My mailbox is full: how to free up space or increase the quota

How you know the mailbox is full

• You can send, but new email doesn't arrive.
• Senders get a bounce saying "Mailbox full", "Quota exceeded" or "Over quota".
• Webmail shows a storage bar at or near 100%.
• Your email program warns that the mailbox is over quota.

Nothing is lost. Messages already in the mailbox stay. New messages are refused until there is space, and the sender is told.

Step 1: Check how full it is

Webmail: log in at https://yourdomain/webmail. The storage bar is usually in the bottom-left corner or under settings.

cPanel: Email → Email Accounts. The list shows storage used and the limit for each address.

DirectAdmin: E-mail Manager → E-mail Accounts. The list shows usage and quota; E-mail Usage shows more detail.

Step 2: Free up space quickly

Do this in webmail, so the change happens on the server straight away.

1. Empty the Trash and Junk (Spam) folders. Right-click each folder and choose Empty. Deleted mail still counts until the Trash is emptied.
2. Empty or trim the Sent folder. It grows quietly, and attachments you sent count too.
3. Find the biggest messages. In the inbox, sort by size (click the Size column, or choose it from the sort menu). Delete or download the large attachments.
4. Check for old folders such as Archive or Drafts.

If you use IMAP on your devices, deleting in webmail also removes messages from them. If you use POP3, check your email program's setting for leaving a copy on the server. "Leave a copy on the server" forever fills the mailbox; set it to remove copies after 14 or 30 days.

Step 3: Keep older email without keeping it on the server

Move old messages into a local folder on your computer. They stay searchable in your email program but stop counting against the quota.

• Outlook: create a folder under This Computer Only or an Outlook Data File (.pst) and drag messages in.
• Thunderbird: create a folder under Local Folders and drag messages in.
• Apple Mail: create a mailbox under On My Mac.

Back up your computer. Local folders exist only there.

Step 4: Increase the quota

Your hosting plan has a total disk limit shared by your website, email and files. You can give a mailbox any quota up to the space left on the account.

cPanel

1. Go to Email → Email Accounts.
2. Click Manage next to the address.
3. Under Storage, enter a new limit in MB, or choose Unlimited (limited only by the account's disk space).
4. Click Update Email Settings.

DirectAdmin

1. Go to E-mail Manager → E-mail Accounts.
2. Open the menu at the end of the address's row and choose Change Limit/Quota.
3. Set a new E-mail Quota (MB), or choose unlimited if offered.
4. Save.

The change takes effect immediately. Messages that were refused while the mailbox was full may be retried by the sending server and arrive on their own; others will have bounced.

Check the account's total disk space

If raising the quota doesn't help, the whole hosting account may be full.

• cPanel: the sidebar shows Disk Usage. Files → Disk Usage shows what's using it.
• DirectAdmin: the dashboard shows disk usage.

If email is most of it, consider archiving as in Step 3, or upgrading the plan.

Prevent it happening again

• Set a realistic quota for each mailbox and review it yearly.
• Set your email program to empty Trash and Junk automatically.
• Archive each year's email to a local folder in January.
• Don't send large files by email. Share a link instead.

Still stuck?

Open a support ticket and include:

• The email address.
• The usage and quota shown in the control panel.
• The account's total disk usage.
• Whether you've emptied Trash, Junk and Sent.
• A bounce message from a sender, if you have one.