If you're using any webmail, delete old emails.

[hobbit709]

Especially old spam, sale notices, etc.
Had customer come in with their webmail locking up. Roadrunner said they needed to install 3rd party email client and download the mail since the server was just about full.
Installed Thunderbird email and in the process of downloading 4 years worth, 32,000+ emails.
Then I'll have to change the SMTP port setting to 587 from 25 so she can send mails. RR doesn't use a standard port setting.

[JimDandy]

1. Gmail, yahoo etc also?

Really?

[hollysmom]

2. yeah eventually, the spam gets to me,

Auto delete never seems to work anymore, I Think they need new spam detectors - my what is spam is full and I actually had to delete some old spam to be able to put new spam init =- the older your account the more important.

[JimDandy]

3. I have deleted my spam daily for years.

Maybe the OP is describing a problem that occurs just at the ISP level--not at the personal user level.

[hobbit709]

5. Do you really need to save a 3 year old email about a sale or a meeting?

Or a renewal notice from that far back.

[JimDandy]

8. I don't. When you say the server is about full

and that you are having to download 32,000 emails (apparently NON-sales or renewal notice emails), well that worried me.

[Egnever]

9. No

Unless you want a copy of your email stored localy there is no reason to delete mail on gmail. I havent thrown out an email in gmail in over ten years now.

Every once in a while the ability to do that has saved my butt. Old purchase reciepts or software keys needed for reinstalls years later etc.

Gmail at least gives you more storage space than you will ever use in your lifetime.

[lpbk2713]

4. Check R/R configuration.

There's an option for "Delete after downloading from Server".

Another for "Delete after xx days".

I've been using R/R since Jesus was a choir boy.

[hobbit709]

6. They were just using webmail and never deleted anything.

[lpbk2713]

7. OK

I read it wrong.

[passnobuck]

10. This brings up a question to me regarding Gmail

I have not been able to find a setting that deletes email by default, say, over 9 years old or maybe 3 years old. I'm not talking spam, or trash folder mail. In Gmail all trash is deleted by default every 30 days, which is fine.

But I'd like to be able to have a default setting to delete mail x years old, and be able to move mail to a spefcial NON-delete folder for mail I want to keep forever, like family pictures, etc.

I have used Gmail for more than 4 years now, and have only used 15% of capacity, deleting spam almost once a week. But I don't need 1000 requests for donations, election results from 2012, etc.

As far as I know, I have to go back through all those emails, page by page, until I get to 2012 and delete them page by page, a very silly waste of time. I know, I should have deleted them the day I got them, but I didn't, so I have 5600+ emails from 2011 on. I only want to save maybe 100-200 with pictures of relatives, etc.

[Egnever]

11. I dont think you can set a kill date

You can however search for emails older than a certain date and delete all the email that matches at once.

[passnobuck]

12. Thanks for the message

Yes, that is what I had found out so-far, too.

And setting a search for mail older than a certain date would not work for me, because somewhere in those old emails are the pictures of my new nephew at birth, etc. I guess I would have to search for emails with certain names, photos, etc., and re-send those to myself as new emails with a date like today. Then I could search for mail older than a certain date and delete it, once I felt I had gotten all the photos and whatever from the old emails re-sent to myself on a recent date.

[hobbit709]

13. Rule # 1 for anything you want to save.

Download it to your computer and back it up to at least one external flash drive.