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Tips on managing your account

There is a major difference between POP and IMAP. With IMAP, your mail is kept on the server rather than being downloaded to your local machine. Because of this difference, you need to take some things into consideration when managing your account. We have listed some basic instructions for you to follow in order to take full advantage of the IMAP protocol.

Staying under your quota

Each user of WiscMail is given 200 MB of storage space on the server for messages and attachments. If you exceed this limit, you may not be able to receive mail until you remove messages or attachments from the server.

This section applies to all IMAP users, and also to POP users who have their clients configured to leave mail on the server. If you are a POP user and want to check to see if you leave your mail on the server login to the web client through the My UW-Madison Portal or directly to WiscMail. If the web client contains messages that you have already downloaded with your POP client, your POP client is probably leaving your mail on the server.

Once you have determined if you need to check your quota regularly, follow these suggestions to keep below your quota:
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Check your quota regularly
  • You can see your quota by logging into WiscMail. Your quota is listed at the bottom of the page. An example of the quota information is shown below.

quota information

  • The first part shows the number of messages in the current folder.
  • The second part shows the amount of your quota you are using you have to stay below the space available to your account (200 MB is default).
  • The third part tells you how many messages you have on the server.
  • The link allows you to collect mail from a another POP mail account.
Delete unnecessary messages
  • Delete unnecessary messages from your inbox, IMAP mail folders, and the folder where you store copies of your outgoing mail to remain comfortably within your quota. Select the messages you wish to delete and click the Delete button. Make sure to empty the deleted items from your Trash.
  • If you use an IMAP client on your computer, just delete the messages and then empty the Trash.
delete message

 
Move messages to your computer
  • If you are approaching quota and there are messages and attachments in your Inbox or other Mail folder that you want to keep, you can move them to your local hard drive.

 
Empty your Trash
  • Empty your Trash folder regularly. To do this from the web client, click the Folders tab and click the "Empty Trash" button next to your Trash folder.
  • If you use an IMAP client on your computer, just delete the messages and then empty the Trash folder.

    empty trash

 

Messages per folder

It is recommended that you do not exceed 25,000 messages in any one folder. It is highly recommended that you stay under 5,000 messages within your Inbox since this folder is accessed every time you make a connection to your mailbox. If you exceed these limits, you may experience problems depending on your client.