Can't send e-mails

[Bellow]

A pretty old set up - lap top on W8 or 8.1 and Windows Live Mail 2012. What happened was it stopped sending e-mails (denied service) on Friday as mailbox full. Trying to send creates:
'Error 554'
'554.5.2.2 Mailbox full'.
Followed the instruction to clear mailbox (from 96GB to 15GB) but still cannot send e-mail from my usual screen - though it looks like I can from another one - outlook live.com (that is so spacky as to be better avoided). I've also followed the other instructions re unblocking account and changed password (several times) but it's made no difference.
Clearing the mailbox was completed yesterday morning but Microsoft continue to e-mail me telling me my mailbox is at 96GB. Contacting them via their feedback options has elicited zilch from them.

Am I waiting for MS to update its system to recognise my now cleared mailbox or is there something else I need to do?
TIA.

 

[John]

It's been a long while since I had to deal with the remnants of full mailbox.

If you can send email from outlook.live.com from your mailbox, then it would seem your mailbox is below the limit and it appears your local Windows Live Mail 2012 might just need restarting (or even restart the whole PC) to sort itself out.

I can't quite remember if after clearing down an Exchange mailbox whether Outlook needed to be restarted after or not as it has been a good 6 years since I last had to deal with one.

I would sanity-check both WLM2012 and outlook.live.com are both showing as being 15GB after everything.

If you still cannot send email, I would give it until the morning in case MS are having difficulties. I do see difficulties using M365 sometimes.

Then open another can of whoopass on MS if you still cannot.

 

[wrdcc01]

Have you just cleared mail from the application on your computer, you need to go into your mail providers server and delete things there. Example: I have MS Outlook on my PC so when I open it, it downloads a copy of my email from the BT mail server (my provider). Deleting mail in Outlook doesn't affect what is on their server so every now and then I log into BT mail and have a clean out. There is a setting somewhere that can be set to "not keep a copy" on the server or delete after so many days. Have a look for that in your application.

 

[John]

OP can send email from outlook.live.com so would seem to be the reverse of that situation i.e. just the local copy of the mailbox is not up to date.

 

[st13phil]

Clearing the mailbox was completed yesterday morning but Microsoft continue to e-mail me telling me my mailbox is at 96GB.

That would suggest that the back-end server mailbox is over capacity. Is that your understanding of the situation?

And is it an Exchange back-end or are you using an IMAP or POP3 connection?

 

[markjay]

Not having a laugh... but did you try rebooting the PC?

 

[KillerHERTZ]

96GB for a mailbox is horrifically large!

That's like the equivalent of something like 10million standard emails (without attachments)

Sounds like you have been subscribed to a mail out which has been emailing you multiple times a day, daily.

 

[Bellow]

Not having a laugh... but did you try rebooting the PC?

Yep. Switched off overnight and back on in the morning with sign in using password that MS have had me change.

96GB for a mailbox is horrifically large!

That's like the equivalent of something like 10million standard emails (without attachments)

Sounds like you have been subscribed to a mail out which has been emailing you multiple times a day, daily.

Some work e-mails going back to 2015 and a 2 years of personal e-mails with some PDFs and photos Not 10 million - I as good as sifted through them before deleting them.

 

[markjay]

Firstly, you obviously need to empty the Deleted (or Bin) folder after deleting the messages from the Inbox and other folders.

Then, some email systems will retain deleted messages for a period of time (e.g. 20 or 30 days) even after the Deleted folder has been emptied, so that they can be undeleted, though if you say that the issue occurs only when sending from the Microsoft Live Mail email client but not when sending from the web interface, then this isn't your issue.

So we can assume that the fault lies with something in the email client that you are using, rather than with the server-side mailbox. E.g., the large mailbox caused recoverable corruption in the data stored on the PC.

You could look-up utilities that can repair damaged data files on Ms Live Mail, unfortunately I can't recommend any specific utility because we mostly deal with Ms-Outlook, but there should be some available for Ms Live Mail as well.

You could also Google the exact message you are getting, then look at any results that do not list the mailbox storage size as the actual problem (i.e, where another issues caused this message to appear), keeping in mind that error messages are what the programmers decided to write into the software, and so do not necessarily provide the correct information in all circumstances.

And last, I don't know how proficient you are with Microsoft Live Mail, but you could make a note of the Account settings on Ms Live Mail then delete the account and all data, and rebuild it from scratch (on the premise that there's a corruption in the account settings or in the data). Taking it a step further, you could delete your user profile on the PC and recreate it from scratch. The last resort is re-installing the PC... these are the steps we would take if we had a customer complaint, but obviously the work would be carried-out by our qualified engineers.

Also, with Ms-Exchange, the local email data file (pst or ost) is synchronised with the server, so if the local file is deleted then the local PC will resynchronise and re-populate the local data files with the stored messages from the server (though it can take a few days to fully synchronise). What we would do in this case is take a backup of the local data (typically export it to pst), then restore it back.

 

[Bellow]

It's been a long while since I had to deal with the remnants of full mailbox.

If you can send email from outlook.live.com from your mailbox, then it would seem your mailbox is below the limit and it appears your local Windows Live Mail 2012 might just need restarting (or even restart the whole PC) to sort itself out.

Lap top has been off and on umpteen times so covered.

I can't quite remember if after clearing down an Exchange mailbox whether Outlook needed to be restarted after or not as it has been a good 6 years since I last had to deal with one.

I would sanity-check both WLM2012 and outlook.live.com are both showing as being 15GB after everything.

Definitely saw on outlook.com (yesterday) that it was down to 15MB. I can't find how to check on WLM2012.

If you still cannot send email, I would give it until the morning in case MS are having difficulties. I do see difficulties using M365 sometimes.

Another e-mail minutes ago from MS saying mailbox full at 96GB.

Then open another can of whoopass on MS if you still cannot.

My what method - séance?

Have you just cleared mail from the application on your computer, you need to go into your mail providers server and delete things there. Example: I have MS Outlook on my PC so when I open it, it downloads a copy of my email from the BT mail server (my provider). Deleting mail in Outlook doesn't affect what is on their server so every now and then I log into BT mail and have a clean out. There is a setting somewhere that can be set to "not keep a copy" on the server or delete after so many days. Have a look for that in your application.

I've just had a look at that. The ''Leave a copy of message on server' box was unchecked so AFAIK it never saved at the server. Checking the box opens possibilities to set how many days stored and delete when deleted items deleted. Made no difference so unchecked the box again such that messages aren't saved at server - if I have that correct.
Should I contact BT (my service provider)?

 

[Bellow]

That would suggest that the back-end server mailbox is over capacity. Is that your understanding of the situation?

And is it an Exchange back-end or are you using an IMAP or POP3 connection?

All I know re the above is that 'incoming mail server is a POP3 server' and 'outgoing mail server is SMTP. Both have a 3 digit number allocated (which I know to be configurable).

For a week or two I was getting 'mailbox almost full 95GB' e-mails from MS and I'd delete a few things. The shutdown occurred trying to sent the third of six e-mails each containing 10 photographs. I've deleted the first two but have the other four in 'draft message' folder. Could they be complicating matters?

 

[Bellow]

Firstly, you obviously need to empty the Deleted (or Bin) folder after deleting the messages from the Inbox and other folders.

Then, some email systems will retain deleted messages for a period of time (e.g. 20 or 30 days) even after the Deleted folder has been emptied, so that they can be undeleted, though if you say that the issue occurs only when sending from the Microsoft Live Mail email client but not when sending from the web interface, then this isn't your issue.

So we can assume that the fault lies with something in the email client that you are using, rather than with the server-side mailbox. E.g., the large mailbox caused recoverable corruption in the data stored on the PC.

You could look-up utilities that can repair damaged data files on Ms Live Mail, unfortunately I can't recommend any specific utility because we mostly deal with Ms-Outlook, but there should be some available for Ms Live Mail as well.

You could also Google the exact message you are getting, then look at any results that do not list the mailbox storage size as the actual problem (i.e, where another issues caused this message to appear), keeping in mind that error messages are what the programmers decided to write into the software, and so do not necessarily provide the correct information in all circumstances.

And last, I don't know how proficient you are with Microsoft Live Mail, but you could make a note of the Account settings on Ms Live Mail then delete the account and all data, and rebuild it from scratch (on the premise that there's a corruption in the account settings or in the data). Taking it a step further, you could delete your user profile on the PC and recreate it from scratch. The last resort is re-installing the PC... these are the steps we would take if we had a customer complaint, but obviously the work would be carried-out by our qualified engineers.

Also, with Ms-Exchange, the local email data file (pst or ost) is synchronised with the server, so if the local file is deleted then the local PC will resynchronise and re-populate the local data files with the stored messages from the server (though it can take a few days to fully synchronise). What we would do in this case is take a backup of the local data (typically export it to pst), then restore it back.

Went via control panel to programmes and currently 'Repairing WLM2012' is doing its thing....

 

[st13phil]

Definitely saw on outlook.com (yesterday) that it was down to 15MB.

Another e-mail minutes ago from MS saying mailbox full at 96GB.

That sounds a bit inconsistent!

The strange things is that Microsoft offers 15 GB of email storage space per free Outlook.com account, while Microsoft 365 subscribers get 50 GB of space. So how can yours be at 96 GB?

If you look in the Outlook.com Settings > Storage page you will be able to see what's in each folder associated with your mailbox. See here. Does that give any clues?

 

[Bellow]

That sounds a bit inconsistent!

The strange things is that Microsoft offers 15 GB of email storage space per free Outlook.com account, while Microsoft 365 subscribers get 50 GB of space. So how can yours be at 96 GB?

If you look in the Outlook.com Settings > Storage page you will be able to see what's in each folder associated with your mailbox. See here. Does that give any clues?

I misread that page yesterday. Where it said 'You have 15GB' I assumed that I'd reduced it to that but its actually around 600KB but I think that is for outlook.com not WLM2012 which must be higher. WLM2012 is showing 6970 messages in inbox and 3100 in sent box. Could this still be greater than 15GB?

Below is what was in today's e-mail from MS.

''Your mailbox is full.

0.96 GB​

0.95 GB​

Your mailbox can no longer send messages. To make room in your mailbox, delete any items you don't need and empty your Deleted Items folder.
Learn more about storage limits.


Mailbox address:''

 

[Deleted member 159894]

Is it a scam?

 

[markjay]

0.96gb is not 96gb...............?

 

[markjay]

Also, if you are getting an email alert form Microsoft (and assuming that it is legit), then it's nothing to do with possible corruption of Ms Live Mail on your PC.

 

[Bellow]

0.96gb is not 96gb...............?

Careless of me - but my limit is 15gb so well within that - but despite clearing at least half my e-mails MS insist it is as it was before. The four e-mails stored with 40 photos will be circa 52mb and there's 10,000 emails on WLM2012 and 700kb 'used' on outlook.com. What's going on.

'Repairing WLM2012' made no difference.

 

[Bellow]

Is it a scam?

Starting to wonder. Been plagued with scammers lately. Umpteen voice mails threatening internet disconnection and if followed through it's an attempt to hand over computer access and an e-mail supposedly from BT to 'verify' new T&C or lose e-mail access. BT, when I phoned them confirmed this was a scam (my security/anti-virus flagged the page as dangerous first).

 

[markjay]

Starting to wonder. Been plagued with scammers lately. Umpteen voice mails threatening internet disconnection and if followed through it's an attempt to hand over computer access and an e-mail supposedly from BT to 'verify' new T&C or lose e-mail access. BT, when I phoned them confirmed this was a scam (my security/anti-virus flagged the page as dangerous first).

Regardless, the fact remains that you can't send email...?