Managing mailbox storage

Check mail storage before a full allowance interrupts incoming mail, sending, or imports. Cedros shows both site-level storage and usage for individual Cedros-hosted mailboxes, so look at both before choosing a cleanup action.

This guide covers Cedros-hosted mail. If your mailbox is hosted by Google Workspace or another provider, check that provider's storage and retention settings too. Removing a message from Cedros is not proof that the provider's copy has been permanently removed.

Check your current usage

1. Open Settings → Site → Mail and find Mail storage.
2. Read the usage meter and allowance when shown. For local storage, this allowance is shared by the site's inboxes; creating another inbox does not create more shared space.
3. Check Compression, Cold storage, and any warning or error. If the card says it is waiting for a storage update, ask the administrator to complete the mail-service update before relying on compression or cold storage.
4. Open Team → Mail addresses and check the Storage value beside each mailbox. If several mail domains are available, check the relevant domain's addresses. An alias uses its destination mailbox rather than having a separate allowance.
5. Note which limit or error needs attention: the site allowance, a particular mailbox, or a storage-service problem.

The Mail storage card includes locally kept mail, search data, and retained delivery records. Its total is therefore not simply the sum of the attachment sizes you see in messages. Compression can reduce physical storage without changing the amount of message content retained.

When the card says Cloud storage supplied by Cedros Providers, it shows what is Kept locally and explains that local starter limits do not apply. That is not a promise of unlimited storage: check the capacity and terms of your actual service. Use Managing your Cedros plan and billing or contact your administrator if you need more capacity.

Warnings appear at 80% of the displayed allowance. Act before the allowance is full; new mail may be refused, and saving outgoing mail, importing messages, or restoring cold-stored mail can also fail when space is unavailable. The mailbox Storage value is informational, not an editable per-mailbox quota control.

Understand what each storage action does

• Archive in the inbox: moves a message out of Inbox into the ordinary Archive folder. The message is still retained. This is organization, not a way to free local storage.
• Delete: moves a message to Trash. It remains recoverable there until permanently removed or expired; do not assume the move immediately frees space.
• Delete forever: removes the selected message from Cedros and cannot be undone through the inbox. Storage totals and copies in a connected mail service must still be checked separately.
• Cold storage: moves eligible older mail from the local mail server to encrypted cloud storage while keeping it readable and searchable in Cedros. It reduces eligible local mail storage, but search data and other retained records still take space.
• Restore from cold storage: puts a local copy back so email clients can use it again. Restoring needs available capacity and can increase local usage.

Cold storage is different from the ordinary Archive folder and from a backup. It keeps mail available as part of your working mailbox; do not treat it as a separate recovery copy that makes deleting messages harmless. Moving mail to cold storage also does not mean the retained message no longer counts toward every service or plan limit.

When the updated mail service is active, Cedros reports automatic 30-day cleanup for Junk and Trash. These are temporary folders, not long-term storage. Recover legitimate messages before they expire, and do not rely on the cleanup timing to solve an immediate full-storage problem.

Clean up mail you no longer need

For a shared mailbox, agree with the team before deleting mail. Folder and deletion actions affect the shared message, not just your view.

1. Open Email → Inbox and select the intended mailbox, if the Mailbox filter is available.
2. Review unwanted messages in Inbox, Sent, Archive, and Junk. Search by known senders or subjects and open messages to inspect their actual attachments. Check the selection carefully before applying a bulk action.
3. Save any message information or files you need to retain. Confirm that saved files open before removing the original message.
4. Move unwanted messages to Trash using Delete. Review Trash, under More if needed, before deciding what should be permanently removed.
5. For messages you intend to remove permanently from Cedros, select Delete forever, read the confirmation, and confirm only the intended messages. This action cannot be undone in Cedros.
6. Return to the storage displays and check the result after the service has refreshed. A message disappearing from a list does not establish that the underlying mail storage has been reclaimed.

For folder actions and recovery steps, use Finding and organizing messages. Do not delete an entire mailbox simply to clear old mail: deleting an address also interrupts delivery and has a separate recovery and removal process.

If usage does not decrease, ask the administrator to check the mail service's retained copy and cleanup status. If you use Apple Mail, Outlook, or another connected mail app, check the same mailbox there; deleting locally downloaded files is not the same as removing mail from the server. Follow the app's server-side deletion or expunge workflow only after confirming what will be removed.

For a Gmail connection, Cedros's permanent-delete action does not prove permanent deletion from Gmail. Check Gmail's Trash and storage separately. Retained delivery records, search data, and archive copies kept for recovery can also make the storage change smaller or slower than expected.

Enable or adjust cold storage

You need permission to manage email providers to change cold-storage settings. It applies to eligible mail across the site, so agree on an age threshold with the people who use its mailboxes.

1. Open Settings → Site → Mail → Mail storage.
2. Confirm Compression is on and read any existing archive error.
3. Check the storage destination. With Cedros Providers, no separate storage account is needed. For your own storage, use the card's storage account and encrypted backups links to complete those prerequisites first. Archives use the site's backup encryption key; keep the recovery information available.
4. Set Archive mail older than to a whole number from 30 to 3650 days. The default is 180 days. This is an age threshold for eligible mail, not a promise that every message of that age will move immediately.
5. Select Enable cold storage, or Save archive settings if it is already enabled. Wait for Cold storage enabled. or Archive settings saved. Resolve any error before assuming the change was saved.
6. Check the saved Cold storage summary, age, destination, and any count of messages stored off the server. Check usage again as archiving progresses.

With a local allowance and your own storage account, automatic archiving starts at 80% usage and continues while eligible mail is available until usage falls below 70%. With Cedros Providers, eligible older mail can be archived without waiting for that local threshold.

Eligible mail is older than the saved threshold, read, and unstarred. Junk, Trash, and Drafts are excluded. Recently restored mail is protected from re-archiving for at least 30 days. Other protected or ineligible records can remain local, so cold storage cannot guarantee that the allowance will fall below the warning level.

Do not mark needed messages read or remove important stars merely to force them into storage. Choose a sensible age and resolve the actual capacity issue. Enabling cold storage verifies the storage connection, but the confirmation does not mean the backlog has already moved.

To stop new automatic archiving, select Pause automatic archiving and wait for Automatic archiving paused. Existing archives remain available. Pausing does not bring archived messages back or remove existing archives. Restore individual messages when you need a local copy.

Keep the archive storage account and encryption setup available while archived mail depends on them. Pausing archiving is not permission to disconnect or erase that storage.

Read or restore a cold-stored message

Cold-stored mail stays readable and searchable in Cedros, but leaves Apple Mail, Outlook, and other mail apps until restored. An old message missing from those apps may still be available in Cedros.

1. Find and open the message in Email → Inbox, using the relevant mailbox, folder, and search.
2. Look for the notice that the message is in encrypted cold storage. You can read it in Cedros without restoring it.
3. If you need it in your mail app, select Restore to inbox and email clients. The action requires permission to send/manage inbox messages and available local capacity.
4. Wait for the success message confirming restoration and the at least 30 days local period. If restoration fails, read the error; the archive remains available rather than becoming a successful local restore.
5. Refresh the mail app and locate the message. Check its original folder as well as Inbox: restoration can preserve its earlier folder, including Sent or Archive, despite the button's wording.

Restoration adds a local copy and protects it from automatic re-archiving for at least 30 days. It does not change the archive age setting for other mail or guarantee that the message will remain local forever.

If the message is still being archived, wait and retry when the operation finishes. If the error reports full storage, free or arrange sufficient capacity before retrying. For storage-account, encryption, or unavailable-mailbox errors, ask the administrator to repair the reported problem; repeatedly selecting Restore will not fix it.

Confirm capacity and delivery after changes

1. Reopen Mail storage and the affected mailbox's Storage value. Confirm that the relevant warning has cleared or that the administrator has resolved the specific capacity error.
2. Send a new test message from an outside account you control to the affected address. Check that it appears in Cedros.
3. Reply from that mailbox and verify arrival at the outside account. Read any outgoing error even if the incoming test succeeded.
4. If you use a connected mail app or have restored a message, check that app separately after synchronization.

A lower local-storage reading does not prove every mailbox or plan limit has been resolved. Likewise, saving archive settings does not prove that incoming delivery is working. Use Why aren't my emails arriving? or Why can I receive email but not send it? if a test fails.

A message previously rejected because storage was full will not appear merely because space is now available. The sender may need to resend it; check with them after delivery works again rather than assuming all earlier mail will automatically return.

Resolve storage warnings and errors

• Mail storage is missing or unavailable. Check that Cedros-hosted mail is configured and ready, and that your account can view the relevant settings. If the service state cannot be read, use Try again. A failed read is not zero usage.
• Compression is waiting for an update. Ask the administrator to update the mail service. Cold-storage controls remain unavailable until the required support is active.
• The allowance is nearly full even with cold storage on. Review the saved age, archive error, and off-server message count. Recent, unread, starred, or recently restored mail may leave too little eligible mail to free enough space.
• The archive age is rejected. Enter a whole number from 30 to 3650; do not enter a date, decimal, or unit such as “months.”
• Enabling cold storage fails. Follow the reported storage-connection or encrypted-backup error. Check the configured destination with the administrator before changing accounts or credentials that existing archives need.
• Usage stays high after cleanup. Check the provider or mail-server copy, retained data, and the latest storage refresh. If removed messages return or the total remains unchanged, ask support to check synchronization and cleanup rather than repeatedly deleting the same mail.
• Old mail disappeared from Apple Mail or Outlook. Search for it in Cedros and check the cold-storage notice. Restore only the messages you need locally.
• More capacity is needed. Review the actual site's plan and installation with the administrator. Do not assume every mailbox has a separate purchasable allowance or that a new address creates additional space.

For help, contact support with the affected mailbox, site and mailbox usage readings, storage destination, cold-storage state, exact error, and approximate time of the failed delivery or restore. Do not include passwords, storage credentials, or backup recovery keys.