As every gardener knows, bind weed left unchecked will take over your whole garden.
Email is no different.
If you don't weed it out on a regular basis then it will eventually consume all available disk space.
Soon you will see a warning in your Hosting Control panel like the one shown here!
Some ideas for how to avoid a bloated email account
Use IMAP Protocol
IMAP Protocol opens a window to the server where your email is stored.
Email stored on the server can be viewed from your laptop, your phone or any other device.
When you delete an email in your Email Client, the email is instantly removed from the server.
Use the filters included with your Email Client
Most Email Clients will enable you to create filters when you right-click on say the email's subject line or the sender's email address.
When you do, ensure the sub-folders you choose to redirect email to are in the Local Folders area of your Email Client.
The remaining unfiltered email will be smaller in volume and so quicker and easier to review and delete.
Be prepared to mark unsolicited mail as junk or spam.
Your Email Client will redirect it to the Junk or Spam folder when you do.
Remember to periodically empty the Junk or Spam folder.
Be ruthless
Only retain email which is important.
Once read, delete non-important email.
If storing an email, delete large file attachments.
If an attached file is important, first save a copy on the device you are using.
What if things get out of hand?
No worries.
There is an simple and easy quick fix for users of IMAP Protocol:
- create a sub-folder in the Local Folders area of your Email Account;
- drag mail from the bloated email account to the new sub-folder.
This process will instantly remove email from the server without deleting it.
You can then later sort though the ''downloaded' email.
And make a mental note to not let the situation happen again!
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