Managing your Exchange Quota

Exchange accounts have 300MB of storage space allocated. This storage limit is also known as your quota. If your quota reaches 275MB, you will receive warning messages reminding you to clean up your mail folders. At 300MB, you will no longer be able to send mail.

1 – This screenshot is a sample Exchange mailbox called HelpDesk. Your mailbox will have your name beside it – Lastname, Firstname. The contents of the Mailbox is stored on the Exchange server.

2 – Personal Folders contain messages that are stored on your computer’s hard drive.

3 – This is an expanded view of the Exchange mailbox showing all of the folders on the Exchange server in the sample account (HelpDesk) mailbox. Your expanded view will probably look different than this as it will show any customized folders that you have created. All of the messages in each of these folders, including Deleted Items, are on the Exchange server and count against the Exchange quota. These messages are accessible using Exchange web access.

4 – This is an expanded view of the Personal Folders. In our sample account, we have a personal folder named “archive”. Your Personal Folder will have one or more folders with varying names. The contents of the Personal Folders are stored on the computer hard drive. These message are not on the Exchange server and do not count against your quota. These messages can only be viewed using Outlook at your computer. These messages are not accessible using Exchange web access.

5 – Clicking the folder button (under Tasks at the bottom, left) will display two options in the Folder List – “Folder Sizes” and “Data File Management”. Make sure you have selected your Mailbox (not your Personal Folders) and click on Folder Sizes. This will display a popup.

6 – Click on the Server Data tab of the Folder Size popup. This displays the Total Size of your Exchange mailbox on the Exchange server. Also, you can see the various sizes of the individual folders. This can assist you in managing your Exchange quota. By noting which folders in your Exchange mailbox are the largest, you can decide where to begin the process of deleting or archiving messages. If you delete messages, remember to empty the Deleted Items folder. Messages in your Deleted Items folders count against your Exchange quote until they are permanently deleted.

If you choose to archive, you can move messages from your Exchange mailbox folders to any of your Personal Folders by dragging and dropping messages using your mouse. This relocates the messages from your Exchange mailbox to your local computer hard drive. Messages in your Personal Folders do not count against your Exchange quota.