Downloading and deleting mailboxes using the quota tool

The Quota Tool can be used to download and delete entire mailboxes, display real-time quota and usage information, and active e-mail processes for each of your ACCC e-mail accounts. Please note that the term mail folder and mailbox refer to the same thing. An INBOX is a special kind of mail folder.

Mail folders on mailserv

To download a mailserv mail folder, click on the view/download/delete mail folders link on the main diagnostics page. All of the mail folders bigger than 0KB will be listed, sorted by size. Click on the download link to download a specific folder and all of its contents. The downloaded mailbox will be in mbox format.

Mail folders and files on tigger and icarus

To download a mailserv mail folder, click on the download/delete 10 largest files link under Actions. You will see a list of 10 largest files, which will include mail folders. Mail folders will be located in the mail/ directory (example: /homes/home8/adabyron/Junk). The downloaded file will be named netid-account-filename.mbox (example: adabyron-tigger-Junk.mbox). For files other than mail folders, you will have to remove .mbox from the end of the file name (example: rename adabyron-tigger-Photo1.jpg.mbox to adabyron-tigger-Photo1.jpg upon download). Note: Deleting a file in mail/ directory means deleting all contents of that folder

You can open any mailbox using a text processor (Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on a Mac). However, in order to view attachments correctly, you will need to import mailboxes to a desktop e-mail client.

Using Eudora

To view the contents of downloaded mailboxes in Eudora, you will need to:

1. Locate your Eudora folder
   • on a Windows computer, click on Start, then Run and type in: %USERPROFILE%/Application Data/Qualcomm/Eudora. If you have an older installation of Eudora, try C:\Program Files\Qualcomm\Eudora or C:\Program Files\UICNSKit\Eudora (or do a search for "Eudora").
   • on a Mac, open Finder and click on your shortname, then Documents and Eudora Folder. If you have an older installation and can't find the Eudora Folder, try looking in the System Folder
2. Copy the downloaded mailbox file(s) to your Eudora folder
3. Windows users: you will have to rename the mailbox file to use the .mbx extension, in order for Eudora to recognize the new mailbox

Using Mozilla Thunderbird

You can download Mozilla Thunderbird from Mozilla [getthunderbird.com]

1. Close Thunderbird if it is running
2. Locate your Thunderbird profile:
   • On a Windows computer, click on Start, then Run and type in:
     %USERPROFILE%/Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles
   • On a Mac, open Finder, click on your shortname, then Library > Thunderbird > Profiles
3. Your Thunderbird profile folder will be named something like ncr8e8jj.default (if you have more than one profile folder, select the profile you wish to use). Open the folder, then navigate to Mail > Local Folders
4. Copy the downloaded mailbox(es) to the Local Folders directory
5. Open Thunderbird and locate the imported mailboxes under Local Folders

It is possible to get a mailbox back if you delete it in error. The ACCC automatically backs up all new or recently modified files on ACCC servers, including email mailboxes. You won't, however, be able to get back any messages that were added to a mailbox since the last time a server automated backup is done.

You can recover mailboxes and files on tigger and icarus using the dsmc command. If you need assistance or need to recover mailboxes on mailserv, contact systems@uic.edu as soon as possible. Indicate the server, mail folder name and the date that you deleted it.