[SOLVED] Outlook 2016 - mail box quota exceeded message?

[Mick]

Went to see an old gent recently who has Outlook 2016 installed on his Win 10 Home box with two accounts set up. They're both IMAP and with two different ISPs - one is PlusNet , the other is with Doctors.net. Outlook has been flashing up a message that says (don't have it in front of me) 'IMAP Server reports Mail Box quota exceeded. Contact your ISP.' (or words to that effect).
I've logged-in to both accounts via webmail access and can see that both do have mailbox quotas set, but neither are anywhere near full.

Apparently this is a recent message - both accounts worked fine previously. I've tried disabling each of the accounts in turn to try and whittle down which one is causing the problem, but the message keeps appearing every few seconds regardless, as if the IMAP server is being polled and responding with the message box. In addition, one of the accounts has now stopped receiving incoming mail altogether. You have to clear the message by clicking 'OK' each time, so it's making life miserable. I also tried installing both accounts in Thunderbird, just for fun and I don't get the message or any equivalent problem. Both ISP helpdesks are (naturally) blaming this on an Outlook problem and whilst I don't entirely believe them, I'm hoping to start by at least ruling it in - or out.

I haven't come across this before and before I do any more profitless Googling and head-scratching, wondered if anyone else has and if there's an easy solution.
Many thanks in advance.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Just because the webmail is reporting the correct size, doesn't mean that IMAP is.

Also check for anything stuck in the Outbox, there might just be an oversized mail sitting there.

Last thing, is the catch all... any 3rd party AV? Uninstall it, reboot and try again.

 

[Mick]

Thanks. Nothing in the out-tray. AV is AVG, which I have now removed, without any luck. Not sure how I'd go about checking/addressing your first point: From what I can see from the settings, subscribed folders etc all look to be in order and doing their job.

 

[Moltuae]

Does he have a lot of Outlook rules? There's a similar, misleading error that relates to a rule size limit:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb...and-you-receive-an-error-message-when-you-try

 

[Mick]

Thanks - no - no rules in place. I actually set this installation of Office 2016 up in the first place, so I know things were all working OK up till recently. The only variation from a standard set up is that this chap is stone deaf. He uses Dragon Naturally Speaking as a dictation service and it integrates with Outlook via an add-in. However - that, too, has been working fine for months now. I'm still not decided on whether this is an Outlook prob or a mail server issue. And - if the latter - even which ISP it's coming from. The message content makes me think it's server-related, but the fact that T'Bird works fine tilts me back to an Outlook issue. Unhappily, TBird doesn't support the Dragon plug-in, otherwise I'd just try and tempt him across to that as a client.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Hmm... well reaching for straws I suppose my next step would be to ensure Office has all the most recent updates. Sometimes 2012/2016 half install an update and weirdness starts. An online repair usually gets them going again, but beware... it'll probably need reactivated so don't do that without his office account.

If THAT doesn't fix it I'm afraid the only suggestion I have is to nuke his Outlook profile and reconfigure it.

If all of that doesn't resolve things, it's almost certainly an ISP thing. But what specifically I'm not sure. Different mail clients tolerate different levels of stupid after all.

 

[Mick]

thanks. I'll try that. Going to be after Christmas now...!

 

[Markverhyden]

but the message keeps appearing every few seconds regardless, as if the IMAP server is being polled and responding with the message box. In addition, one of the accounts has now stopped receiving incoming mail altogether. You have to clear the message by clicking 'OK' each time, so it's making life miserable. I also tried installing both accounts in Thunderbird, just for fun and I don't get the message or any equivalent problem. Both ISP helpdesks are (naturally) blaming this on an Outlook problem and whilst I don't entirely believe them, I'm hoping

Actually that's what I would think if the message keeps popping up with the accounts disabled.

 

[Your PCMD]

I had that very issue with a client just 2 weeks ago. They have a 25 GB box hosted through Rackspace, yet Outlook said it was full but after logging into Rackspace, they only had 122 Mbs of emails.

What I did was export to a PST then remove the data file and then the account itself. But since it was the ONLY account in Outlook, I had to use one of my dummy email accounts as Outlook will not let you remove an account if its the only one there. I then re-added the account and imported the PST, made the account the default then removed the dummy account and all has been working fine ever since.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@Your PCMD, If you're going to go through all of that, you may as well just snag a copy of their signature, and save the headache of manipulating accounts, just crack open the mail control panel applet and blow away the entire Outlook profile. While you're in there, you can make a new one, set it up to connect to the mail service, and when done crack open Outlook to do the final import.

That process takes less time!

 

[Mick]

Thanks both, that sounds like it'll be worth a try. I'll try to remember to post back here if it works, for the benefit of others.

 

[Your PCMD]

you may as well just snag a copy of their signature

That process takes less time!

There is like in many things we do, more than one way to do things to yield the same end result. And I agree with you.

If your meaning the email Signatures folder in %appdata%, when you remove the data file, the signature is not deleted. At least not in my experience. Once its done, I just hit file > options > mail > signatures and off we go.

I have even went through control panel > mail > show profiles > select & remove then open Outlook to recreate an account. Which takes less time. But if I have time, as I generally do, I take my time and do it the long way because I'm bored.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@Your PCMD, I hear you... but Outlook profiles get corrupt so darned often. I don't like leaving them behind. I just nuke them from orbit and start over. Admittedly, it's a ton easier now with O365, because all I have to do is have the user login and done... Especially now... If you're on O365 with the most recent versions of Office 2016 or Office 2019, the signatures are backed up in OneDrive.

So literally all I have to do is nuke the profile, and let the user reconfigure Outlook. Everything just works again.

 

[Mick]

Well - after a bit of delay, I followed advice and nuked the profile. So far....so good! Thanks to my sage advisers!