fact, TB3 is a serious downgrade unless the default settings are heavily changed. In another bout of poor performance, I found that whenever copying messages to/from various folders or accounts in TB, I get the message “The current command did not succeed. The mail server responded:could not parse command.” When this occurs, the entire process is killed. Moving 1,000 messages? Nope, now you have to try and do it in smaller chunks and take great care in trying to move chunks properly.
The single benefit I have identified so far, is the improved password system that does not continue to ask your username/password when having connection problems as in TB2. I am still debating and trying to look at the benefits of migrating to TB3 but the reasons are slim at best.
So, if you have a large imap account and want to go to TB3 you will need to take some pro-active steps to un-f#@# your computer before TB3 sticks it to you. Here are the preliminary steps:
1) Go offline right away after upgrading, do not download anything. (File -> offline - Work Offline)
2) Turn off Global Search and Indexer. Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General -> Enable Global Search and Indexer.
3) Determine which folders, if any, you would like to sync. Tools -> Account Settings -> choose any imap account -> Synchronization & Storage -> Message Synchronizing -> Advanced. I recommend only your inbox, sent mail, drafts and any frequently used folders. Sub-folders must be expanded and unclicked manually to prevent massive, all-consuming syncing. You can also look at only syncing messages that are recent or below a certain size. Just remember that if you choose poorly, it will hurt and you will need to start deleting the cached folder .msf files directly to correct this or rebuild the index of each folder you need to reduce.
4) Go back online again and let TB3 work for a LONG period of time re-downloading and re-indexing many of your folders and thousands of messages.
5) Get used to rebooting often after trying to read or send a message as TB3 just freezes in process with an extremely long timeout. However, if you restart TB3 and try the same action it seems to work often. TB3 works well when initially started and gets fouled quickly with heavy imap use, bogging down and eventually becoming useless until you restart it again.
6) When doing large folder copies, I find it is easiest to go offline, then copy or move bulk information, then go online again. It doesn’t run into the “The current command did not succeed. The mail server responded:could not parse command.” error and completely fail the process but rather keeps trying until success is achieved.
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