E-Mail Disk Storage Warning: What You Can Do About It

E-Mail Storage (Quota) refers to the network-based storage for your e-mail. This space includes your InBox as well as folders such as Sent-Mail, Spam , Deleted Messages, and folders you have created. The space taken up by messages stored in these folders counts against your e-mail disk quota. If you delete and purge e-mail from these types of folders, you free up storage. This space is your quota.

Southwestern University supplies every user with a default 400MB of remote e-mail storage. If you reach 90% of your quota, you will receive an e-mail warning message. If you reach 100% of your quota, you will no longer receive incoming messages and they cannot be retrieved. Anyone sending a message to your e-mail address will be informed that your account is over quota.

When you receive a notice that your e-mail storage is almost at capacity, you should do some housecleaning in your Inbox or other folders. Whether you use Webmail, Thunderbird, Mail or some other e-mail client it is possible to bring your Inbox back under quota.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Delete and purge unneeded messages from your InBox, Sent-Mail and Trash folders.

2. If during holidays and extended periods of time you will not be reading e-mail, it is strongly recommend that you delete unnecessary messages from your inbox AND purge deleted messages. The purge step is very important as it completes the delete process and actually removes the deleted messages from disk storage.

In Webmail the "Purge Deleted" command is on the upper right hand side of the screen under the two arrows that allow you to move forward and backward through your messages.

In Thunderbird the "Empty Trash" command is under the File menu.

3. In Thunderbird, move e-mail from the server (the Inbox) to Local Folders. You can create subfolders under Local Folders to aid in organizing your email.

4. Don't save emails with large attachments. If you receive a message with a large attachment and you want to keep the attachment, save the attachment to your computer and delete the email. Attachments often take up a large amount of space and can cause your email storage to go over quota.

Please call the HelpDesk at (512) 819-7333 if you have questions or need assistance.