Staff Email - Email Quotas
All users of the Microsoft Exchange email service for staff are given an email quota of 1GB (1000MB). As you approach this limit you will be automatically emailed and prompted to reduce the amount of data in your Exchange account. Requests to increase a user's quota on the Exchange server can not be accommodated and so each user is strictly limited to 1GB. Where extra storage space is required, users of Outlook or Entourage can make use of the AutoArchive feature and/or setup additional local personal folders to store data locally on their computers.
Checking Your Quota Usage
Check Quota from any Web Browser
Probably the easiest way to check your current usage is to click the following link to check your quota usage online. You will need to enter your College username and network login password when prompted and then click the button 'Click this button - ONLY ONCE AND WAIT - for your quota status to be displayed'.
Check Quota Using IE on PC
If you use Internet Explorer on PC you may check your quota by logging in to Outlook Web Access (OWA) at https://go.tcd.ie. On the left, hover the mouse pointer over your name and you will get a report of how much space you have used, as below.
Check Quota Using Outlook on PC
If you use Outlook on a PC you can check your quota usage by right-clicking on the listing for 'Mailbox - Joe Bloggs' at the top of your folder list on the left. Choose Properties for 'Mailbox - Joe Bloggs' and then click the Folder Size button. You will get a report including the 'Total Size', listed in KBs. Your quota of 1GB is roughly equivalent to 1,000,000 KBs.
Check Quota using Entourage on Mac
If you use Entourage on a Mac then choose the listing for 'Exchange Account' from the folder list on the left. Then choose Edit - Folder Properties from the main menu. Choose the 'Storage' tab, as below. You will get a report including the 'Total size (with subfolders)', listed in KBs. Your quota of 1GB is roughly equivalent to 1,000,000 KBs.
How to Avoid Exceeding Your Quota
You should take the following steps to prevent you exceeding your email quota:
- Delete Large Emails. Order your email according to size. If you click
on the 'size' option your mail will be sorted in descending order
with the biggest mails first. Attachments contain pictures, audio
or media clips will be space intensive and will use up your storage
quickly. You should save these attachments to your local computer and then delete the email.
Remember to check all your email folders, not just your Inbox, for large emails.
- Delete Unnecessary Emails. Only keep what you really need. Remember that when you delete a message you are only placing it
in the Deleted Items folder and items in this folder still take up quota space so you should any delete items from this folder too. You can recover permanently deleted emails for up to 14 days.
- Use Outlook AutoArchive. If you use Outlook on your computer you should consider using the AutoArchive feature. This feature moves email older than a specified time to a local folder on the user's PC, thereby reducing the quota space in use on the Exchange server.
- Regularly Empty the Deleted Items folder. Items in the Deleted Items folder are automatically removed after 90 days. Remember that you can recover deleted emails for up to 14 days. To help avoid exceeding your quota you can configure Outlook to automatically empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting by choosing 'Tools - Options - Other' and checking the box for 'Empty the deleted items folder upon exiting'. In Outlook Web Access a similar setting is available by choosing 'Options - Deleted Items' and checking the box 'Empty the Deleted Items folder on logoff'. In Entourage you can choose 'Tools' - 'Run Schedule' - 'Empty Deleted Items Folder'.