Save mail locally to free up space on the mail server

Is your mailbox almost full? Then you can move old mail from the server to a local folder on your own computer. That mail is then no longer on the mail server and no longer counts towards your storage. You can still read and search it in your mail program, but only on that one computer.

First: is cleaning up a better solution?

Often the mailbox is full because of a few large attachments, the trash or the Junk folder. First read Cleaning up your mailbox to free up space in DirectAdmin and Storage or disk space full: how to free up space. You can also increase the storage of the mailbox or your package.

Outlook for Windows (classic)

1. Click New Items (or next to New Email), choose More Items and then Outlook Data File.
2. Choose a folder and a name, for example Archive, and click OK. Outlook creates a .pst file. The new data file appears on the left in the folder list.
3. Right-click the data file, choose New Folder and give the folder a name, for example Archive 2024.
4. Select the emails you want to move (using Ctrl or Shift) and drag them to that folder.

In the new Outlook for Windows this works differently or not at all. Use classic Outlook for this. You can read more about this, and about an archive folder on the server as an alternative, in Archiving: an archive folder on the server or a pst file in the Outlook guide.

Thunderbird

1. On the left in the folder list you'll see Local Folders. Right-click it and choose New Folder.
2. Give the folder a name and drag the emails from your mailbox to that folder.

Apple Mail on the Mac

1. In the menu bar, choose Mailbox and then New Mailbox.
2. For Location, choose On My Mac and give the mailbox a name.
3. Drag the emails from your mailbox to that new mailbox.

Check that the space is freed up

After dragging, the emails are in the local folder and disappear from the server. Some programs first put them in the trash of your mailbox. If so, empty that too. You can see how much space your mailbox uses in DirectAdmin under E-mail Accounts. See also Storage per mailbox and what happens when it's full.

Want to learn more? Take the free course Getting your email in order, lesson 3.2 Storage, quotas and a full mailbox.