How to Manage Email Storage and Disk Usage Print

Introduction

Email accounts can consume a significant amount of your hosting disk space over time. Managing your email storage effectively helps keep your hosting account running smoothly and ensures you can continue receiving new emails.

Checking Email Disk Usage in cPanel

1. Log into cPanel
2. Go to Email > Email Accounts
3. You'll see a list of all email accounts with their current usage and quota
4. The Disk Used column shows how much space each account is consuming

Adjusting Email Account Quotas

Each email account has a storage quota that limits how much disk space it can use. To change a quota:

1. In cPanel, go to Email > Email Accounts
2. Click Manage next to the email account
3. Under Storage, adjust the Allocated Storage Space
4. Click Save

Note: Email account quotas are limited by your overall hosting plan disk space. Increasing one account's quota doesn't give you more total disk space — it simply allows that account to use a larger share.

Reducing Email Storage Usage

Via Webmail (Roundcube)

1. Log into webmail at yourdomain.com/webmail or through cPanel
2. Sort emails by size to find the largest messages
3. Delete emails with large attachments that you no longer need
4. Empty the Trash and Junk/Spam folders — deleted emails still count towards your quota until the trash is emptied
5. Check your Sent folder — sent emails with attachments can take up significant space

Via Email Client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.)

If you use an email client configured with IMAP:

• Deleting emails in your client will also delete them on the server
• Make sure to empty your Deleted Items/Trash folder
• Some clients have a "Compact Folders" option that reclaims space — use it after deleting messages

If you use POP3:

• POP3 typically downloads emails and removes them from the server
• However, many clients have a "Leave a copy on server" option — if enabled, emails remain on the server and continue using quota
• Check your client's settings to configure how long copies are kept on the server

Finding What's Using the Most Space

To see an overview of disk usage across your entire hosting account:

1. In cPanel, go to Files > Disk Usage
2. Look for the mail directory to see total email storage
3. You can drill down into individual email account folders to identify the largest ones

Best Practices for Email Storage

• Archive old emails locally — download important old emails to your computer and delete them from the server
• Set reasonable quotas — avoid setting unlimited quotas, as a single account could fill your entire disk
• Use email filters — automatically delete or redirect newsletters and automated emails you don't need
• Regularly empty trash and spam folders — set calendar reminders to clean up monthly
• Compress attachments — when sending large files, consider using a file sharing service instead of email attachments

What Happens When You Run Out of Space?

When an email account reaches its quota:

• New incoming emails will bounce back to the sender with an "over quota" error
• You won't be able to send emails from that account
• Senders will receive a delivery failure notification

If your overall hosting disk space is full, it can also affect your website's ability to function properly.

For help managing your email storage, please open a support ticket.