One of the most common sources of confusion we see is when someone thinks they have an email problem, but what they actually have is a storage problem. The two are closely connected — so much so that fixing your storage will often fix your email at the same time. This article will help you figure out which one you are dealing with.
Think of your email account like a home office with a single filing cabinet. The filing cabinet represents your storage — it has a fixed amount of space. Your email is like the post that arrives every day and gets filed into that cabinet.
Now imagine the cabinet is completely full. New post arrives, but there is nowhere to put it — so it cannot be accepted. You try to write a letter and send it out, but the office is so overwhelmed with paper that nothing is moving. That is exactly what happens when your email storage runs out.
Storage and email share the same space, so when one is overflowing, the other stops working properly.
Here are the most common signs that your email trouble is actually rooted in a storage issue:
You are seeing a message that says "mailbox full," "storage quota exceeded," or similar. This is the clearest sign.
You are not receiving any new emails at all — not just from one person, but from everyone. If no new emails have arrived for a day or more, storage is a likely cause.
You cannot send emails and keep getting an error, even though your internet is working fine.
Your email is running slowly even when your internet connection is fast and your device is working normally.
You are getting error messages that mention "quota," "limit," or "space."
On the other hand, if you are experiencing the following, the issue is more likely to be with your email settings or connection rather than storage:
Only one specific person's emails are not arriving (their emails may be going to Spam, or they may have the wrong address for you)
Your email is slow on one device but works fine on another (the issue may be with that device)
One specific email will not send (the recipient's address may be wrong)
If you are seeing the signs of a storage problem listed above, please read: "My Storage Is Full — What Should I Do First?" in the Storage section of this Help Centre.
If you are unsure which type of problem you have, please do not hesitate to contact our support team. We can quickly check your account and let you know exactly what is going on — and then help you fix it.