Phantom storage - Outlook is not allowing emails to be sent or received due to full storage, when in reality I am only using 168KB

Question

I have already upgraded my plan, refreshed, troubleshot it through multiple accounts and devices. Can anyone tell me how to change it?

Answer 1

It looks to me like you're not using an address with a Microsoft domain (@outlook.com, @msn.com, @live.com, @hotmail.com, etc.), based on the folder root that starts "outlook_BBDC74". Thus, your mailbox shouldn't contain anything, since that address cannot receive messages, although you may be able to send them. I haven't tested that specific scenario.

The best approach, in my opinion, is to contact Microsoft directly (we're users trying to help each other in these forums) by using the Help feature in Outlook.com. Here's an image showing how:

Answer 2

Hi. I'm Brian and I'll try to help.

Notice that your OneDrive storage is overquota. When OneDrive is full, email is affected because Outlook message attachments are not only counter against your mailbox quota, they're also counted against your OneDrive quota (absurd, yes, but true). Underneath the "Microsoft Storage" graph is a link labeled "Outlook (Attachments)." Click that and you'll get a view of your mailbox sorted by message size, with the largest on top. If you have any larger messages that you can remove, do so, then empty your mailbox's Deleted Items folder. If you reduce the amount of space taken by attachments. you'll be able to receive and send messages again.