If you are using Hermes for your email, you will be automatically sent a warning message if your email account reaches 90% of your mail quota.

UIS (University Information Services) have various information detailing how to deal with email account over-quota issues:

How do I deal with exceeded quota on Hermes?

https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/service/email/hermes/hermes-faq/over-quota/e3

How do I check my filespace usage on Hermes?

https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/service/email/hermes/hermes-faq/over-quota/e4

How do I apply for an increase to my Hermes quota?

https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/service/email/hermes/hermes-faq/over-quota/n1

How can I do a bulk copy or delete of messages in a folder in Hermes Webmail?

https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/service/email/hermes/hermes-faq/over-quota/e35

Hermes Webmail – deleting messages when you are over quota:

https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/service/email/hermes/hermes-faq/over-quota/e61

 

The initial quota size for Hermes email accounts is 2GB. UIS will normally increase the quota, on application (see above), in 2GB increments, to a maximum of 6GB.

Alternatively, consider migrating your email account to Exchange Online (ExOL), which has a quota limit of 100GB.

https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/service/email/exchange-online

 

If you already have 6GB of quota on Hermes, and you have mail which you need to keep longer term, and do not wish to migrate your account to Exchange Online (ExOL), you may wish to consider our email archive service.  The imap-archive is an IMAP server, which allows you to store mail folders the same way they are stored on Hermes. In most mail programs you would simply see it as a second set of folders alongside your Hermes folders, and you can move mail simply by dragging it from one account to the other.

However, we would not recommend this service for new users, and only for Hermes Role Accounts if there is a good reason not to migrate to Exchange Online.

To request this service please email postmaster-query, for help setting up your archive within your mail program please contact the IT Helpdesk.

 

Engineering mailboxes  

There still exist a very small number of mail accounts on the engineering mail server. These are usually role accounts for a specific purpose, or shared email accounts. If you need help or advice relating to quota for one of these accounts please contact postmaster-query.

 

Managing your mail efficiently

Only keep mail if you still need it; if not, delete it.

Try to organise your saved mail in some way:

• Save it into different folders based on who it is from, what it is about, when it was sent, or any other method you prefer.
• Avoid keeping everything in one big read-mail folder. You can do this with your sent-mail folder too.

Do not keep copies of emails with very large attachments saved in your folders:

• Most mailers can tell you about the size of each message; look especially for sizes ending in K or M, e.g. 500K.
• Save the attachment on your local machine and delete the message.
• Watch out for large attachments in mail you have sent too.
• Make sure you regularly empty your deleted or trash folder, as this will take up space too