Most email services have a storage limit. It typically ranges from 25GB to 150GB. If you are only sending and receiving text emails, it could take you 10 or more years to reach this limit. However, if you have images or other large attachments, you may reach the storage limit much more quickly. When this happens, you must quickly take action. Here are a few ways to resolve email capacity limit issues.
Option 1 – Delete Emails
The first thing you can do to clear up storage space in your email account is to delete unwanted messages. Start with your spam and trash folders. Most email accounts are configured to move messages to a separate folder rather than permanently delete them. If you don’t empty or purge this folder, you could have thousands of messages there. After emptying/purging, wait a few minutes for your account to update and check whether you have freed up enough space. If not, identify other messages that can be deleted.
Option 2 – Archive Emails Locally
If you’re still at capacity after deleting emails from your account, the next option to consider is archiving messages. Some email services offer archiving at the server level, but this normally costs extra. You can also archive locally using your Outlook. First, create a local email file in Outlook. Then, drag and drop emails or entire folders from your email account (in Outlook) to the archive folders (also in Outlook). This removes those messages from the server and stores them locally on your computer. Be sure to backup this Outlook archive file (or better yet, store it in the cloud).
Option 3 – Create a New Email Account
Among the ways to resolve email capacity issues is to simply create another email account. The tricky part is retaining the same email address. First, rename the current email account to something new (i.e. from firstname@ to firstname2@). This frees up the old account name. Second, create a new email account using your previous email address. Lastly, add both email accounts to your computer and other devices. The alternate email address will give you access to old email history. New emails will be delivered to the new account, which now has full capacity available.
Summary of Ways to Resolve Email Capacity Limit Issues
These are the 3 most popular ways to resolve email capacity limit issues. The first is something that you can easily do yourself. The second and third options may require a little help from your IT support person if you’re not tech savvy. Regardless of which option you choose, it’s important to consider ways to avoid this problem in the future.
If large attachments are the reason why your’e reaching storage capacity so quickly or so often, consider finding another solution for storing these files. For example, instead of keeping them in your email history, save the attachments to a cloud storage folder. In fact, you can send links to this online file instead of attaching it to an email when sharing with others. This is particularly useful with teams since team members can always access the latest version of a document instead of continually emailing revisions back and forth. Click here for additional email tips.
