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Ohio State University logo Office of Information Technology Technology Support Center (8help)

How To Reduce Your Stored OSU E-mail



When you check your OSU e-mail, the mail client downloads a copy of your mail to display. Most mail clients have the option of leaving a copy of the mail on OSU mail server or removing it. Leaving a copy on the mail server can allow you to check the same message from multiple clients or locations. If the messages are never removed from the server, however, this can create a problem as the amount of mail you're storing on the central e-mail system can grow too large to be manageable and you exceed the storage space allotted on our server.

More information about storage limits (quotas) on the central e-mail system can be found here.

Below are instructions for reducing the size of your mail spool by deleting messages from the server, dependent on the program you use to check e-mail:

OSU Webmail
    The easiest way to reduce the amount of mail you're storing on the OSU central e-mail server is through OSU Webmail.

  • Log in to OSU Webmail using your OSU Internet username and password.
  • Delete unwanted messages by placing a checkmark in the box under the Select column for each message.
  • Click the Delete button on the toolbar to place the messages in the Trash.
  • By default, messages in the Trash are automatically deleted when you click Logout in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Alternately, click the Folders tab on the top navigation bar and click the Empty Trash button located next to the Trash folder in the list. If you do not empty messages from the Trash, then the messages will remain in the Trash and will still count against your storage limit.
  • Because OSU Webmail accesses the central e-mail system directly, once messages are deleted from the Trash mailbox, they are no longer stored on the server.

Eudora
  • Hold down shift key (option key on a Macintosh) while selecting "Check Mail" from the File menu. It brings up a window with a number of options on how to check email. The ones that should be "checked" are:
    • Delete messages marked for deletion
    • Delete all messages that have been retrieved
  • Make sure "Using Options at left" is bulleted and your OSU Internet username is highlighted.
  • To permanently make this change on the Macintosh version of Eudora Pro, go to the Special menu, choose Settings and update the Mail Management section of the Checking Mail category.
  • On the Windows version of Eudora Pro, go to Tools, choose Options and make the changes in the Incoming Mail category.

Microsoft Outlook
  • Go to the Tools menu and select Options.
  • On the Other tab, make sure the "Empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting" is checked.
  • On the Auto Archive tab, make sure the "Auto Archive every xx days at startup" is set to no higher than 3
  • Also on the Auto Archive tab, make sure the "Delete expired items when Auto Archive" is checked.
  • Click "OK" or "Apply" before closing

Outlook Express
  • Go to the Tools menu and choose Accounts.
  • Click on the "Mail" tab
  • Double click the listing for your OSU account.
  • Click on the "Advanced" tab and look for a check box that says "Leave a copy of messages on server." Make sure that this is unchecked
  • Click "OK" or "Apply" before closing

Apple Mail for Macintosh OS X
  • Go to the Mail menu and choose Preferences.
  • Highlight the e-mail account to change.
  • Select the Advanced tab.
  • Make sure the line that says "Remove copy from server after retrieving a message:" is checked.
  • To clear all stored mail from the central server, click the "Remove now" button.
  • To prevent stored mail from building up over time on our servers, set the selection box to "After one week" or less, depending on the size and volume of mail you receive.
  • Click "OK" to commit the changes.

Mozilla Thunderbird (Windows)
  • Go to the Tools pull-down menu and select Account Settings.
  • Under the entry for your OSU e-mail account, click Server Settings.
  • In the Server Settings section on the right-hand side of the window, Make sure that the box labeled "Leave messages on server" is NOT checked.
  • Click OK to commit the changes.


Current Record: 619

Create Date: 11-20-2001
Last Reviewed: 04-01-2008
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