Mailbox Management

Mailbox Size Limits

The maximum size for mailboxes in PennO365 is 100GB for user accounts and 50GB for shared accounts. Microsoft has its own Exchange Online Limits that set the cap of what can be made available in the PennO365 tenant.

Mailbox Size Increases via Online Archive with Auto-Expanding Archive

The PennO365 mailbox size limits are the largest allowed by Microsoft so they cannot be expanded outright; However, turning on the auto-expanding archive allows the account to be larger than 100GB. Online archiving expands the account to 110GB and then auto-expands by increments of 10GB until the archive reaches 1.5TB.

After online archiving is turned on, retention policies must be applied to the mailbox folders. See the section below about Online Archining.

Online Archiving can be requested by IT Support via the O365 tile in Support Center.

Managing Mailbox Size

When possible, we suggest that users manage the size of their mailboxes. Some options for mailbox management include:

• Deleting unneeded emails
• Emptying the Deleted Items folder on a regular basis
• Setting Outlook to empty the Deleted Items folder upon exit
• Using online file-sharing tools to share large files/attachments

Restrictions on Numbers of Items in Mailbox Folder

Once a folder in the mailbox gets to 100,000 items, performance may be degraded. It is the best practice to check the item count when inconsistent or unusual problems are reported with the PennO365 mailbox.

Viewing Number of Items in Folders

OWA: Click the gear in the top right; Scroll to the bottom of the menu and click View all Outlook settings; Go to General, then Storage

Outlook, Status Bar: Right-click the Status Bar and check Items in View

Outlook, Beside Folder Name: Right-click the folder and click Properties; On the General tab, select Show total number of items

Summary

When a mailbox reaches its mailbox quota (see the section above), the account will be set up to use the Online Archive with auto-expanding feature. The user and their IT Support will receive an email notification when the account is nearing its maximum size.

After enabling the Online Archive, the archive must be activated by manually assigning retention policies to mailbox folder(s). This will initiate the process of moving data to the online archive folder.

The online archive allows for a total of 1.5TB of additional storage. Please work with your client to apply archive policies appropriate to their business needs.

Assigning Retention Policies

1. Login to the user's webmail or the New Outlook version of the Outlook Desktop application.
2. Right-click on the folder for which the user wishes to apply a retention policy,
3. Select the appropriate policy to apply. 

After the new retention policy is applied to the mailboxes, it can take up to seven days for the new retention settings to start working. This is because a process called the Managed Folder Assistant processes mailboxes at least once every seven days.

Focused Inbox helps you focus on the emails that matter most to you. It separates your inbox into two tabs: Focused and Other. Your most important emails are on the Focused tab while the rest remain easily accessible but out of the way on the Other tab. You’ll be informed about email flowing to Other, and you can switch between tabs at any time to take a quick look.

How does Focused Inbox work?

Focused Inbox works with you to prioritize what's most important. What lands in Focused Inbox is based on the content of the email (e.g., newsletters, machine-generated email, and so on) and who you interact with most often. If you need to fine-tune your Focused Inbox, Move to Focused and Move to Other options are available to do that.

Refer to Microsoft's Focused Inbox for Outlook page for more information.

The PennO365 environment does not store mail or calendar data on-premise. This data is now stored on Microsoft servers off-premise.  Microsoft does not offer comprehensive, service-level data recovery tools. Instead, Microsoft provides Recover Deleted Items, a self-help tool which enable users to restore their own email and calendar within 28 days.

ISC recommends deleted item recovery be done in Outlook on the Web. 

Deleted Items Process

Deleted Items is the folder containing mail, calendar events, contacts, or tasks the user has deleted. Items remain in the Deleted Items folder for 30 days, after which they are moved to the Recoverable Items folder.

Recoverable Items (formerly known as the Dumpster) is a hidden folder where items are moved when a user performs one of the following actions:

• Deletes an item from the Deleted Items Folder
• Empties the Deleted Items folder
• Permanently deletes an item with Shift+Delete

Items remain in the Recoverable Items folder for 14 days, after which they are permanently deleted and irrecoverable – even by Microsoft. From the time an item is deleted by the user, they have 44 days total before the item cannot be recovered.

Recovering Deleted Items

There are two folders to recover items from, Deleted Items and Recoverable Items. How the user recovers an item depends on which folder the item is in.

To recover an item in Deleted Items:

1. Log in to Outlook on the Web.
2. Navigate to the Deleted Items folder.
3. Right-click on the item(s) to be recovered, select Move, then the destination folder. (Note: mail can only be moved to a mail folder, Contacts to the Contacts folder, calendar events to the Calendar folder, etc.)

To recover an item in Recoverable Items:

1. Log in to Outlook on the Web.
2. Right-click on the Deleted Items folder, select "recover deleted items…"
3. Select the item to recover and click Recover. The item is moved to the default location for its type (e.g., email is moved to user’s Inbox, calendar events are moved to user’s Calendar, etc.)