CIS Help
Request Form

Cleaning Up Your IMAP Email Files Can Help Save on Data Storage Charges

Since the Lab implemented the centralized IMAP email system a couple of years ago, each user has been allocated 100 megabytes (MB) of free disk space on the IMAP server. Since the outset, the plan has been to charge employees for any space they use above that amount. Now the necessary software is in place and, beginning August 1, users who exceed this amount of space will be charged $2/MB/month for disk space over 100 MB. How much space you are using? Log in with your mail username and password, and click on the "Folders" tab at the top of the page. This brings up a screen listing the disk space used by each folder, with total usage at the bottom.

While email messages tend to pile up in many files, a whole lot of them end up in "Trash" files (when you delete a message, it ends up in your trash file until you empty the file). In fact, 26 percent of the current disk space used for IMAP mailboxes is in users' Trash folders. So, while it's a good idea to regularly clean out all mail folders, the Trash needs to be taken out especially often.

To empty your trash from Netscape Messenger, click on "File" -> "Empty Trash on imap4.lbl.gov." Please note that it may take up to 24 hours after you empty your Trash folder before the disk space reduction is reflected in the total on the Web page.

But not all old files should be deleted. While deleting old, non-record email is necessary and cost-efficient, the Archives and Records Group wants to remind people that it is a federal requirement that employees keep record material regardless of the format. Record material is defined as:

• Material that documents projects, research, position papers ;
• Material that describes official actions taken in the course of conducting Laboratory and DOE business;
• Material that provides evidence of the Laboratory's organization, functions, procedures, activities, decisions, essential transactions, or has technical, administrative, historical, and/or legal values.

If the information meets one these definitions and is available only as an electronic document, it should be kept on a local disk until the Laboratory develops a formal procedure for retaining and destroying electronic records.

In fact, storing essential documents on your local system is another way to avoid exceeding the 100MB storage allocation. Learn more about storing email locally and reducing your email storage files.

If you have questions, please contact the Help Desk at 486-HELP.