My email account shows it's 78% full - how do I free up space
My Thunderbird email account shows that it's 78% full. I've tried deleting old folders, then deleting trash, but 78% full still shows. I need to keep most of my old stuff for business purposes. How do I lower how full the account is?
All Replies (4)
Hello there discoverturf1 We have read your message We try to help you.
Your space is at a low level.
Oké there are more than one solutions to solve this issue. How do you think to do this as a question?
Greetings Firefox volunteer.
Gewysig op
Hello there again. Discoverturf1.
Manage the Disk Storage Space
1. First of all, go to the Thunderbird application > Tools > Account Settings > Disc Space 2. Then, choose the option don’t delete any messages 3. Also, select Always keep starred messages to check mailbox size of Thunderbird 4. Finally, click on the OK button to save changes.
Compact Folders in Thunderbird
1. go to the Folder option & select All 2. After that, right-click on Inbox folder and select Compact option to solve error Thunderbird Maximum Request Size Exceeded.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/compacting-folders
Recreate Deleted Items Folder
1. To start the process, open Thunderbird application to delete emails on Thunderbird 2. Then, click on the three bars on the top-right corner & select Help > Troubleshooting Information 3. Now, from the Application Basics, choose the Open Folder option 4. After that, exit Thunderbird program 5. Next, from the File Explorer window, go to the Mail folder & select the email account that has mailbox size limit exceeded issue. 6. Then, select the Trash & Trash.msf file and delete them 7. Finally, restart the Thunderbird program & create a new Trash folder.
and of course you can also move your inbox to a new Thunderbird account
Greetings Firefox volunteer.
Gewysig op
Where do I find Tools > Account Settings > Disc Space on the Thunderbird application? I've tried compacting folders and it won't allow it. Says it failed. I don't understand HOW to do what you're saying I should try.
The 78% is the quota level on server which you have used. You will see this if you have an imap mail account because all emails are stored on the server.
re: Where do I find Tools > Account Settings > Disc Space That info is using the top 'Menu Bar' toolbar to access Account Settings which you may or may not have auto enabled. 'Disc Space' is shown as a separate link in left pane for POP accounts, but for imap accounts it is in the 'Synchronisation & Storage' .
Menu app icon (3 lines) > Account Settings For the imap account... Select 'Synchronisation & Storage' You will locate 'Disc Space' here.
re :I've tried compacting folders and it won't allow it. What error message do you get ?
It is possible compacting cannot occur because of the huge size of the Inbox mbox file. It is strongly advised you do not keep large numbers of any emails in one single folder because those emails are really stored in a single text file document. It is just too risky and causes problems due to it's size. When compacting Thunderbird needs to create a copy of that file and it does this in the same imap account name folder, so space might be a problem.
It might also be a problem if synchronisation is going on - so go into offline mode.
- Menu app icon (3 lines) > File > Offline > Download/Sync now
- Select 'Mail Messages'
- select 'Work offline once download and/or synchronisation is complete'
- click on 'OK'
The bottom status bar will tell what is going on and when the far left icon gets a red line through it - you are in offline mode.
First try compacting other folders which are likely to be smaller than the Inbox in an effort to free up space within the imap mail account name folder. Drafts - this folder can end up a lot bigger than you realise due to the hidden marked as deleted copies of emails - compacting removes those traces of old emails.
- Right click on 'Drafts' folder and select 'Compact'
Allow it time to complete the task.
Junk/Spam is another folder that can have lots of deleted mail.
- Right click on 'Junk/Spam' folder and select 'Compact'
Allow it time to complete the task.
Trash (may also be called Bin, Deleted Items etc)
- Right click on 'Trash' folder and select 'Compact'
Allow it time to complete the task.
Now attempt the 'Inbox'.
- Right click on 'Inbox' folder and select 'Compact'
Allow it time to complete the task.
Please report back on how each folder managed to compact. If you get any error then please tell us the error message word for word or post an image of it.
Note: you can go back to online mode by clicking on that icon in bottom left of Status bar. But do not return to Online mode until you see Status that compacting has finished.