Original article sent from Information Technology Services at UMSL.

Tips for Reducing Mailbox Size

If you are looking for ways to reduce your mailbox size, stay more organized, and eliminate redundant email messages, below are some tips to assist with effectively managing email. For information on the UM System email management policy, see this link.

For Windows Users:

• The Mailbox Cleanup tool lets you view the size of your mailbox and individual folders and search for large messages you might want to delete. For more information about the Mailbox Cleanup Tool, see Manage My Mailbox Size.
• The Conversation Clean Up feature reduces the number of messages in your folder by removing redundant messages. To learn more about this feature and how to remove redundant messages, see the Conversation Clean Up feature.
• Sorting emails using the size column feature in your Inbox allows you to manage the size of your messages and locate the ones that are taking up space. If not already present, you can add the Size column to your Inbox view ribbon so that you know the size of each of your messages. To learn more, see the Add or Remove columns in the Inbox.
• To help de-clutter email messages, create folders to organize. (In the left pane of Mail, right-click where you want to add the folder, then click New Folder. In the Name box, enter a name for the folder, and press Enter.)
• Use advanced search options to identify older emails that should be deleted.
• Empty the Deleted Items folder and the Junk Email folder frequently to make sure you aren’t keeping messages you don’t need.

For Mac Users:

In the Mail app on your Mac, do any of the following:

• Delete large messages or messages with attachments or move the messages to a mailbox on your Mac. Tip: To quickly identify large messages, choose View > Sort By, then choose Size. Delete attachments that you saved.
• Use advanced search in Outlook for Mac to identify older emails that should be deleted or messages of a larger size that can be deleted. You can always remove attachments and save them to your OneDrive if you need to keep them.
• Empty your Deleted Items. To remove items in Deleted Items, first click on the Deleted Items mailbox, then go up to Edit > Delete All. You can also right-click on the mailbox and click Empty Folder.