You are reading this article because your mailbox has exceeded, or is close to exceeding, its storage allowance and this may prevent you from receiving new emails.
What to Do When Your Mailbox Is Full
Our standard mailbox allowance is 25GB per mailbox, which is more than enough for most users. However, if you have used the same mailbox for many years, stored large attachments, or kept thousands of sent emails, your mailbox can eventually reach its storage limit.
When a mailbox is full, people sending you emails may receive a bounce-back message and new mail may not be delivered.
Important: Email is not a file storage system. Email is primarily a communication tool. Sending or storing large attachments, especially anything over 1MB, can quickly consume mailbox space.
For large files, we recommend sending a link using a file sharing service such as WeTransfer, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or similar platforms.
Table of Contents
Available Options
If your mailbox is full, there are usually three practical options:
Option 1
DIY Cleanup
Free option for users who are comfortable deleting old or large emails.
Option 2
Archive Account Creation
A paid archive mailbox is created so old emails remain accessible separately.
Option 3
Archive Account + Management
A managed service where we help move selected older or larger emails to an archive mailbox.
Note: Archive account pricing and managed service fees depend on your current email platform, mailbox size, and the amount of work required.
Option 1, DIY Cleanup
This option is ideal for users who do not mind permanently deleting older emails or large attachments.
What You Do
- Log in to webmail
- Review folders such as Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, and Junk
- Sort emails by size where possible
- Delete large or unnecessary messages
- Empty Deleted Items / Trash afterwards
The usual culprit is often the Sent Items folder because users regularly send large attachments and forget they remain stored in the mailbox.
Pros
- Free option
- Space is freed immediately
- No interruption to your email account
Cons
- Deleted emails may be permanently lost
- You must decide what to remove
- It can take time if the mailbox is very large
Important: If the mailbox is so full that webmail will not load correctly, we may be able to assist with initial purging, but this may be treated as chargeable support depending on the work required.
Option 2, Archive Account Creation
This option is ideal for users who need continued access to old emails but do not mind starting again with a clean, empty primary mailbox.
Example
Assume the full mailbox is:
info@mydomain.com
We may rename the full mailbox to:
info.archive@mydomain.com
Then create a new empty mailbox:
info@mydomain.com
You would then receive login details for both accounts.
Pros
- Space is immediately freed on the main account
- Older emails remain available in the archive account
- The main address continues to receive new mail
Cons
- The main account starts empty
- Previous folder structure on the main account is no longer present
- Phones, desktops, and mail clients may need to resync
- If you add the archive mailbox to devices, it may need to download/synchronise a large amount of mail
Option 3, Archive Account + Management
This option is for users who want to retain access to old emails while keeping the current mailbox structure as intact as possible.
Example Process
Assume the full mailbox is:
info@mydomain.com
- We create a new archive mailbox, for example info.archive@mydomain.com
- We configure both mailboxes on a dedicated transfer environment
- We move selected large or older emails from the main mailbox to the archive mailbox
- We allow the mail server to synchronise changes
- We may organise older mail by year or folder where practical
- We verify that the main account has recovered usable mailbox space
Pros
- Space is freed on the main account
- Older emails remain available through the archive account
- You do not lose important historical mail
- The main account structure can often remain largely intact
Cons
- This is a manual, chargeable service
- Large mailboxes can take many hours to process
- If the archive account is added to devices, it may need to resync
- Exact folder structure preservation cannot always be guaranteed
Why We Charge for Managed Archive Work
Managed archive work requires manual intervention, mailbox preparation, synchronisation monitoring, and post-transfer checks.
This process may require a dedicated transfer environment and can take many hours depending on mailbox size, folder structure, server speed, and the volume of large attachments.
This is not an automatic one-click task. It is manual technical work and is therefore chargeable.
Final Notes
Recommendation: Regularly review large attachments, Sent Items, Deleted Items, and old mail folders before your mailbox reaches its limit.
Article last updated on 18/04/2025.