Handling Oversized Mailboxes

This page explains how we handle uncomfortably large email folders as described on the EmailManagement page.

Weekly Sweep

Every Sunday between 4am and 6am, we scan the email servers to find unusually large mailboxes.

If a mailbox is larger than 4000 messages, we send a message informing the large mailbox user describing the problem and the solution we're providing. The content of the first message is as follows:

From: LTS Tech Desk <itservice@brandeis.edu>
To: Joseph Schmo <joeschmo@brandeis.edu>
Subject: Large mailbox renaming

Dear Joseph Schmo  -
Your inbox or sent message count has surpassed the allowable limit. In order
to improve the performance of your email application you will need to
transfer messages to a new folder, or delete them if they are unneccessary.
We will move your entire folder automatically 3 weeks from tonight or you
can contact the Tech Desk at x67782 to assist you with it sooner. Once the
folder has been renamed, click on the following link to get instructions on
finding the new folder:

http://lts.brandeis.edu/techresources/accounts/email/oversizedmailboxes.html

Please feel free to contact the Tech Desk (x67782) if you have questions.

Regards,
Tech Desk
x67782

This policy applies to all folders, though the current implementation will only affect INBOX and sent-mail (Sent, Sent Items, Sent Mail...) in practice.

Reaction of Email Clients

Not all email programs react kindly to large mailboxes being moved underneath them. If it looks like the messages in your inbox have disapeared, fear not they're still readily available to you; call (x6SRVC) and we'll help you find the messages. Follow the following instructions, depending on the program you use to check your email, to see your archived inbox messages. You should check this newly created folder to see any new email delivered before the mailbox was renamed

Pine

Pine will recognize the change automatically.

Webmail

IMP Webmail will recognize the change after you log out and log back in.

Thunderbird 1.5.0.2, Mozilla 1.7.5

Thunderbird and Mozilla both will not show the change automatically.

1. Collapse the list of folders by click on the minus symbol (-)
2. 
   
   
   
   
3. Expand the list of folders by clicking on the plus symbol (+)
4. 
   
   

• The folder change should now be visible.

Netscape 4 through Netscape 7, Mozilla suite < 1.75

Netscape will recognize the shrunken INBOX automatically.

Whether you see the newly created archived mailboxes depends on the setting of Edit/Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings/(account)/Server Settings/Advanced/Show only subscribed folders.

If this is checked, I would suggest *un*checking it, which has the effect of displaying all available folders. If you actually want the subscriptions feature to squelch some folders from view, then in order to see new folders, you must choose "Subscribe" from the "File" menu.





I've never met anyone who actually wants to use Subscribe, though. It is best to turn it off under Server Settings/Advanced.



With Thunderbird, the "Show only subscribed folders" defaults to off.

OS X Mail on 10.3

OS X Mail caches everything by default (headers, bodies, attachments).

1. Close the application (Mail.app)
   
   
2. Open the application (Mail.app)

The folder change should now be visible.

Outlook Express 6

Outlook Express 6 does not refresh the list automatically.

1. Right click on the account name of your imap account (Usually imap.XXX.brandeis.edu)
2. Choose Imap Folders from the menu.
3. 
   
   
   
   
4. Find the newly created folder (inbox.YYYY.MM.DD or Sent-mail.YYYY.MM.DD)
5. Select the folder then press the "show" button on the right.
6. 
   
   
   
   
7. You may need to click "reset list" to make the folder visible in the list
8. 
   
   

The folder change should now be visible.

Eudora

When this change happens in Eudora, the mail in the renamed folder becomes unreadable.

1. Select "resynchronize mailbox" from the context menu to show the new contents.
2. 
   
   
   
   
3. Select "refresh mailbox list" from the context menu to show the new folder.
4. 
   
   

Outlook 2003

When this change happens in Outlook, it shows a dialog box with the message "server has disconnected."

1. Select "update folder list" from the context menu (i.e., right-click on folder).

The folder change should now be visible.

This page was last modified on: Oct 01, 2007