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• Email at Stanford
• Email Storage Space
• Managing Your Eudora Email Quota

Managing Your Eudora Email Quota

Quota Notification

If you received a notice from IT Services that you have a large amount of email and are approaching your quota, you may lose the ability to receive incoming mail if you do not take action. When an account reaches quota, it automatically stops accepting incoming mail until the size of the file is reduced. Please follow the steps below under Cleaning Up Your Mailspool to avoid problems with your email.

Note: These instructions are for POP accounts. Here is a link to the IMAP homepage.

How Email Files Work

Incoming mail is stored in your assigned "pobox" space on a server. When you read your mail, the messages are downloaded to your personal computer and deleted from the space on the server. This clears storage space on the server and allows fast downloads when you check mail. It also allows fast downloads when you use a program like Webmail to check your mail from other locations.

Note: An alternative to the following procedures in Eudora is to use Webmail, delete the messages you no longer wish to keep, then click "Purge Deleted."

Cleaning Up Your Email File

Windows Users

1. Open Eudora
2. While holding the Shift key down, go to the File menu and select Check Mail. The dialog box will give you several options.
   Note: Your Mail Transfer Options window may look slightly different depending on your version of Eudora.
   
   

   

3. Check Delete all messages that have been retrieved.
   Note: Do not check Delete all messages on server as this will delete all of the email.
4. Click OK.

Macintosh Users

1. Open Eudora.
2. While holding the Option and Command keys down, go to the File menu and select Check Mail Specially. The dialog box will give you several options.

   Note: Your Mail Transfer Options window may look slightly different depending on your version of Eudora.

   

3. Check Delete all messages that have been retrieved.
   Note: Do not check Delete all messages on server as this will delete all of the email.
4. Click OK.

Preventing the Problem

If you need to read mail from more than one computer, use the Leave Mail on Server option. However, this must be used judiciously. Most email programs have an option to leave the mail on the server for a set number of days. Think about how you use your email and decide on a number of days to leave the mail on the server. It should be a short enough period of time to avoid filling up your email quota, but long enough to give you access to messages you need. Five days is recommended.

Windows Users

If you are not checking mail from more than one computer,

1. From the Tools menu, select Options
2. Select Incoming Mail
3. Do not check Leave mail on server
4. Click OK

If you are checking mail from more than one computer,

1. From the Tools menu, select Options
2. Select Incoming Mail
3. Check Leave mail on server
4. Check Delete from server after _ days and specify a reasonable number of days.
5. Click OK

Macintosh Users

If you are not checking mail from more than one computer,

1. From the Special menu, select Settings . . .
2. Select Checking Mail
3. Do not check Leave on server for _ days
4. Click OK

If you are checking mail from more than one computer,

1. From the Special menu, select Settings . . .
2. Select Checking Mail
3. Check Leave mail on server after _ days and specify a reasonable number of days.
4. Click OK

Windows and Mac Users

Note: The Delete from server when emptied from trash option requires your consideration. If you have two computers that you use to access your email—one at home and one at work—you could delete a message that you don't need at home then discover you need it at work. This option should be checked to help you manage your email storage, but be sure you will not need the email again in the future.

Webmail Users

A large amount of email on the server is also a consideration for Webmail users. Webmail downloads all of the email you have stored on the server (not just new mail) each time you log in.

When you use Webmail to read mail from a remote location, do not delete the mail after reading it unless you are sure you will not need it later. It will be removed permanently and you will not be able to download it to your work or home computer at a later time.

Using Webmail to read your email may be too cumbersome if your email storage is large and you reach Stanford via a slow connection. For large email files, this can take many minutes.

Other Email Programs

If you are using an email program other than Eudora, you will still need to make sure that you are not storing excessive amounts of mail. In your mail program's settings or preferences, there will be an option to leave the mail on the server. Follow the guidelines for Eudora in deciding how to set up your email program.