Mail quota problem

[OffbeatAdam]

I ran into a mail quota problem where an account that was set at 50mb decided it was ok to go up to 3.6GB.

However, because of this, without completely deleting the inbox (which is an issue ) - I cannot access the mail. It timesout entirely.

Is there any way to split the mail inbox into smaller, manageable portions? Or, the "inbox" file, can it be read with another application if i were to download it entirely locally and just clear the file for proper use.

 

[kernow]

There has been a recent problem with cpanel wrongly giving out false mail box sizes, an cpanel update will fix this for you.
But if your sure the mail box really is 3.6GB then you can empty it without deleting the mailbox like so:
from a consol cd to /home/user_name/mail and then type:

echo -n > inbox

 

[OffbeatAdam]

I'm more than aware of how to empty it...

The issue is more, how can I read it. lol.

I'm not aware of any applications that read the simple inbox file. Although I realize that I can open it in pretty much any plain text reader... the bigger issue is the fact that its 3.6GB... and this would be what I need to solve. There is an email I need to retreive, and its proving rather difficult trying to find it in a plain text file that practically crashes anything its loaded into on a workstation machine :P

And yes, I'm sure that its 3.6GB.

 

[SageBrian]

I'm confused.
Was the quota 50mb, and it just 'shows' 3.6gb?
That was a recent issue, where the mailbox really wasn't that large, it just said it was.

Can you open the mailbox in Webmail?
Is it an attachment?
Can you download using POP3?

 

[sanderson]

I also think in the same way. You may want to try POP3 option. There is nothing to lose. At least it will help you to transfer all your mails on local machine in Outlook. And you can read it too. See if you can do this.

 

[OffbeatAdam]

No, ok.

The quota was set at 50mb.

The mailbox, grew, and grew, and didnt stop at the quota. It went on to grow till the 3+GB.

PoP3 times out.

Webmail timesout with errors.

The problem is, the mailbox is too large for the server itself to handle (think about it this way, if 1 char = 1 byte, and 3.6GB is 3,600,000,000+/- bytes, thats how many chars are in the plaintext document.)

So, heres the issue:

If I cannot access the mailbox by any means, and I know the location of the inbox file (which, if you didnt know, is really just a plaintext file with headers used to seperate different mail), then is there any way to read this inbox file.

I've already compressed it and saved it, and cleared out the mailbox that existed - it all works fine now.

However the issue remains - theres an email I need and I cant get to it, and the solution of opening it in a text editor wont work because well, even notepad freezes.

 

[chirpy]

A few possible ways:

1. convert to maildir (/scripts/convert2maildir) which will break down the mbox file into individual maildir files - though this will likely take a long time to run

2. Look for a script/application that will do 1. for just a single mbox file

3. Open the file using the mail shell application:

mail -f /path/to/mbox/file

Again, it will take some time for the app to list the emails, but you should then be able to page through the subjects to read the one you want - you'd need patience with this option.

 

[OffbeatAdam]

Ok, I'll take a look and see what I can find in the app way.

thats definitely the advice I was looking for.

thank you, I'll stop by and post how it goes