Mail storage, and what happens to deleted mail

Every mailspace has an amount of mail storage included with its package, and every mailbox in it draws from that same pool. This page explains where the figures on screen come from, what changes when you go over — the short answer is less than you'd fear — and how long a deleted message stays recoverable.

Deleted mail is only one of three separate recovery windows in Mailspace, and they are easy to mix up. This page owns the first one; Three different recovery windows below points you at the other two.

Where the storage figures come from

Your usage is the total of what the mailboxes in the mailspace are actually holding on the mail server — not an allowance you spend, and not something you set. Four places show it:

Where	What it shows
Mailspace list, the Usage column	A bar and used / included for each mailspace in the workspace
A mailspace's Overview, the Package card	Storage as used / included with a bar, and Mailboxes as in use / allowed
The Mailboxes page, the Storage column	Each mailbox's own usage — against its quota, or followed by / unlimited when it has no individual limit
A mailbox's Quota field	The individual limit for that one mailbox, if you set one

The Overview page re-reads usage from the mail server every time you load it, so the Package card is the freshest number you can get. The Mailspace list shows the last measured figure instead, so a very recent change can take a moment to appear there — open the mailspace itself if you want it re-checked.

One pool, shared by every mailbox

A per-mailbox Quota carves up the package's storage; it doesn't add to it. That's why no single mailbox can be given more than the whole package includes — try it and the form refuses, naming your package. Leaving a mailbox unlimited is normal: it just means that mailbox has no individual ceiling below the package's.

When you go over your plan

Going over is a soft limit. Your mail is still delivered and your mailboxes keep working — you get told about it and asked to act. The banner says so in as many words, because the fear is reasonable and wrong: this is a billing limit, not a wall your mail hits.

Two things appear when usage passes what your package includes:

On the Mailspace list, an Over storage badge on that mailspace's row, and its usage figures turn red. The badge shows alongside any other badge on the row, so it can't be hidden by a DNS or verification notice.
Inside the mailspace, a banner across the top of every page (all except the plan-change page itself, which is where it sends you). It names the domain, says how much of the included storage is in use, and — in the ordinary case — reassures you that Your mail is still being delivered.

The banner has a few wordings, and the difference matters because the fix is different in each:

Banner heading	What it means	What to do
You're using more mail storage than your plan includes	The everyday case. Mail is still being delivered.	Change your plan, or free up space
We couldn't change your mail plan for you	A bigger plan exists, we just couldn't complete the change unattended	Change the plan yourself from the banner, or get in touch
Your mail storage needs attention	There's no larger plan we can move you to	Get in touch — the button opens a message about this domain
Payment needed for your mail plan change	A plan change was started but the charge didn't go through, so it isn't finished. Your mail is still being delivered.	Settle the invoice to complete the change

The banner's button takes you to Resize, under Settings in the mailspace's own sidebar, where you pick a package and Request change. Upgrade Package on the Package card goes to the same place. Anyone who can open the mailspace can look at that page, but starting the change needs the billing role in the workspace: without it Request change is refused with You do not have permission to manage billing for this workspace.

Freeing up space means less mail on the server, so it's worth knowing that deleting a message doesn't remove it from the server straight away — the copy sits in Deleted Emails until its own deadline passes (below). Emptying large mailboxes is the more direct route, and for a mailbox you're finished with, Delete now on a mailbox already scheduled for deletion is the one action that removes it and its mail immediately rather than at the end of a window.

Moving to a smaller package has a floor

A downgrade is refused while you're using more than the smaller package includes — the message names the target package, your current usage, and asks you to free up storage first. Same for mailboxes: a package that allows fewer than you have is refused, and mailboxes still sitting in the grace period after deletion count until they're gone for good.

Deleted mail: the Deleted Emails screen

When someone deletes a message from their mailbox, the mail server keeps a copy for a while. Deleted Emails, in the mailspace's own sidebar, is where you see those copies — for every mailbox in the mailspace at once, not one mailbox at a time — and put them back.

The page is headed Deleted Emails, with a Deleted mail card beneath it. The card's subtitle is the important line: it states how long deleted mail is being kept and that it can be put back until its deadline passes. That window is a setting on the mail server itself, read fresh every time you open the page, so the page is the authority on it, not this guide — and if archiving has been switched off entirely, the same line says so, and deleted mail is erased immediately with nothing to restore.

Each row shows the Subject, the Mailbox it was deleted from, when it was Deleted, a Restore before deadline, and its Size. The deadline is a badge that turns amber inside its last day. There's a filter box across the top — Filter by subject, sender or mailbox… — which is the fastest way through a busy list.

Per row you can:

Restore it. Confirm the dialog — Restore this email? — and the message goes back to the mailbox it came from and leaves the archive. The mail server handles this in the background, so the row shows Restoring… rather than reporting it done; the message reappears in the mailbox a moment later.
Preview it. Opens the message with its mailbox, type, sender, recipients, dates, size and attachment list, plus a plain-text version of the body. Restore to mailbox and Download .eml are both on that page too.
Download .eml — the original message, formatting and all, as a file you can open in any mail client or hand to someone.
Delete permanently — erases it now instead of waiting out its deadline. The dialog says exactly that, and it cannot be undone. There is no second archive behind this one.

With nothing to show, the page reads Nothing to restore, and the line under it tells you which situation you're in: Mail deleted from a mailbox shows up here, and can be put back until its deadline passes, or, if the mailspace has no mailboxes yet, that it has none.

Not only email

The screen lists whatever the mail server has archived for these mailboxes, each row tagged with its type — Email, File, Calendar event, Contact or Mail filter. A message with no subject line is listed as (no subject) so the row is still clickable.

Two things stop a restore:

The deadline has passed. Once the mail server has purged an item it's gone; opening or restoring it fails with That deleted email is no longer available.
Permission. Anyone who can see the mailspace can browse and preview this screen, but restoring and permanently deleting are changes, so they need edit permission in the workspace. Without it the action is refused with You do not have permission to perform this action.

A mailspace scheduled for deletion is read-only

While a mailspace is pending deletion you can still open Deleted Emails and look — deliberately, so you can see what you're about to lose — but Restore and Delete permanently are both refused with This mailspace is scheduled for deletion and can't be changed. Restore it first. See Deleting and restoring a Mailspace.

Three different recovery windows

Three things in Mailspace can be deleted and brought back, and each has its own clock. Be sure which one you're on:

What was deleted	Where you recover it	How long you have
A message in a mailbox	Deleted Emails, in the mailspace sidebar	Set on the mail server; the page states it, and each row carries its own Restore before deadline
A mailbox	The Mailboxes page — first Scheduled for deletion, then Recently deleted	Seven days of grace, in which a restore brings the mailbox back exactly as it was; then a second window, set by the mail server, that each row shows as a countdown
The whole mailspace	The Mailspace list, with Restore on the row	Its own window, described on the deletion page

A deleted mailbox is the one with two stages, so it's worth knowing both. Inside the seven-day grace, Restore switches the mailbox back on with its password, aliases and memberships untouched. Once the grace runs out the mailbox is deleted for you and moves to Recently deleted, where a restore still brings back every message but the mailbox comes back with no password — you set a new one as part of restoring it. Delete now skips the grace and skips the second window with it, so it can't be recovered at all. The steps for all of that are in Managing mailboxes; this page is only here to tell you which clock you're watching.

Over the API

The mailspace payload reports the plan's included storage and the current usage, along with the mailbox count and the package the figures are measured against — enough to alert on your own before a banner does. It's serialized from stored state rather than a live read of the mail server, so treat it as as of the sync timestamp in the same payload.

See Mailspace for the full payload.

Deleted mail has no API of its own: browsing, restoring and permanently deleting archived messages are dashboard-only.

Next steps

Check the Package card on Overview before you add mailboxes — it shows both limits you can hit, storage and mailbox count, in one place.
If you're over your plan, act on what the banner says rather than waiting: change plan from Resize — which needs the billing role — or free up space.
Tell the people using the mailboxes that Deleted Emails exists, and that each item there has a deadline — the sooner someone asks, the more there is to recover.
Read Managing mailboxes before deleting a mailbox, and Deleting and restoring a Mailspace before deleting a whole mailspace.