Why am I receiving a message saying my Email is "Over Quota"?

The Notre Dame e-mail service implements a "soft" IMAP quota. When you exceed your "soft quota", you have a 14 day grace period in order to delete or archive messages. If you remain over your soft quota after this grace period, all incoming email will be rejected until you delete or archive enough messages to get below your quota again.

• Officer/Faculty/Staff: Soft quota limit = 250 MB; Hard quota limit = 1000 MB
• Grad Student: Soft quota limit = 250 MB; Hard quota limit = 1000 MB
• Undergraduate Students/NONND Affiliates/Departmental Accounts: Soft quota limit = 100 MB; Hard quota limit = 500 MB

How Can I Get Under My Email Quota?

In order to get under your quota limit, try the following steps:

1. Login to Webmail (http://webmail.nd.edu) with your NetID and password, even if this is not the email program you normally use.
2. Click on the "Empty Trash" icon to delete the messages in your trash folder.
3. If you are still over quota, you need to change your delete options before you proceed:
   1. Click on "Options" at the top of the screen.
   2. Choose "Deleting and Moving Messages" in the second column under "Mail Management".
   3. Uncheck the second box that reads "When deleting messages, move them to your Trash folder instead of marking them as deleted?"
   4. Click "Save Options", then return to your Inbox (or choose another folder to view by clicking on the "Folders" option at the top of the screen).
4. In your Inbox (or other folder), click on the size column on the far right side to see the largest email first. Often it is not the number of emails, but the size of the attachments in them that take up so much space.
5. Delete messages:
   1. Choose large emails you would like to delete by checking the  box next to the message(s) and clicking "Delete". These messages will now appear with a dark background, a trash can next to the message, and a line running through the message information. 
   2. To permanently delete these messages, click on "Purge Deleted".
6. You will want to do this for each email folder that you have, including your "Inbox", "Outbox", "Sent", and "Drafts" folders to see if there are any hidden large emails that need to be deleted. Your email Quota should then show a reduction.

*If you are still over quota after following all of these steps, please contact the OIT Help Desk at 631-8111 for further assistance