E-mail Disk Storage Space Notification
If you received an e-mail message regarding your disk storage space, don’t worry. We are simply alerting you when your mail storage exceeds 1GB. This is not a hard limit – you can store more than 1GB with no problem. At the same time, if you keep the amount of mail stored on the server under this amount, you may see faster response times in Outlook or on your phone. And the server overall will run more smoothly if everyone does housekeeping on their e-mail from time to time.
So, what to do?
1) Are you connecting via POP3 or IMAP? If you’re connecting via IMAP with modern versions of Outlook (since about 2013), when you delete a message or folder in Outlook, it will be deleted from the mail server. Be aware that, by default, deleting a message from your Inbox or other folders may simply move your mail to the “Deleted Items” folder. That mail is still stored on the server and is part of your total storage.
With old versions of Outlook, and maybe with other e-mail programs, depending on your settings, deleting a message may not immediately delete it. In some instances, your e-mail program may simply mark messages for deletion with a “strike-through”. In order to actually delete those messages (which also then deletes them on the server), you’ll need to select those messages and choose a button or men item to purge them (the options and process depends on which program or which version of Outlook you’re using), or in Outlook, you can set the “Purge Options” to permanently delete messages marked for deletion when you switch folders. If you need help setting your options, please feel free to contact us for assistance.
If you’re using an old-style POP3 connection with the option set to “Leave a copy of messages on the server” and with no time limit, that e-mail will keep piling up on the server, maybe even after you delete it from Outlook. In this case, simply turn off the setting to leave messages on the server, or set it to a timeframe of, say 10-14 days. After that time, messages will be removed from the server.
2) How can you save space when sending a lot of large attachments? If you’re using an IMAP connection, when you send mail, it may be stored on the server. If you’re sending large attachments – even the same one in different messages – that attachment may be stored on the server multiple times. Rather than sending multiple messages which contain large attachments, it’s better to upload the files to your website, or use a service like DropBox, or even use the “File Storage” feature in your webmail interface. To use File Storage:
a) Log in to your webmail (https://mail.yourdomain.com)
b) Click on the “More: File Storage” menu item at the top (in desktop or mobile view).
c) In the right pane, click “Upload”, then select a file and click “Open”. That will upload your file to the mail server.d) Click the “card” for the file, then select the “Enable Public Access” option. (You can even choose an expiration date and/or apply a password to the file download.)
d) If you then send a message in Outlook, simply copy/paste the “Public Download Link” to the file. If you use webmail, in the “Compose” window, click on the three dots button, then select “Link File: SmarterMail” and select the file.
This way, instead of your message containing the entire attachment, it will simply contain a link to the attachment. That could save a lot of space in your “Sent Items” folder.
3) How can you discover how much mail is stored on the server? Simply log in to your webmail (https://mail.yourdomain.com) and go to “More: Reports” (in the top menu) and “Disk Usage” (in the left pane menu). By default, the “Disk Usage Report” will appear in the right pane. It will show you how much mail is stored in each folder. You can then address reducing the mail in the appropriate folders.
4) How can you set the mail server to delete old mail automatically? There’s a feature in the webmail system which will automatically delete old e-mail for you, based on the age of the messages. To use the “Folder Auto-Clean” feature:
a) Log in to your webmail (https://mail.yourdomain.com).
b) Click on the “More: Settings” button (in the top menu).
c) In the left pane, “Account” should be selected by default.
d) In the right pane, find the “Folder Auto-Clean” card.
e) In that section/card, select the option “Override auto-clean settings “, then click the “+ New Rule” button.
f) In the window which opens, select which folder you want to automatically clean (you can create a new rule for each folder if you’d like), and whether you want it to be cleaned based on the date/age of individual messages or based on the size of the entire folder. If you choose “Size” as the type, the “When size greater than (MB)” will indicate how large the folder needs to be before the Auto-Clean feature kicks in. The “Reduce to (MB)” option will tell the program to stop deleting old messages when the folder reaches this size. You can also remove messages based on the age of the message or when messages are older than a specific date.
g) Click “Save” to close the settings window, then click “Save” (top left of the right pane).
5) How can you archive old e-mail without deleting it? If you’re using Microsoft Outlook, depending on which version you have and how it was set up, you either have a 20GB storage limit (which includes all e-mail, contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, etc.) or a 50GB storage limit. (Very old versions may be limited to 2GB.) If you approach these limits, Outlook may start “misbehaving” – not allowing folders to be moved or created, not deleting messages, etc. (In our experience, approaching about 60% of the Microsoft-stated limit is when problems start to occur.) If you exceed your Outlook limit, it takes some considerable effort (and some third-party programs) to recover your mail – and you still may lose some of your mail due to corruption. So, it’s best not to even approach Outlook’s limit in the first place.
As a suggestion, you may want to download and install a third-party program, “MailStore” (www.mailstore.com). Their free/home version may work for you. It allows you to store e-mail on your hard drive or on your network drive and remove that mail off of the server (and/or out of Outlook). Simply set up the program to connect to your mail account using the same settings as Outlook or your phone. For the free/home version, you’ll need to manually run the program occasionally. The paid version will run automatically in the background. Since MailStore is a third-party program, we do not offer free support for this program.
If you need more help using your e-mail or understanding the mail storage disk usage message, please feel free to call us for support.