Filed under: iLife, Tips and tricks, Odds and ends
Tip of the Day
Use Spotlight as a reference tool. Type any word in the Spotlight box and one of the top entries will be a definition. Click on it, and it will bring up the dictionary application to check the word in either the dictionary, thesaurus, Apple database, or Wikipedia.
Breaking news Feed
- The Huffington Post has seen the iTablet... not!
- It's alive: Intel Atom support returns to 10.6.2
- Chrome for OS X before 2010
- AT&T loses first round in battle over Verizon ads
- Psystar dealt crushing blow in ongoing legal proceedings with Apple
- Whoa! AT&T has had enough of the Verizon slams
- Facebook app developer is through with the iPhone, blames App Store approval process
- iPhone leads Apple past Nokia to #1 in mobile phone profits
- Apple updates Safari to 4.0.4
- Mac OS X 10.6.2 is on the prowl, plus security update for 10.5 users
Featured stories Feed
- Apple launches iTunes Preview for external browser links
- iStopMotion now Snow Leopard happy
- Five Gifts for the Mac AV Geek
- Count The Beats: Hey DJ, play us a song...
- Tips and tricks: Putting Things in your Dropbox makes syncing simple
- Mac power tools: charge up your workflow
- iPhone and Exercise: What apps do you like?
- Dear Aunt TUAW: Repurposing an old iPhone
- If 30% is good enough for Apple in the App Store, it should be good enough for dropped calls on AT&T, right?
- Rumor Roundup: iMac and Mac Mini due to refresh before October 9th?
Latest Jobs from TUAW Jobs
- iPhone developer (Groupon)
- Mac developer for graphics focused project (Joshua Distler)
- Lead Blogger (AOL Find a Job)
- ColdFusion Developer (Collabera Inc.)
- Media Author (Collabera Inc.)
- View more Jobs ›
Featured Galleries
TUAW bloggers (30 days)
| # | Blogger | Posts | Cmts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steven Sande | 44 | 3 |
| 2 | Dave Caolo | 35 | 4 |
| 3 | Mel Martin | 31 | 0 |
| 4 | Mike Schramm | 28 | 0 |
| 5 | Michael Rose | 18 | 26 |
| 6 | Josh Carr | 18 | 24 |
| 7 | Victor Agreda, Jr. | 17 | 6 |
| 8 | TJ Luoma | 15 | 27 |
| 9 | Joachim Bean | 12 | 3 |
| 10 | Erica Sadun | 11 | 1 |
| 11 | Ken Ray | 11 | 2 |
| 12 | Sang Tang | 10 | 0 |
| 13 | Aron Trimble | 9 | 3 |
| 14 | David Winograd | 9 | 4 |
| 15 | Chris Rawson | 8 | 0 |
| 16 | Megan Lavey | 7 | 9 |
| 17 | John Burke | 6 | 3 |
| 18 | Lauren Hirsch | 4 | 0 |
| 19 | Brett Terpstra | 4 | 5 |
| 20 | Kent Pribbernow | 3 | 0 |
Most Commented On (7 days)
- MacUpdate Desktop version 5.0.2 released, win a membership from TUAW (164)
- Giving or getting a Mac for the holidays? 10 apps every new Mac user needs (91)
- Smoking kills... your Mac (83)
- Looking for free iWeb hosting? Here's how to use Dropbox as your host (68)
- Jobs to dev on app name change: "Not that big of a deal." (65)
- Apple giving huge discounts on Black Friday? No way! (53)
- Buyer's Guide: 33 things you don't need if you have an iPhone (50)
- This just in: MacBooks are more reliable than netbooks (47)
- Should we continue using an app that Apple has rejected? (47)
- Working with the new Apple Mac mini Server and Snow Leopard Server (38)
Recent Comments
- Wesbolitho on Giving or getting a Mac for the holidays? 10 apps every new Mac user needs
- hummin on Jobs to dev on app name change: "Not that big of a deal."
- Howie Isaacks on The Huffington Post has seen the iTablet... not!
- DanRobinson on Smoking kills... your Mac
- NT on Ask TUAW: Silencing iPhone notifications, remote control a PC, printing over the internet, and more
- Craig on The Huffington Post has seen the iTablet... not!
- EnergyPigeon on iPhone launching in South Korea this week
- TL on Smoking kills... your Mac
- Sam Jordan on The Huffington Post has seen the iTablet... not!
- jOrtiz on TUAW Review: Checkout, top notch Point of Sale software for Mac
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) Tags
iphone SnowLeopard dropbox podcast talkcast IpodTouch iCal Apple AppStore ItunesLp itunes sales hgg Facebook software MacOsX10.6 gps jailbreak app-store bluetooth AppReview MacMini music navigation ATT tablet mac holiday giveaway tips update Snow-Leopard video imac browser app games ItunesStore audio features ipod-touch AppleTv ipod gaming AppleStore verizon Microsoft security retail MacOsX
More Apple Analysis
- AAPL on BloggingStocks The Apple category feed from BloggingStocks.com
- AAPL Quote, News & Summary The AAPL financials page from AOL Money and Finance
- iPhone analysis from BloggingStocks iPhone tag feed from BloggingStocks
- Macintosh news and reviews on Download Squad The Macintosh category feed from Download Squad
More from AOL Money and Finance
- Stock Screener
- Stock Quotes
- DJIA
- AMT
- Auto Loans
- Banking
- Car Insurance
- Checking Account
- Credit Cards
- Credit Reports
- Deals Deals
- Debt Management
- Dow Jones Industrial Average
- Earnings
- GOOG
- Health Insurance
- Home Insurance
- Identity Theft
- Income Tax Basics
- Insurance
- Life Insurance
- Loans
- Money
- Mortgages
- Personal Loans
- Recession
- Refinancing
- Retirement
- Savings Account
- Small Business
- Stock Charts
- Stock Ticker
- Taxes
- Tech News
WIN Network
- Autos
- Technology
- Lifestyle
- Gaming
- Finance
- Entertainment on AOL
- Lifestyle on AOL
- Sports on AOL
- Travel on AOL
- Also on AOL

All contents copyright © 2003-2009, Weblogs, Inc. All rights reserved
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) is a member of the Weblogs, Inc. Network. Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Notify AOL
Get a WordPress.com Blog
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jameson said 7:55PM on 3-01-2007
I'm a n00b to the terminal. When I run the command I get SQL error: unrecognized token: "\", and it doesn't do anything. Any ideas?
Reply
Sebastian Holmqvist said 7:40PM on 3-01-2007
Wow, the difference is incredible. From sluggish to "swooosh" :)
Didn't write down the size difference, but it's a hell of a lot faster, that's for sure!
Reply
Kevin S. said 9:36PM on 3-01-2007
the command is taking forever on my 1.25ghtz g4...
i wonder how bloated my db was...
Reply
ryanlegg said 8:07PM on 3-01-2007
wow. Great tip! I only have 3 POP accounts and ~5000 messages, but this has visibly improved my Mail.app speed...I was startled the first time it loaded so fast.
Reply
franko said 8:11PM on 3-01-2007
wow, that's incredible. i think mail even loads in one dock bounce now. thanks for the tip!
Reply
kirk said 8:17PM on 3-01-2007
Wow. That really worked well!
Reply
Hugin777 said 8:56PM on 3-01-2007
A single line in the Terminal will do the trick:
sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum
The argument to the vacuum command is ignored:
http://www.sqlite.org/lang_vacuum.html
Reply
Catt said 9:04PM on 3-01-2007
Thanks for pointing this tip out. My mail has been slow of late and I noticed the difference right away.
Reply
Mitch said 10:31PM on 3-01-2007
This is a great tip.
It made a huge difference.
Thanks Tuaw!
Thanks Hawk Wings!
Reply
niclet said 10:52PM on 3-01-2007
Wow! this is a precious tip.
I works with the one line version for me:
sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum subjects;
I tried also these:
sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum index;
sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum
I'm not sure what exactly is the fine differences between those three (compact subjects, the indexes or the whole db)... but the things is, it had a positive speed effect on Mail.
Do you know if there is any similar line command to speed up iCal now?
Reply
brendan Sheehan jnr said 2:35AM on 3-02-2007
Mail quits a lot faster, no lingering on before it quits after I press Command+Q... we'll see does that last?
Reply
kakapo said 7:26AM on 3-02-2007
WOW!!!
Not a VISTA whisper behind closed doors or ragged skirts but a real WOW!!!
My Mail is so fast now that there are skid marks on my screen from the speed. Alos to close - quit - is like lightening on steroids
Whew...
I used the single line command:
sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum
worked great...
Thanks everyone...
Best tip in a long time!
Reply