Managing Your Email Quota

All email accounts have a quota. As you use your account, it's important to monitor how much space you have remaining in the account. Most email accounts have the quota listed on the front page after you log in to the web interfaces. If you use CITES Express Email and you are not sure how to check the amount of space you are using, you can view the How to Monitor Your Quota tutorial for help.

If you store your email messages on your email account's server, it is especially important to periodically delete or archive email messages to stay under quota.

How do I know if I store my email messages on the server?

If you primarily check your email through a web interface or with a desktop email client that uses IMAP, then your email is stored on the server. All of your folders, including the trash folder, are taking up space on the server.

Additionally, those who use POP and have chosen to leave a copy of messages on the server are also using account space to store the copies in their Inbox folder.

How can I reduce my space usage on the server?

1. Delete messages

One of the easiest methods to reduce your space usage is to delete messages that you no longer need and then empty your trash folder. You might need to log out and then back in to your email account to confirm that you have adjusted your amount of space.

If you plan to delete messages to free up account space, be certain that you are not unintentionally deleting your only copy. If you use an IMAP-configured desktop email client to access your Express Email account, please note that messages deleted within the Express Email web interface are permanently deleted and will no longer appear within your desktop email client (unless you previously dragged them to a local folder). Similarly, if you delete messages in your desktop client from a server folder and then empty your trash, they are also permanently removed. This behavior is different from POP, which is often configured to pull a copy of a message--rather than the actual message--to the local computer. For further assistance with deleting messages, please contact the CITES Help Desk.

2. Switch to POP

POP automatically downloads and stores your messages on your computer's hard drive, which frees up space in your account.

If you are using a web interface or a desktop client with IMAP, you might want to consider switching to POP so that your messages are downloaded and stored without any additional effort on your part. One caveat--your messages will be stored on a single computer, so if you prefer to access your messages from multiple computers then this might not be the best option for you.

And if you are already using POP, make sure that you are not storing a copy of your messages on the server indefinitely. Most email clients allow you to set a length of time after which the messages are automatically deleted (e.g., after 14 days).

3. Archive your email

A great option for keeping your email account under quota is to periodically store, or archive, your email from the server to another place such as your computer or a USB thumb drive.

If you use a desktop email client with IMAP, you can usually click and drag messages from your files on the server to files stored locally on your computer. Once you have downloaded the messages, you can also burn an additional copy of your messages to a CD or DVD in addition to storing the messages on your hard drive. Those using POP can do the same.

In order to archive your messages, you should locate the folder in which your computer stores your email. For instance, if you have a Windows computer you should use Windows Explorer to navigate to the program files of your desktop email client. Once you have located the files, try burning them to CD/DVD or copying them to your thumb drive.

Archiving messages can be a difficult task, so contact the CITES Help Desk if you need assistance. The contact information is listed at the bottom of the page.

4. Forward or transfer your email to another account

If you have another email account with a larger quota, you might want to consider storing some of your email permanently in the other account. You can do this through a couple ways:

a) Set up your email account to forward a copy to the other account. This will store your incoming email in the second account as a back-up. You can then delete messages after you read them with the knowledge that you have a saved copy in your second account.

b) Set up both email accounts in a desktop email client with IMAP. You can then easily click and drag your messages from one account to another, including those in other folders (e.g., your sent mail).

5. Use CITES NetFiles to share files

Attachments can take up a lot of space. Instead of sending a file by email (which is then stored in your sent folder), you can upload it to your NetFiles account. Then you only need to include the URL to allow your correspondents to view and save the file. For more information, see Using NetFiles Instead of Attachments.

6. Use CITES Spam Control to reduce your spam

Spam takes up space in your account just like your regular email messages, even when they are sitting in your trash or spam folder. To cut down on the amount of spam that clutters your account, use Spam Control to automatically quarantine or delete your spam messages. For information about Spam Control, including how to increase the level of your spam protection, see Overview of CITES Spam Control.

Where can I find more help?

If you have questions about managing your account's space usage, please contact the CITES Help Desk.

• phone: (217) 244-7000, (800) 531-2531
• email: consult@uiuc.edu
• walk-in: 1211 Digital Computer Lab, 1304 W. Springfield Ave., Urbana, IL 61801