If you notice that the performance of your email account has slowed significantly, or if your mail client seems to "hang" when trying to login, it may be that your Inbox is too full to be processed efficiently. If this is the case, the messages in your Inbox must be cleaned out so that the processing of your mail account will be faster.

If you are unable to login with your current mail client, you may be able to use another mail client like Mozilla Thunderbird, which is very efficient, to get into your mail account so that you can delete or move messages out of your Inbox. Once most of the messages are cleared out of the Inbox, you should then be able to login using your current mail client. If you unable to get into your mail account at all with any mail client, contact the HelpLine at 5700 for assistance.

 

How to clean out your Inbox:

• If you are unable to login to your mail account using your current mail client, try using another mail client like Mozilla Thunderbird. If you don't have it installed on your computer, Mozilla Thunderbird can be downloaded from http://www.mozilla.org.
• Configure Mozilla according to the instructions at: http://lbis.kenyon.edu/email/webmail/#thunderbird
• Once in your mail account, create a new folder by clicking File, then New, then Folder, and naming it something like OldMail.
• Select (highlight) all of the already-read email messages in your Inbox and move them into the OldMail folder where you can delete (at your convenience) those you don't want to keep.
• Don't allow your Inbox to accumulate more than 150-200 messages or it may begin to slow down the performance of your mail account. From now on, regularly remove already-read messages from the Inbox.
• Check your Trash folder for messages and delete any messages in it.
• Check your Sent folder and delete any unwanted messages in it as well.

 

Handle deleted messages using the "mark for deletion" option in your mail client

 

The HelpLine recommends that you use the "mark for deletion" option for handling your deleted messages, which marks a message as deleted (with a line through it) while remaining in the message list where you can still see it. This allows you to change your mind and "undelete" it. It keeps the message before you as a reminder to remove it permanently by manually removing it with a "purge" or "compact folders" command.

Don't use the Trash folder: If you delete messages by moving them to the Trash folder, it simply holds the deleted messages until you permanently remove them by manually "emptying the trash." However, the messages are hidden from view so that you may forget they are there. (With some users, hundreds of messages built up in Trash until they could no longer use their mail account and had to call the HelpLine).

Marking messages for deletion when using WebMail:

• In WebMail click the Options link near top of message list screen, then click the Deleting and Moving Messages topic on the Options screen.
• Make sure the box next to "When deleting messages, move them to your Trash folder instead of marking them as deleted" is UNchecked.
• Click Save Options
• From now on when you delete a message, a line should appear through that message in the message list, indicating it has been marked for deletion.
• To get rid of the message permanently so that it disappears from the message list, click the Purge Deleted link near the top right of page.
• Note: If the message disappears when you delete it (instead of displaying a line through it), you may have accidently set your deleted messages to be "hidden." If so, check for a Show Deleted link in the top right corner. If you find it, click that link and the deleted message should re-appear with a line through it. It can then be removed permanently by clicking the Purge Deleted link.

Marking messages for deletion when using Mozilla Thunderbird:

• Open Thunderbird and click on Edit, then Account Settings
• At top of left pane, click Server Settings option under your email address listing (which is username@kenyon.edu).
• In the Server Settings screen section called When I delete a message:, select the second option Mark it as deleted. With this configuration, whenever you delete a message it will be marked for deletion (i.e., a red X will cover the message icon).
• Select the fourth option Clean up (Expunge) Inbox on exit, which will automatically remove these marked messages from your Inbox for you after you exit your email session.
• You can manually remove these messages permanently anytime during your email session by clicking File in the menu bar, then Compact folders.

Marking messages for deletion when using Netscape Messenger:

• Open Netscape Messenger and click on Edit, then Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings
• At the top of the left pane click on Server Settings option under your email address listing (which is username@kenyon.edu).
• In the Server Settings screen, under section When I delete a message:, select the second option Mark it as deleted. With this configuration, whenever you delete a message it will be marked for deletion (i.e., a red X will cover the message icon).
• Select the fourth option Clean up (Expunge) Inbox on exit, which will automatically remove these marked messages from your Inbox for you after you exit your email session.
• You can also manually remove these messages permanently anytime during your email session by clicking File in the menu bar, then Compact folders.

Marking messages for deletion when using Outlook Express:

• On the menu bar click Tools | Options | Maintenance tab. This screen contains various options for handling your deleted mail messages. The following is recommended:
• Under Cleaning Up Messages select Purge Deleted Messages when Leaving IMAP Folders . This will remove all messages marked for deletion (red Xs) in a folder when you exit your mail session.
  Note: DO NOT select Compact Messages in the Background.
• You can also manually purge all your messages in a folder marked for deletion (red Xs) at any time during your mail session by clicking the Purge button at the top of screen, or by clicking Edit, then Purge Deleted Messages on the menu bar.