If the total size is over 200,000 KB (shown in the top portion of that window), we need you to take actions described below ASAP. Those between 150,000 and 200,000 should continue reading as this still represents a very large mailbox.
Large Attachments:
The first and easiest action to take to reduce the size of your mailbox is to determine if you have large attachments which should be deleted or saved to your "My Documents" folder.
a. Open the "Mailbox Cleanup" window again as described in step 1 above. Notice that the second section of this window allows you to "Find items large than" a certain size. Click the find button and a list of messages larger than the size specified will be displayed. (You can change this size value if you want).
The list of messages displayed after clicking the Find button will include a "size" column so you can easily see which messages are the biggest problem. [I found one which had a 7000 KB (7M) attachment that I did not need!].
b. Most messages you find this way will have large attachments. Obviously, you can delete the entire message if you do not want it. In my case, I wanted the message but not the attachment, so after opening the message, I <right-mouse-clicked> on the attachment and chose "remove". Then I closed the message and saved it. If you find a large attachment which you want to save, open the message, <right-mouse-click> on the attachment and choose "save as". Place this attachment in your "My Documents" folder if it is something that needs to be kept and protected against loss. If however it is something like your sister's pictures of her new baby, you should not be saving them on a college server - so you might want to place them on your computer's "C" drive and then migrate them to a zip disk if you expect to save them permanently. (Anything stored on your "C" drive could be lost if your hard-drive dies or if you get a new computer and forget to see that they are moved).
c. Check the size of your mailbox now. (Remember, if you deleted messages, they are still in your deleted items folder, so until you empty your deleted items folder you won't see a reduction in size).
Auto-Archive:
If your mailbox is still large, you either need to just do a good house-cleaning or you may be interested in learning how to automatically clean out (auto-archive) your messages so they are removed to a separate storage area. There are several techniques for doing this and one size may not fit all. Some general auto-archive instructions are available online here which should help you set up an archival process. If you have any questions or would like assistance please contact ITS or submit a helpdesk ticket.
Saving e-mail for long periods of time:
If you have e-mail which federal or state law requires that you retain for a specified period of time, then please contact ITS to help you determine the best way to meet this requirement.
More info about email at COCC.