Storage per mailbox and what happens when it's full

Mail takes up space, mainly because of attachments. That space is taken from your package's storage, along with your website, databases and backups. You can also set a separate maximum per mailbox: the quota.

How does the quota work?

• Max ticked (recommended): the mailbox has no separate limit of its own and may use the free space in your package.
• A number in MB, for example 2000: the mailbox may use a maximum of 2000 MB (roughly 2 GB). This is useful if you want to prevent one mailbox from filling up your whole package, for example for an employee's mailbox or an address that receives a lot of attachments.

Under E-mail Accounts, the Usage column shows how much space each mailbox is currently using. At the top, Total Usage shows the total for all mailboxes on this domain.

Changing the quota

1. Go to E-mail Accounts and click the three dots in the mailbox's row.
2. Choose Change Limits.
3. A Change Limit/Quota window opens. Enter a number under E-mail Quota (MB), or tick Max.
4. Click SAVE.

What happens when a mailbox is full?

• When a mailbox gets close to its quota, you'll receive a warning by email, with the English text The size of your mailbox has exceeded a warning threshold.
• If the mailbox is actually full, new mail is rejected. The sender gets an error message back, containing something like quota exceeded or mailbox full. The mail won't arrive later either.
• The same happens if the storage of your entire package is full, even if the mailbox itself still has space. In that case, your website will also stop working properly. See Storage full: where's the space going?.

Freeing up space

1. Empty your trash and spam folder. Deleted mail stays in the Trash (or Deleted Items) folder until you empty it, and counts towards your usage for as long as it's there.
2. Delete old mail with large attachments. In webmail, you can search and sort by size.
3. Save old mail to your computer. In most mail programs you can drag mail into a local folder. It will then only be stored on your computer and no longer on the server. In that case, make sure you keep a backup of your computer yourself.
4. Purge using DirectAdmin. See below.
5. Increase the quota of the mailbox, or set it to Max, if your package still has space available.
6. Order extra storage if your package itself is full. You can do this in My WebOké under your package.

Purge: delete old mail in one go

With the Purge button, you delete all mail older than a certain period in one go, for example everything in the inbox older than a year.

1. Go to E-mail Accounts and tick the mailbox (or mailboxes) on the left.
2. Click Purge.
3. A Purge Folder window opens. Under Folder:, choose which folder you want to purge, for example the inbox, all folders or just the Spambox.
4. Under Period:, choose how old the mail that can be removed must be. With all, you delete all mail in that folder, regardless of age.
5. Click PURGE. Click Close to cancel.

Please note: Purge really deletes the mail, including from your mail program if it uses IMAP. Keep a copy first of anything you want to keep.

Frequently asked questions

I've deleted mail, but the usage doesn't go down.
Check whether the trash is really empty. Usage in DirectAdmin also isn't always updated immediately. Check again after a few hours.

My phone says the mailbox is full, but DirectAdmin shows there's still space.
Also check the storage of your entire package, on the dashboard or under User statistics. If that's full, the mailbox's quota won't help.