A 50GB quota will soon be enforced on all UCT mailboxes.

  • If your mailbox is currently under 45GB, you don’t need to take any action for now.
  • If your mailbox 45GB or more in size, you will receive warnings that you’re approaching the new limit. Follow the recommendations below to reduce your usage. 
  • If your mailbox is already 50GB or more in size, then please reduce your usage to comply with the new quotas. Mailboxes that are still over quota by the deadline will be subject to send and receive restrictions.  ICTS will, however, send additional communication to assist you with reducing your usage.

Recommendations to reduce your usage

 

  • Check your mailbox size.
  • Delete unnecessary emails, especially those that contain large attachments.
  • Use filters to identify and manage large or old emails
  • Empty Deleted Items and Junk Email folders
  • Unsubscribe from unwanted emails, newsletters and mailing lists
  • Archive emails
    • Online archiving (UCT retention policy)
    • Manual archiving emails to your online archive
  • Use OneDrive or SharePoint to share large UCT-related attachments, instead of emailing it to recipients. Insert the link to the online document in your email and bypass the email size limit restriction.  The recipient can then download the file directly from OneDrive or SharePoint.

Check Your Mailbox Size

(Outlook Classic)
  1. Click the File tab.
  2. Select
    outlook-info
    Info > Tools > Mailbox Cleanup > View Mailbox Size.
    • Note: In some instances, there may be a bar next to the Tools button, displaying how much storage you still have available.
      available-mailbox-size
  3. Review the size of each folder and identify large folders to clean up.
Outlook (New) and Web App (OWA)

In the View tab, select 

Outlook-new-settings

 Settings > Account > Storage. 

Your available storage space is displayed. 

Delete unnecessary emails

There are two methods to reduce your mailbox size.

Use filters to identify and manage large or old emails
  1. Filter and sort emails by date or size using the filter option at the top of your inbox.
  2. Download and store important attachments in OneDrive, SharePoint, or a UCT appropriate network drive if you may need it in future. 
    • Open the email containing a large attachment. 
    • Right-click the attachment and select Upload or Save as to OneDrive, SharePoint, or a UCT network drive.
  3. Delete emails that are no longer needed after saving important attachments.
    • Right-click the attachment and select Remove Attachment.
  4. Once you're done, empty your Deleted Items folder to free up space in your mailbox.

OR

Use the Outlook Mailbox Cleanup tool available for Outlook (Classic) to check Find items older than or Find items larger than options. 

  1. Click the File tab.
  2. Select Info > Tools > Mailbox Cleanup.
  3. Select one of the two options:
    • Find items older than: set the amount of days and select Find.
    • Find items larger than: set the number to 5120 and select Find.
      • Note: emails that are larger than this size will be listed in your mailbox. Use the sort filter to view the various email sizes. Save large attachments that you still require following the instructions above.

Empty Deleted Items and Junk Email folders

All emails that are older than 30 days are automatically deleted from your Deleted Items. However, you can also manually clear this folder by right clicking on Deleted Items and selecting Empty folder. 

The same process can be followed for your Junk Email folder. 

OR

Use the Outlook Mailbox Cleanup tool available for Outlook (Classic) to view and empty the Deleted items folder. 

  1. Click the File tab.
  2. Select Info > Tools > Mailbox Cleanup.
  3. Select Empty > Yes to continue.  
    • Note: Everything in the Deleted Items folder will be permanently deleted.

Unsubscribe from unwanted emails, newsletters and mailing lists

Reduce inbox clutter by unsubscribing from emails you no longer read.

Open subscription emails and click Unsubscribe in the email body or footer. Alternatively, create a rule to automatically move them to Deleted Items.

Archive emails 

There are several ways to archive messages in Outlook. At UCT, we advise using the online archiving method to reduce your mailbox size.

All emails that are older than five years have been automatically moved to your online archive as part of UCT’s mailbox retention configurations. These emails no longer appear in your Inbox. You will need to access your Outlook mailbox online and navigate to your Personal Archive folder to view these older emails.    

Manually archiving emails to your online archive

  1. Navigate to Outlook online at outlook.office365.com.   
  2. In the left column scroll down to Personal Archive and right-click Archive.  
  3. Click New Folder and rename it.  
  4. Go to your mailbox and select the relevant items.  
  5. Right-click on the selected items and click Move.  
  6. Select the newly created folder.