In Microsoft Outlook 2002, 2003, and 2007 for Windows, what can I do about an "exceeding" or "over size limit" message?

An error message such as "your mailbox is over its size limit" indicates that you have exceeded your Exchange server quota. Exchange accounts at Indiana University have a default quota of 500MB.

For more information about Exchange quotas, see At IU, what is the default quota of my Exchange mailbox, and what happens when I exceed it?

You can check your disk quota by using the mailbox cleanup tool in Outlook 2002, 2003, or 2007. (This tool is not available in prior versions of Outlook.)

1. From the Tools menu, select Mailbox Cleanup... .
   
   
2. Click the View Mailbox Size... (Outlook 2003 and 2007) or Click Here (Outlook 2002) button to view your usage.

Following are suggestions to help you stay within your Exchange quota:

• Check the Deleted Items folder
  
• Check for large messages and attachments
  
• Archive old items
  
• Request a quota increase

Check the Deleted Items folder

Any mail you've deleted from your Inbox (or any other folder) is not really gone until you empty the Deleted Items folder:

• To delete individual messages in the Deleted Items folder, select the appropriate message, and click the Delete button on the toolbar (it looks like an "X").
  
  
• To empty the entire Deleted Items folder, from the Tools menu, select Empty "Deleted Items" Folder.

If you wish, you can set Outlook to automatically delete items in the Deleted Items folder upon exiting. To do so:

1. Within Outlook, from the Tools menu, select Options... .
   
   
2. Click the Other tab.
   
   
3. In the window that appears, select the checkbox that says Empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting.

Check for large messages and attachments

To search for messages and attachments over a specified size, follow the directions below to use Advanced Find:

1. From the Tools menu, choose Mailbox Cleanup... .
   
   
2. Click the radio button Find items larger than. You can leave the default value of 250 kilobytes or increase it to narrow your search to larger messages. (1024 kilobytes equals 1 megabyte.)
   
   
3. Click Find... .
   
   
4. In the Advanced Find window, click View, then Arrange By, and then Size.

Now that you have a list of messages in the Advanced Find window that are over a certain size, you must choose what you want to do with those messages:

• You can delete them by right-clicking each message in the Advanced Find window and choosing Delete.

  Note: This option will move the message to the Deleted Items folder, but you will need to empty that folder to reduce your overall quota.

• You can open each message, save its attachment(s) to a local folder, and then remove the attachment(s) from the message. This will allow you to keep the email message without the attachment counting against your Exchange quota. Below are the steps for this procedure:
  
  
  1. In the Advanced Find window, double-click the message.
  2. Right-click the attachment(s), and click Save As... .
  3. Browse to the folder you would like to save the attachment in, and click Save.
  4. Right-click the attachment(s), and click Remove.
  5. From the message's File menu, select Save to save the message without the attachment(s).
  
  
• You can move messages over a certain size to a personal folder file within Outlook. (For more information about personal folders, see In Microsoft Outlook 2002, 2003, and 2007, what are personal folder files, and how do I create them?) You can drag messages from the Advanced Find window to your personal folders in the left pane of Outlook.

Archive old items

Archiving messages in Outlook saves old messages by date to a personal folder file (.pst file). As messages in Outlook age, AutoArchive places these messages into a personal folder file. For more information, see In Microsoft Outlook, what is AutoArchive, and how do I use it?

To archive items manually in Outlook, select the folder you wish to archive, and then from the File menu, select Archive... . This will archive all the messages in that folder, according to the settings you give.

Requesting a quota increase

For information on requesting a quota increase, see At IU, can I request a quota increase for my Outlook or Exchange email account?

Also see:

• In Microsoft Outlook 2000 and earlier for Windows, how do I fix an "exceeding limit" or "size limit" error?