Outlook Delete Issue

Question

I have an old personal hotmail account that had 250K messages. I cancelled Microsoft 365 on an old computer and lost my email storage and become unable to send and receive emails in hotmail. I deleted 240K emails and I can't get them to delete out of the delete box and it has been more than 30 days and my storage is still full. I emptied all recoverable emails too. Every time I empty the box i get the same error message and it says to contact an IT administrator and there is no one to contact.

Answer 1

I think the quota‑idx on the srv just froze mid‑delta, so the “240K deleted” never reached the size counter… opening Storage forces a cold re‑scan, so that’s the only place the full‑state can clear.

Answer 2

The mailbox is still over quota because the deleted items are not being permanently removed from storage. In Outlook.com/Outlook on the web, items in Deleted Items continue to count against the quota until they are permanently deleted, even if they were moved there more than 30 days ago.

Use these steps to force permanent deletion and free space:

1. Permanently delete from Deleted Items
   1. Sign in to Outlook.com.
   2. Go to the Deleted Items folder.
   3. Select all messages that should be removed.
   4. Press Shift + DEL on the keyboard to permanently delete them instead of just moving them within the mailbox.
   5. Confirm any prompts. This removes the items so they no longer count toward the mailbox quota.
   As documented, when items are deleted from Inbox or other folders, they go to Deleted Items, and that folder does count against the mailbox storage quota until it is manually emptied or items are permanently deleted with Shift + DEL.
2. Verify Junk Email is clear
   1. Go to the Junk Email folder.
   2. Select Empty folder to remove everything.
   3. Items in Junk are automatically deleted after a period of time, but clearing it manually ensures they no longer count toward storage.
3. Use the Storage page cleanup tools
   1. In Outlook.com, go to Settings > Account > Storage.
   2. Under Email storage, review the breakdown of how much space each folder is using.
   3. Use the options shown there to permanently delete all items (or items older than 3, 6, or 12 months) in large folders. These actions permanently remove items and free space.
4. Remove large messages with attachments
   1. Sort folders by size and delete large messages, especially those with attachments.
   2. After deleting them from their folders, go to Deleted Items and permanently delete them (again using Shift + DEL if needed).
5. Confirm Recoverable Items is empty The Recoverable Items area holds soft-deleted items (for example, when Deleted Items is emptied). If anything remains there, it still consumes space until retention expires.
   1. Use the Recover Deleted Items feature in Outlook on the web.
   2. If any items appear, select them and permanently remove them.

If, after these steps, the mailbox still shows as full and sending/receiving remains blocked, wait a short period for the service to recalculate storage. In similar cases, users have reported that once they permanently deleted items from Deleted Items and Junk and reduced usage below quota, the account eventually unblocked and mail flow resumed.

If the problem persists even though Storage shows usage well below the limit, use the in-product Help to reach Outlook.com support (Help > ? in Outlook on the web) and provide details that Deleted Items and Recoverable Items are already cleared and the account is still blocked.

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References:

• What is Microsoft cloud storage?
• Storage limits in Outlook.com
• Mailbox storage limits in Outlook
• (Message store has reached its maximum size) error when a Microsoft 365 user tries to delete an item in Outlook or Outlook on the Web
• How to Fix outlook
• How to delete Archived messages?

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