E-Mail Frequently Asked Questions

What is my e-mail quota (limit)?
Why is there a quota on my mailbox?
How do I determine the size of my mailbox?
What can I do to prevent my mailbox from reaching the quota?
     Delete unnecessary items.
     Empty the Deleted Items folder.
     Empty the Sent Items folder.
     Move or Delete E-mail with Attachments.
     Manage your mailbox size with Mailbox Cleanup.
     Filter Junk E-mail.
     To Enable the Junk E-mail Filter through Weboutlook.
I still need to save more e-mail than my quota allows. How can I?
When I send an e-mail with an attachment, what is the limit on the attachment size?
How many people can I send an e-mail to at one time?
Can I store e-mail in my deleted items folder?

What is my e-mail quota (limit)?

The limit for all e-mail accounts is 300 MB, with a warning automatically generated at 275 MB. This warning message is to remind users to delete unnecessary messages and perform e-mail house-cleaning. For e-mail accounts that exceed the limit, it will not be possible to send or receive new messages. (top)

Note: The items found in your Inbox, Calendar, Sent Items, Deleted Items, Contacts, and Tasks all count towards your quota

Why is there a quota on my mailbox?

In efforts to continue to provide all users with fast and reliable service, we have set limits on the size of individual mailboxes. Reducing mailbox sizes will improve our service to the campus by enhancing server performance, maintaining the system more efficiently with less down time, and restoring mailboxes more rapidly in the event of a failure. (top)

How do I determine the size of my mailbox?

1. Start Outlook.
2. From the Folder List or the Outlook Shortcut Bar, right-click on Outlook Today.
3. Choose Properties.
4. On the General Tab, click the Folder Size button.
5. You can now view the Total Size of your mailbox.
6. This number should be less than 300 MB or 307,200 KB. (top)

What can I do to prevent my mailbox from reaching the quota?

There are many tasks that can help you to manage the size of your mailbox including:

Delete unnecessary items

To delete a single message:
1. Select the message to be deleted
2. Click the Delete button on the toolbar

To delete a group of contiguous messages:
1. Select the first message to be deleted
2. Hold down the [Shift] key
3. Select the last message to be deleted
4. Click the Delete button on the toolbar

To delete a group of non-contiguous messages:
1. Select the first message to be deleted
2. Hold down the [Ctrl] key
3. Select the next item
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all messages to be deleted are selected
5. Click the Delete button on the toolbar (top)

Empty the Deleted Items folder

By default, Outlook stores items that you delete in the Deleted Items folder. You can manually delete the contents of this folder to keep it and your mailbox from getting too big, or you can automatically delete the contents each time you close Outlook.

To delete all messages in the Deleted Items Folder:
1. Right-click on the Deleted Items folder
2. Select Empty Deleted Items Folder

To Automatically Empty the Deleted Items Folder:
1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Other tab.
2. Select the Empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting check box. (This will automatically empty the deleted items folder every time you exit from Outlook)
3. If you want, you can turn off notification before automatically emptying the Deleted Items folder. To do this click on the Advanced Options button and Clear the Warn before permanently deleting items check box. (top)

Empty the Sent Items folder

In addition to empting your deleted items, you should delete any messages in your Sent Items folder that you no longer need. To delete items in your Sent Items folder, follow steps above to delete single, contiguous or non-contiguous messages. (top)

Move or Delete E-mail with Attachments

Attachments often take up a large amount of space in your mailbox. These files can be saved on your computer or on your network drive. To do this:

1. Open an e-mail containing an attachment
2. Right-click the attachment and choose Save As…
3. Select the location you wish to save the file to
4. Click OK.
5. Close and Delete the e-mail (top)

Manage your mailbox size with Mailbox Cleanup

Manage the size of your mailbox to reduce the amount of distracting mailbox clutter and to improve the overall performance of Microsoft Outlook:

1. On the Tools menu, click Mailbox Cleanup.
2. Do any of the following:
     a.View the total size of your mailbox and of individual folders within it.
     b.Find items that are larger than a certain KB size.
     c.Find items older than a certain date.
     d.Archive items using AutoArchive.
     e.View the size of your Deleted Items folder.
     f.Empty your Deleted Items folder. (top)

Filter Junk E-Mail

Outlook 2003 has an introduced an improved Junk E-Mail Filter. In this version of Outlook, you should see a new folder called Junk E-mail in the folder list. The majority of junk e-mail will automatically filter into this folder. The filter does a great job, however, you should periodically check this folder to ensure that there are no valid or legitimate e-mails caught. Once you have reviewed the items in this folder, they should be deleted regularly. (top)

If you do not currently have Outlook 2003 installed on your computer, you can still take advantage of the Junk E-Mail filter. Here's how:

To Enable the Junk E-mail Filter through Weboutlook:

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Go to weboutlook.liu.edu
3. Enter your username and password to Login
4. On the bottom left portion of the window, click on Options

or

5. Scroll down to the Privacy and Junk E-mail Prevention Section.
6. Select the Filter Junk E-mail box.

7. At the top of the page, click on Save and Close.

You have now enabled the Junk E-Mail Filter.

Please be sure to view the contents of this folder often, to ensure that legitimate E-mails are not being missed. (top)

I still need to save more e-mail than my quota allows. How can I?

To keep your mailbox manageable, you may need another place to store, or archive, the old items that are important but not frequently used. You also may choose to automatically move those old items to the archive location. The AutoArchive feature in Outlook can take care of these tasks for you.

If you are interested in setting up the AutoArchive feature, please attend our Microsoft Outlook E-Mail Maintenance Workshop, or call the IT office for assistance. (top)

When I send an e-mail with an attachment, what is the limit on the attachment size?

The largest file you can attach to an e-mail is 20 MB if the e-mail is being sent internally. External e-mails support attachments up to 7 MB. (top)

How many people can I send an e-mail to at one time?

The maximum number of recipients you can send an email to is 50. (top)

Can I store e-mail in my deleted items folder?

You should not save any important email in your deleted items folder.  Any items in this folder that are older than 30 days will automatically be deleted. (top)

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