Knowledge Base

If your mailbox is full, it's likely that your email program isn't removing mail from the server, or the time mail is left on the server is too long.  Webmail also stops working and shows errors, as there is no space for temporary files required by webmail to be created or updated.

Instructions on how to rectify this are below.  Note... if you have set up your email program to use IMAP, the only way to resolve this issue is in cPanel by either increasing the mailbox size, or removing mail.  Instructions on how to do this can be found at the bottom of this page.

Microsoft Outlook 2010 / 2013

1. From the Menu Bar, Click the "File" tab.
2. Click the Info tab on the left and select "Accounts Settings". Click "Account Settings".
3. Select your Email account then Click "Change".
4. Click "More settings".
5. Select the "Advanced" tab.
6. In the section titled, "Delivery", tick the box beside "Leave a copy of messages on the server".
7. Tick the box beside "Remove from server after" and change it to "5 days".
8. Tick the box next to "Remove from server when deleted from deleted items".
9. Click "Ok", click "Next" then click "Finish".
10. Quit Outlook and then re-open it.  Mail should be removed from the server clearing up space for you to receive more mail.

Microsoft Outlook 2007 and earlier

1. From the Menu Bar, Click Tools then Click E-mail Accounts.
2. Select "View or change existing e-mail accounts" then Click "Next"
3. Select your Email account then click "Change".
4. Click "More settings".
5. Select the "Advanced" tab.
6. In the section titled, "Delivery", tick the box beside "Leave a copy of messages on the server".
7. Tick the box beside "Remove from server after" and change it to "5 days".
8. Tick the box next to "Remove from server when deleted from deleted items".
9. Click "Ok", click "Next" then click "Finish".
10. Quit Outlook and then re-open it.  Mail should be removed from the server clearing up space for you to receive more mail.
    
    
    

Thunderbird

1. From the Menu Bar, click "Tools", then "Account Settings".
2. This will bring up the Account Settings window where you can click on "Server settings" under the affected account.
3. Back in the middle of the window in the "Server settings" section, tick "Leave messages on server".
4. Tick "For at most" and change it to "5 days".
5. Tick "Until I delete them".
6. Click OK.
7. Click "Get mail" at the top of the window.
8. When Thunderbird has completed getting mail, Quit Thunderbird and then re-open it.
   
   
   

Mac Mail

1. From within Mac Mail Click "Mail -> Preferences", then "Accounts".
2. On the left, select the affected account.
3. On the right of the screen, choose "Advanced".
4. Tick the box next to "Remove copy from server after retrieving a message".
5. Select "After 1 week".
6. Click the "Remove now" button.
7. Close the window, making sure you save your changes.
8. Quit Mail and then re-open it.

Increasing your mailbox size in cPanel

1. Log in to cPanel using the main administrator username and password provided to you in your setup email
2. Click on "Email Accounts" section
3. Click "Manage" next to the account you want to update
4. Increase the "Allocated Storage Space" amount, or select "Unlimited".
5. Click the "Update Email Settings" button
6. Once you have added some space, your email program will need to be restarted to work and you should then be able to continue your cleanup in your email program.
   
   
   

Removing mail using cPanel

Please note:  You should only remove mail using cPanel as a last resort, and only if you are determined to use IMAP rather than POP3 to access your email.  If you are using POP3 in your email program, please refer to the instructions above.

1. Log in to cPanel using the main administrator username and password provided to you in your setup email
2. Click on "Email Accounts" section
3. Click "Manage" next to the account you want to clean up
4. Click to option on the right to Free up Email Storage
5. You will see you can clean up you email folders here.  There is an option to delete mail more than 1 year old, or larger than 30MB.  Another option here is Custom query, which allows you to customize your removal option with the Dovecot search query format. For example, to remove all messages larger than 3MB, select this option and enter larger 3M in the text box. For more information about how to use the Dovecot search query format, read Dovecot’s Search Query Format documentation.
6. Once you have cleared up a few megabytes, your email program will need to be restarted to work and you should then be able to continue your cleanup in your email program.