Checking Email Storage

Email accounts have storage quotas that limit how much data they can hold. When an email account reaches its quota, it cannot receive new messages and senders will get bounce-back errors. This guide shows you how to check your email storage usage across different platforms.

Checking via cPanel

Method 1: Email Accounts Page

1. Log in to cPanel
2. Navigate to Email > Email Accounts
3. View the list of all email accounts
4. Each account displays:

- Disk Used: Current storage used

- Disk Quota: Maximum allowed storage

- Usage percentage: Visual bar showing how full the account is

Method 2: Email Disk Usage

1. In cPanel, navigate to Email > Email Disk Usage
2. Select the email account to inspect
3. View a detailed breakdown by folder (Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Spam, etc.)
4. Identify which folders are consuming the most space

Tip: The Sent and Trash folders are often overlooked sources of high disk usage. Regularly emptying Trash and archiving old Sent messages can free significant space.

Checking via DirectAdmin

1. Log in to DirectAdmin
2. Navigate to E-Mail Manager > E-Mail Accounts
3. View the quota and usage for each email account
4. Click on an account to see detailed folder-level usage

Checking via Webmail

Roundcube

1. Log in to webmail (typically https://yourdomain.com/webmail)
2. Look at the bottom of the left sidebar — your current quota usage is displayed
3. The format shows: Used MB / Total MB

Horde

1. Log in to Horde webmail
2. Navigate to Mail and check the quota bar at the bottom of the screen
3. Click on it for detailed usage information

Checking via Email Client (IMAP)

Most desktop email clients can show mailbox size:

• Outlook: Right-click the mailbox > Properties > Folder Size
• Thunderbird: Help > Troubleshooting Information > view the Profile folder size
• Apple Mail: Mailbox > Get Account Info

What Happens When Storage Is Full?

When an email account reaches its quota:

1. Incoming messages bounce — senders receive an error like "Mailbox full" or "Over quota"
2. You cannot receive new mail — messages are rejected at the server level
3. You may not be able to send — some servers prevent sending when quota is exceeded
4. Webmail may become slow — large mailboxes affect webmail performance

Freeing Up Email Storage

Quick Cleanup Steps

1. Empty Trash/Deleted Items: This is the fastest way to reclaim space

- In webmail: Right-click Trash > Empty Trash

- In cPanel: Email Disk Usage > Trash folder > Delete

1. Clear Spam/Junk folder: Spam can accumulate hundreds of MB

- In webmail: Right-click Spam/Junk > Empty folder

1. Delete emails with large attachments:

- Sort by size to find the largest emails

- Download important attachments to your computer, then delete the emails

- In Roundcube: Click the attachment column header to sort by attachment size

1. Archive old emails: Move old emails to local folders in your email client

- In Outlook: File > Cleanup Tools > Archive

- In Thunderbird: Right-click folder > Properties > enable Auto-Archive

1. Compact folders: After deleting messages, compact folders to reclaim disk space

- Roundcube: Settings > Compact all folders

- Thunderbird: Right-click folder > Compact

Tip: Emails with attachments consume the most space. A single email with a 10 MB attachment takes 10 MB of your quota. Encourage use of cloud storage links (Google Drive, Dropbox) instead of large attachments.

Setting Up Storage Alerts

In cPanel, you can receive notifications before your mailbox is full:

1. Go to Email > Email Accounts
2. Click Manage next to the account
3. Look for Disk Space Usage Warning settings
4. Enable alerts at 80% and 90% quota usage

Related Articles

• Managing Email Quotas
• Setting Up Email on Desktop
• Troubleshooting Email Issues

Need help managing your email storage? Contact our support team at {{SUPPORT_EMAIL}} or open a ticket at {{SUPPORT_URL}}.