My mailbox is full / I’m not receiving email

Check how much space you’re using

Sign into webmail through your Client Area and check the mailbox storage.

You may also be able to see the usage from the Email Accounts section of your hosting account.

If the mailbox is at or close to its limit, that is likely to be why new messages have stopped arriving.

Clear some space

Start with the obvious places:

• Inbox
• Sent
• Junk or Spam
• Trash or Deleted Items
• emails with large attachments

Keep a copy of anything you need for business or record-keeping before deleting it.

Moving something into the Trash does not always free the space straight away. You may need to empty the Trash completely before the storage becomes available again.

Once something is permanently deleted, it may not be recoverable.

Look for large emails first

A small number of emails with large attachments can take up a surprising amount of space.

If your webmail lets you sort messages by size, start with the largest ones.

You may be able to save important attachments somewhere else, then delete the email if you no longer need it in the mailbox.

Test the mailbox again

Once you’ve cleared some space, send a test message to the affected email address from another account.

If it arrives, the mailbox is receiving email again.

Ask senders to try again

If somebody tried emailing you while the mailbox was full, their message may have been rejected.

Clearing space does not necessarily make that original message appear afterwards.

If the sender received a delivery failure, ask them to send the message again.

Need to keep all of the email?

Don’t start deleting business records just to make the warning disappear.

If you genuinely need to keep everything, get in touch and I’ll check what storage options are available for your account.

Also be aware that moving messages into another IMAP folder on the same mailbox usually does not free any storage. The email is still being stored in the same account.

There’s space, but email still isn’t arriving?

If the mailbox isn’t full, check:

• Junk or Spam;
• filters and rules;
• forwarding settings;
• whether the sender received a delivery failure;
• and whether other messages are arriving normally.

If only one sender or one message is affected, the problem may not be the mailbox itself.

Still not working?

Send me:

• the email address affected;
• roughly how much mailbox storage is being used;
• whether other messages are arriving;
• the sender of the missing message;
• roughly when it was sent;
• and any delivery failure or error message.

A screenshot can help.

Don’t send me your password or screenshots containing private email content.