Computing & Information Services
Quota Management
Deleting Messages
Download Messages
Deleting Attachments From Saved Messages
You have a limited amount of storage space on the mail server. Once you reach this limit, any incoming mail will not reach your Inbox. To keep your account under quota, some occasional space management is required.
On many pages in Webmail, the Quota is indicated by a small bar located just beneath the webmail toolbar. It should say:
Quota status: x.xxMB/50.00MB (x.xx%).
The background color of this bar will change depending on your quota status. At 70%, the bar will turn yellow, and at 90%, the bar will turn red. At 90% quota, you will also receive an e-mail notifying you of consequences associated with exceeding your quota.
At 90% of quota, mail is withheld pending the availability of space in your Inbox. To free up space, you must delete things from the mail server.
Deleting Messages and Emptying the Trash
To delete a message, select the checkbox on the far left of the message line. Just above the messages you will see a row of options. On the far left is the word Delete. Click Delete, and your selected message will be sent to the Trash. To delete more than one message at a time, simply select the checkboxes next to all the messages that you would like to delete. To delete all messages on a page, click the checkbox at the very top of the column, immediately under the Delete link. This will select all checkboxes on the page. You may also delete the contents of an entire folder by clicking the Folders button in the webmail toolbar. Expand the list of folders and find the folder you wish to empty. Then check the box adjacent to the folder name and click the Choose Action: menu. Delete Folder(s) will move the entire folder and its contents into the trash, while Empty Folders will move only the contents of the folder into the trash.
Deleting the messages simply moves them to your Trash. Items in Trash are also factored into the quota. To free up space, you must delete the messages permanently by emptying your trash. To do this, click the Empty Trash icon in the webmail toolbar.
Downloading Messages
Webmail offers easy ways to download your messages to your computer before deleting them. Note that when you download a message and then delete the copy on the server, it will no longer be accessible via Webmail.
To download a single message, open it in Webmail by clicking on the subject. Then click Save As in the toolbar just above the Date. Select the location you wish to download the message to and then click Save.
You may also download the contents of an entire folder by clicking the Folders toolbar button. Place a check mark next to each folder that you wish to download (Hint: Click Expand All to show all folders). Then from the Choose Action: menu, select Download Folder(s) or Download Folder(s) [.zip format]. The latter will download the mail in a compressed archive (which can be opened using Stuffit, Winzip, Winrar, or any other compression program).
You may also download entire folders in .mbox format, which you can then import into many clients such as Apple Mail or Thunderbird. To do so, log into webmail and click on the Folders toolbar button. Click Expand All to view a list of all the folders that are present in your Webmail account. Place a checkbox next to each folder that you wish to download by clicking its corresponding box on the far left of the window. Then, from the Choose Action menu, select Download Folder(s) (not Download Folder(s) [.zip format]). Once the download process is complete, you should have files called foldername.mbox in the place where your browser normally places downloaded files. You can then import these mbox files into other mail clients such as Apple Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird.
Deleting Attachments From Saved Messages
Getting rid of large attachments can allow you to keep important message text while greatly reducing the amount of space the message takes up. When you open a message with an attachment, you will see a small trash can icon next to the attachment (listed under Parts). To delete the attachment, click once on the small trashcan icon. Then click OK to confirm.