Cyrus Quota ManagementWhat is a quota and why Cyrus has a message store quota, which is a limit on the total size of messages that can be stored on the server. This includes all folders (except "JunkMail" created automatically for new accounts.) This quota is primarily meant to avoid a starvation of resources that might otherwise prevent large numbers of individuals from getting new mail. IR created an application to allow Cyrus users to see the storage usage of all their folders using: https://www.utdallas.edu/ir/tools/imapquota/ Impact of attachments on quotas Messages containing binary attachments (like Word docs) have to be encoded as entirely plain text characters. This translation, referred to as MIME encoding (MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), is required because the mail delivery between servers is defined to only use non-binary characters. The thing to remember about MIME attachments is that they are considerably larger than the original binary file. So a Word doc can easily grow to 2x's or 3x's it's original size as a MIME attachment. Marked delete vs actual deletion Some mail clients come by default with the feature to save deleted messages into a Trash folder. On one hand this can be convenient because you can easily retrieve a message that was accidentally deleted. However, it is important to understand how this functions on the IMAP server. When a message is deleted, it is actually COPIED to the Trash folder first before it is removed from it's original location. If you are already over your message store quota, this copy will likely fail, making it impossible to delete the message. Instead, with Thunderbird (including Mozilla and Netscape clients), you can turn off the Trash folder feature. You'll need to access the server settings for your account, then where it says "When I delete a message", change that from "Move it to the Trash folder" to either "Remove it immediately" (good if you have to clear space out quickly) or to "Mark it as deleted". If you choose this last setting, to finally remove deleted messages, you'll need to select File->Compact Folders. Alternatively, you can right-click (CTRL-click on Mac) on that folder to bring up a pop-up window, then select Compact This Folder. | |||
