Mailbox full? How to free up space and increase your mailbox size

A mailbox is full when it reaches the maximum size set for that mailbox. New email to that address is then rejected and the sender gets a bounce message. To fix it, delete large and old messages and empty the trash, or raise the maximum mailbox size in Plesk.

Signs that your mailbox is full

• Senders get a bounce. The automatic return message usually contains the words quota exceeded or mailbox full. The email was not delivered and will not arrive later on its own: the sender has to send it again once you have made room.
• Your email app cannot save a copy. Sending often still works, but your email app reports that it cannot store a copy in Sent or save a draft.
• You get a warning at 95 percent. A message from postmaster with the subject Mailbox usage exceeded 95% of quota limits lands in your inbox. It comes from our mail server itself and contains plain text only, with no links. Clean up or raise the size before the last 5 percent fills up.

Full mailbox or full hosting plan?

With LJPc hosting you can create as many mailboxes as you like. Together with your website and databases they share the storage of your hosting plan, and each mailbox can also have its own maximum size. Those are two different limits:

The storage of your hosting plan is a soft limit. If you go over it, your website and email keep working and we send you an email showing how the space is split between website, email and databases. You then have 7 days to free up space or choose a bigger plan. After that we charge 3 euros per started GB per month above the limit, excluding VAT, until you are back under the limit. Read more in check your hosting storage usage and change your hosting package.

How to check the size of a mailbox

• In Plesk. Open Plesk from the customer portal (see open Plesk from the customer portal) and click Mail in the left menu. On the Email Addresses tab the Usage column shows how much each mailbox uses and its maximum size, for example "1.2 GB used of 2 GB". If it says Unlimited, the mailbox can grow within the storage of your plan.
• In the customer portal. On the page of your site, the Site overview block shows under Disk space how much all your mailboxes use together, next to your website and databases.
• In webmail. At ljpc.email, click Settings, then Folders, and select a folder. Under Information you see how many messages it holds and how big it is, so you quickly find the folder that takes up the most space.

How to free up space in your mailbox

Everything in your mailbox counts, including Sent, Trash and Spam (Junk). This is how you free up the most space in webmail:

1. Log in at ljpc.email. See LJPc webmail if you need help logging in.
2. Empty the Trash and Spam folders: click Settings and Folders, select the folder and click Empty at the top.
3. Find the largest messages. Open a folder, click Options above the message list, set Sorting column to Size and Sorting order to descending, and click Save. The biggest messages are now at the top.
4. Save any attachments you still need to your computer, then delete the messages. Check Sent as well: it often holds large attachments you sent yourself.
5. Finally, empty the Trash again. Messages in the Trash still count towards the size.

Email apps such as Outlook, Apple Mail and Thunderbird work the same way: sort the message list by size, then empty the Trash (or Deleted Items). Some apps first only strike through a deleted message; it keeps counting until you purge the folder.

Want to keep old email without using space on the server? Export it to a file on your computer, as described in close a mailbox or switch providers without losing your email. If you use POP3 and leave a copy on the server, set your email app to remove that copy from the server after a number of days. The difference between IMAP and POP3 is explained in IMAP vs POP3 vs SMTP.

Tip: in webmail, go to Settings and Server Settings, set Clear Trash on logout to, for example, older than 30 days and click Save. Every time you log out, webmail then deletes the messages in your trash that are older than 30 days.

How to change the maximum mailbox size in Plesk

1. Log in to the customer portal, open the page of your site and click Log in to Plesk in the Site overview block.
2. Click Mail in the left menu. The Email Addresses tab lists all your email addresses.
3. Click the email address that is full. The General tab opens.
4. Under Mailbox, choose one of the two options:
   • Default size: the standard size for mailboxes in your plan. The amount is shown in brackets.
   • Another size: a size of your own. Enter a number and choose KB, MB, GB or TB.
5. Click OK at the bottom. New email will then arrive again.

A size of your own cannot be higher than the default size of your plan, as the note under the field says. If you need a bigger mailbox than the default size allows, contact support and we will look at it with you. Keep in mind that a bigger mailbox also uses more of your hosting plan's storage.

How to create a new mailbox and which settings it gets is covered in create an email address in Plesk.

When the recipient's mailbox is full

Did you get a bounce after emailing someone, with a code or text such as 552 5.2.2, mailbox full or over quota? Then the recipient's mailbox is full and your message was not delivered. Your own mailbox needs no action. Let the recipient know another way, for example by phone, and send your message again once they have made room.

Did you get an Email rate exceeded notice instead? That one is about the number of messages you send per hour; see email sending limit. Other error messages and bounces are covered in how to fix email problems.

Need help?

Still stuck, or want to know which limit applies to a mailbox? Call us on +31 85 130 6429, email support@ljpc.nl or create a support ticket. We are happy to help.