Mailbox is full error

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IT KnowledgeBase : Mailbox is full error

Created by Unknown User (ianholzman), last modified by Unknown User (rebekahcushman) on Feb 12, 2016

What should I do if I get an error stating my mailbox is full?

If you receive this message it means you have reached the storage limit for your email box. Limits are different for different types of users - and the message you receive should indicate what your limit currently is.

Until you bring the size of your mailbox back down below the limit, you'll be unable to send email. If you are far enough over the limit, you will not be able to receive additional email until you reduce the size of your mailbox.

To get under the limit, look for folders which have messages with large files in them. Typically this is the "Sent Items" folder since it keeps a copy of all messages you send. You may click on the "Size" header to sort any folder by the size of the messages. This allows you to easily identify the largest messages.

If you have deleted items from that folder you will need to right-click on the "Deleted Items" folder and empty it since messages count against your quota until they are emptied from the "Deleted items" folder.

Checking how much email space you have used:
When you receive a notice that your account is approaching the email storage limit, you can see the limits for your mailbox in that message. Then you can find out how much space your mailbox is consuming by:

  • Open Outlook.
  • In the upper left, click on File.
  • Once in the File view, under Mailbox Cleanup, you will see how much space of the limit your mailbox is using (see screenshot below):