User Guide for Cisco Unity Connection Release 2.x
Managing the Size of Your Mailbox

Table Of Contents

Managing the Size of Your Mailbox

Tips for Managing the Size of Your Mailbox

Reasons Your Mailbox May Fill Up Quickly

Message Retention Policy May Not Be Enforced

Deleted Items and Nondelivery Receipts Are Included in Total Mailbox Size

Total Message Size Includes Original When Messages Are Forwarded


Managing the Size of Your Mailbox


A full mailbox can affect the speed at which Cisco Unity Connection processes your messages. When you log on by phone or access the Cisco Unity Inbox web tool, Connection notifies you when your mailbox is:

Almost full.

Full and you can no longer send new messages.

Full and you can no longer send or receive new messages.

Your Connection administrator sets the storage limits for your mailbox. Exceeding those limits can prevent you from sending and receiving messages.


Note System broadcast messages are not included in your total mailbox size.


This chapter contains the following sections:

Tips for Managing the Size of Your Mailbox

Reasons Your Mailbox May Fill Up Quickly

Tips for Managing the Size of Your Mailbox

The following tips can help you make more room in your mailbox:

Delete messages, including messages in the Deleted Items folder in the Cisco Unity Inbox web tool, if applicable.

Archive message recordings before deleting them by saving them as WAV files to your hard disk. In the Cisco Unity Inbox, use the Save Recording As option on the Options menu in the Media Master. (This feature is not available on all systems. Ask your Connection administrator whether it is available to you.)

Move voice messages to a folder on your hard disk before deleting them from your e-mail program. (This feature is not available on all systems. Ask your Connection administrator whether it is available to you.)

Reasons Your Mailbox May Fill Up Quickly

This section describes reasons why you may feel that your Cisco Unity Connection mailbox fills up more quickly than you expect. (Note that your Connection administrator specifies the size of your mailbox.)

Message Retention Policy May Not Be Enforced

By default, Cisco Unity Connection does not automatically delete messages once they reach a certain age. This means that unless your Connection administrator set up the system to enforce a message-retention policy, you are responsible for managing the size of your mailbox by periodically reviewing your saved messages and either moving, archiving, or deleting them permanently.

If Cisco Unity Connection is set up to enforce a message-retention policy, ask your Connection administrator how long the system stores your messages before permanently deleting them. You can then plan to archive or move important messages ahead of time. Connection does not indicate when a message-retention policy is enforced, nor does it warn you before message are permanently deleted as a result of such a policy.

Deleted Items and Nondelivery Receipts Are Included in Total Mailbox Size

Messages in the Deleted Items folder in the Cisco Unity Inbox web tool are included in the total mailbox size. In addition, when you receive nondelivery receipts (NDRs) for messages that you send, your mailbox can quickly increase in size—especially when original messages included large attachments.

Total Message Size Includes Original When Messages Are Forwarded

You may receive messages that have been forwarded many times over, which increases message size. The original message plus all recorded introductions that were added during forwarding equal the total message size. As a result, your mailbox can exceed its limit, even though you may have relatively few messages stored in it.