How to fix mailserv quota problems with WebMail

This Web page explains how to fix quota problems on mailserv email accounts using WebMail.

If you only use WebMail, then all the email that you keep, including copies of the messages you send and the copies of the messages you are deleting during your current WebMail session, is kept on the server, mailserv in this case. Because WebMail is a Web-based email program, it does not have access to the disk storage of the computer your Web browser is running on. (You wouldn't want any random Web page to be able to write something on your personal computer's hard disk without your telling it to, would you?)

There are exceptions, however. You can use WebMail to download attachments. In fact, WebMail is quite good at downloading attachments. And you can save copies of individual email messages the same way you'd keep a copy of any other Web page you visit. But that saves each email message in a separate HTML file, which isn't either efficient or particularly useful.

Note on mail folders and mail folders: Some email programs and tools talk about "mail folders" and others talk about "email mailboxes " -- they are exactly the same thing. We use "mail folders" in this Web page because that's what WebMail calls them.

For more information on WebMail, see WebMail: ACCC Email on the Web.

When you use WebMail, you have at least three mail folders on the server:

• Your INBOX.
• A sent-mail folder. WebMail keeps copies of the messages that you send in this folder. (If you also use pine, your WebMail sent-mail is the same folder as your pine sent-mail folder).
• A deleted folder; WebMail keeps copies of the messages that you've deleted during this session messages in this folder. Webmail automatically empties this folder when you log out of Webmail and when you log in.
• You can delete the messages yourself at any time by:
  • Click (refresh folder list) in the blue folder frame.
• Click the (purge) link beside deleted.

You could have additional folders that you created yourself.

On mailserv, all your mailboxes -- your INBOX and all your other mailboxes -- contribute to your single mail/disk quota.

The warning email messages and bouncing of new incoming email when you go over quota on mailserv applies to everything you keep on mailserv -- your INBOX folder, your sent-mail folder, and even your deleted folder. The only way to solve your quota problems on Mailserv is to delete messages from the server.

You can save copies of individual email messages in WebMail the same way you'd keep a copy of any other Web page you visit, which saves each email message in a separate HTML file. This isn't efficient or particularly useful.

Your quota messages will include a link to the Email Diagnostics Quota Tool that you can use to list your ten largest messages and what folders they are in and you can get similiar information in WebMail. If you don't have a few really large messages that you can get rid of, then your best bet is to download copies of entire WebMail mail folders to your personal computer or a diskette, including your INBOX folder, and then delete all or most of the messages in those folders from mailserv. (Or the complete folder, if that's appropriate.) Use the ACCC's mail folder download/delete Web tool to download and delete entire mail folders from the server; see Using the ACCC Email Diagnostics Tool to Check Quotas, Download, and Delete for more information.

1. If you don't have antivirus software with real time file protection running, download and install Norton AntiVirus and make sure it's running and watching all file types.
   
   
2. If you'd like to download copies of your IMAP folders to your personal computer, including your Inbox, use the ACCC's email folder download and delete Web tool to download and delete entire folders from the server; see Downloading or Deleting Entire Mailboxes with the ACCC Email Tools Diagnostics Page.
   
   
3. But, if there are any attachments in the folders that you want to keep, log into Webmail and download the attachments first. They won't be useable in the downloaded folder.
   
   
4. Login to WebMail: https://webmail.uic.edu/src/login.php
   
   
5. First take care of your Inbox folder: Download the attachments that you want to keep, but only if you know the person who sent you the attachment meant to send it to you (it's not at all obsessive to ask them) and only if you really want to keep the attachment, download the attachment(s) and then delete the message. See Receiving Attachments -- and an Important Warning in Webmail Tasks.
   
   In Webmail message indexes, messages with attachments have a paperclip icon beside the envelope that tells you whether the message has been read.
   
   
6. Squirrel Webmail displays attachments as Web links, in a gray Attachments: box below the text of the message. There are two links for each attachment. What exactly happens when you click on either link depends on what browser you are using, but in general:
   
   • If you click on the attachment's name, wiping.doc, Red 1 in Figure 1 below, it will open. Not necessarily a good idea.
   • If you click on the download link, Red 2 in Figure 1 below, your operating system's download dialog box will open. This is the better idea because it will allow your virus checker to have a chance to check the attachment over before you open it.

     Opening an attachment does not delete it from the server nor does it automatically save the attachment on your disk. You have to make sure that you save it if you want it and that you delete the message containing it from the server to delete the attachment.

   Figure 1: Using the Windows Right-Click Menu to save an attachment

    

7. If you want to save a copy of the message that the attachment came with, forward the message -- without the attachment -- back to yourself.
   1. While you have the original message open, click the Forward link, the first of the third group of links in the second gray bar from the top (figure 1). This opens the Compose frame (below).
      
      
   2. By default, the attachment will still be attached to the note you are forwarding, but in the gray area at the bottom of the frame, you'll find the name of the attachment(s) with a checkbox beside them, with a button below: Delete selected attachments.
      
      
   3. Click in each box to select all the attachments, then click the Delete selected attachments button. (The red arrow in the screen shot below.)
      
      
   4. Then send the message to yourself without the attachment(s).
      
      
8. Delete all messages that you don't need any more, especially the messages with the attachments. Downloading attachments doesn't remove either the attachments or the email messages they came with from the server.
   
   
   1. To delete a message from a folder Message list, click in the box beside a message's From: address then click the Delete button at the upper right.
      
      
   2. If you're deleting all or most of the listed messages, click Toggle All to select all the messages. If you want to keep some of the messages on the server, click in the box beside those message's From: address to deselect them.
      Then click Delete.
      
      
      
9. By default, WebMail only lists 15 email messages at a time, so be sure to click on Next when you get to the bottom of an index page until you go through the entire list of messages in the mail folder.
   
   
1. If you'd like to see the largest messages in a mailbox, click twice on the gray box beside the Size column label in the yellow header row on the right-hand side. The gray box will change to a blue down-facing triangle, and then all the email messages in the mailbox will be sorted by decreasing size, with the largest at the top.
   
   
   
2. If you're deleting all the messages in the folder, click Show All, then Toggle All, then Delete (see above). I have used this to delete 967 messages at once, and it only took moments. That's really cool. Click Paginate when you're finished to turn back on Webmail's default page by page display.
   
   
   
   
10. Go through each of your folders and repeat steps 5 through 9 above. To open a folder -- that is, to list the messages in the folder -- select its name from Folder list in the blue frame that's always on the left regardless of where you are in Webmail. You use any folder's Message lists exactly the same way as you would the INBOX folder's message list.
    
    Which folders should you start with? You no longer have to go the Mail tools diagnostics quota page to see which folders and messages are the largest; you can now get this information through WebMail. You can display the size of WebMail folders, select a large folder for display, and then sort the messages in that folder by email message size.
    
    1. Log in to WebMail and click the Folder Sizes button at the bottom of your Folders list in the blue column on the left-hand side of your screen. The Folders Sizes table will be displayed on the right side of the screen.
    2. Check the Size column on the right. If one or two folders are considerably larger than the rest, it's very possible that you have email in them that have large attachments. Take care of that email and your quota problem might be solved.
    3. To open a specific folder, double-click on its name, either in the Folders list on the left, or in the Folder Sizes table on the right.
    4. Then sort the messages in the folder by email message size.
       
       
11. In the new Webmail you don't actually have to worry about deleting the email in your deleted folder. Webmail will automatically delete it when you logoff from Webmail -- by clicking the Sign Out link in the upper-right corner -- or when you log back into it. Or you can click the (Purge) link beside the deleted folder.
    
    
12. Be sure to check your quota again when you're finished to make sure you're really back under your quota.