Webmail / Outlook 365

[#1]

Hi

I have been with Plusnet for many years and now my webmail is nearly full and they want me to delete some items. I am happy to cooperate as I rarely use webmail. However I use IMAP connections with Outlook 365 on my PC and android phone. I  have my own domain name. I have deleted some folder content on Webmail and to my horror it has deleted the same emails on my PC within the Outlook inbox.

I have searched old posts and the help guides but can find anything relevant -   My main questions are:

1 Is it possible to delete email held on webmail and it not delete on Outlook? - I like to use my Outlook as a filing cabinet

2 Can I retain my email system and stop the webmail service?

3 What will happen if I allow my webmail box to become full  ie 1GB-

any help would be much appreciated.

[#2]

Hi @Abernyteman welcome to the forums and all that,

I don't know loads about this, but with IMAP because your mail is stored on the server and not on the PC as you've noticed if you delete it from one device, it will disappear from the others.

I can think of a couple of ways:

Store your older items locally on the PC in a PST file. The disadvtage of that is they will only be accessible from there. If that is suitable for your needs then fine.

The other is to pay for hosting. I pay for Microsoft hosting and it costs around £60 a year for 4 mailboxes, ok it comes with a cost involved but you'll get 50Gb per mailbox. Set your account up and change the MX records on your domain.

I think it is worth paying the money, as £60 per year for 4 mailboxes is not the end of the world. For the extra storage space which you need and for your e-mail all being stored on the server I think it is worth it.

EDIT: Forgot to say, if your mailbox becomes full I'd imagine your e-mail will bounce. Return to sender and all that (as the song once said), which you'd obviously don't want to happen.

[#3]

Hi Alex

Many thanks for your helpful advice

kind regards

Stephen 

[#4 · Accepted solution]

Essentially Webmail is an IMAP client just like Office 365 on your PC or whatever on your android phone.  Thereby they all see the same.  Delete on one and it is deleted for all.

It is up to users to manage archiving their emails as they see best.  The suggestion of a .PST is one approach.  You can also just create a local folder under the IMAP email account structure on your PC.  You can move whatever you want there.  That will remove the content from the IMAP server and will no longer be available via webmail or on your android.  Do not forget to establish and maintain a dependable back up of your PC.

The emails you deleted might still be in the deleted items folder ... unless webmail has empty deleted items on exit set.  Not the most useful of settings!!!

[#5]

Thanks for your suggestions I have actioned them and all now seems well.

One last question, is it possible to check the size of my webmail file now that I have moved my older files, I have looked in all the menus but don't seem to see be able to find it.

thanks again

Stephen

[#6]

Pleased to know that helped you.

In webmail, you can look at the folders management pages and find out their size there.

In outlook, you can right click on folders and look at their properties - one of which is the folder sizes - both local and on the server.

HTH

[#7]

Found them now

many thanks