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YaleConnect service storage quota – what you need to know
The storage quota of the YaleConnect service is limited to 8 gigabytes. This quota represents the maximum amount of storage space allowed for your mailbox on the Microsoft Exchange Server. Included in the quota allowance is the space required to store all email, email attachments, calendar data, contact information, and task management data on the server. Only SERVER storage is included in the quota. Local email storage is NOT included in the quota. Local storage is limited only by your computer’s disk space and the limitation imposed by Microsoft Outlook.
How many messages can you store?
The actual number of messages depends on the size of the messages, plus the size of attachments that may have been delivered with the messages.
As a general rule, most email messages don’t take up much space. For example, a 20-megabyte inbox may contain 551 messages. If each of the messages came in with a 2-megabyte attachment, (highly unlikely) the size of the inbox would swell to a size that exceeds quota. However, to put things in perspective, a three-page Word document that contains text and a picture or two, is usually under 1/3-megabyte, so even if all of the messages came with a three-page Word document (again, highly unlikely), you would still be well within the quota.
Managing the size of your mailbox to remain within the quota
There are several things you can do to reduce the size of your storage requirements.
Exchange keeps a copy of everything you send in the Sent Items folder. You can reduce the size of your mailbox by moving messages from the Sent Items folder on the server to a local Sent Items folder on your personal computer.
Alternatively, you can delete items in your Sent Mail folder if you no longer need them.
You will also probably find an accumulation of messages in the Deleted Items and Junk E-Mail folders that can also be permanently deleted to reduce your storage requirement on the Exchange server.
For additional information about how to free up your mailbox space, refer to “Moving data from the Exchange server to local storage”.
How to check the size of your mailbox
- Check your mail usage quota with YaleConnect webmail
- Check your mail usage quota in Microsoft Entourage 2004
Attachment/message sizes
Individual message size is limited institutionally to a maximum of 20MB.
Please note: Attachments, text in the body of the message, and header information, all contribute to the total size of a message.
Folder sizes and the number of messages
The quota is not based on the number of messages, but rather, it’s based on the disk space that the sum of all of your messages occupy on the server. However, please note: Microsoft recommends limiting the number of messages in an individual folder not to exceed 5,000 messages for maximum reliability. Individual folders that exceed the 5,000 message limit may experience performance issues when this number is reached or exceeded.
