Mac mail error message :Mail cannot save information about your mailboxes because there isn't enough space in your home folder

Question

Level 1

15 points

Mac mail error message :Mail cannot save information about your mailboxes because there isn't enough space in your home folder

I keep getting this error message from mac mail : Mail cannot save information about your mailboxes because there isn't enough space in your home folder. At this point my only option is to quit mail.

I am on MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 on an iMac

I have tried the things suggested on other posts but the problem keeps reappearing, I wonder if its a genuine message, but I can't see what i can delete from my home folder or how much space I need to free up on my hard drive.

help would be appreciated!

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 10, 2021 1:58 PM

Reply

Answer 1

ArmMan1016

Community Specialist

Mar 11, 2021 7:42 PM in response to jonbee1

Greetings jonbee1,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We're happy to help with this trouble you're having with the mail on your iMac. First, let's refresh the data from the server by rebuilding the mailboxes in the Mail app. Follow the steps here to do so:

Rebuild mailboxes in Mail on Mac

If that is unsuccessful, we can isolate this issue further by booting the computer in safe mode. Get the instructions to do so here:

How to use safe mode on your Mac

Let us know the outcome, and we can go from there.

Good luck!

Reply

Answer 2

chuck_3rd

Community Specialist

Mar 18, 2021 5:57 PM in response to jonbee1

Hi there jonbee1,

We can understand your concern here. Rebuilding the mailboxes removes the messages and attachments from the computer itself. They are then re-downloaded from the mail server back onto your Mac. If the concern is the space in the home folder, you can try deleting some of the mail from the server or website prior to doing the rebuild. Feel free to reach back out if you have any questions.

Have a great day!

Reply

Answer 3

jonbee1 Author

Level 1

15 points

Mar 18, 2021 9:46 AM in response to ArmMan1016

Hi Sorry for the delay replying.....

I have tried all of the things you suggested, and initially the problem was still there.. but I then disabled one of my ( largest) email accounts and then did the rebuild again and so far this seems to have worked.

So I have 2 questions

If I reenable that account will the issue happen again (I haven't dared try that yet as i need the mail working!)
Do I actually have a real home folder space problem and in which case how can i reduce the size - for example by deleting lots of old emails, or should i consider exporting of old emails?

many thanks fro your help

Jon

Reply

Mac mail error message :Mail cannot save information about your mailboxes because there isn't enough space in your home folder

Similar questions