Thread: Emails Overloaded

I cannot receive any emails. Whenever I check, there is a warning that there are too many kilobytes of messages and the account has shut down. The email account has been fine for a long time, I don't know if it is relevant, but Windows was recently reinstalled following an upgrade.

I use Incredimail and contacted them, but the company said it was not its problem. The internet service provider (ISP) said the same thing, so I don't know where to turn next.

The answer is that the computer is not removing emails from the ISP's server when they are read. There are now so many that the limit placed on the account has been reached. This does not mean that either Incredimail or the ISP has a problem - although this is quite a common situation - and it is a shame that neither offered advice on checking for this setting.

Email software such as Incredimail can delete the emails as soon as they are downloaded, leave them untouched or remove them after a short wait. We think the latter option is the best course of action as it keeps the emails there for a little while in case of problems but should avoid the server getting full.

Click on the Tools menu in Incredimail and then on Accounts. Left-click on the email account (most likely there will only be one) and then on the Properties button. Left-click on the Advanced tab and then tick in the boxes labelled 'Leave a copy on the server' and 'Remove from server after 5 days'. This delay can be increased. Click on OK and then Close.

These instructions also work for Outlook Express and Windows Live Mail, although the screens will look a little different. Mozilla Thunderbird has slightly different menu options. Click on the Tools menu and then Account Settings. Left-click on the Server Settings option in the left-hand side of the window that appears to see the option to leave messages on the server.

It is possible that the existing emails will not be removed from the server. If there are still warnings about being over quota, you will need to remove them by hand. Most ISPs offer a webmail interface for email so the emails can be removed from the server without deleting them from Incredimail.