Storage full from sent messages?

Question

Level 1

4 points

Storage full from sent messages?

Good afternoon!

After recently receiving a message that my iPhone storage was almost full, I realized that my mail account is taking up over 1GB. The account is not my icloud, it's my "regular" email (comcast). I don't keep a lot of messages, so I ultimately realized that it must have been my "sent" mailbox, because I do send a lot of pictures from the phone to my work email account.

I deleted a bunch of sent emails, but I now seem to be stuck; when I start the mail app, go to "Home email," then "Sent," it says I have 223 unread sent emails, but I can't get to them to delete them.

Any suggestions?

I have an iPhone 5 and am running the latest OS (10.2).

Thanks so much for any help you can provide!
Kris

iPhone 5, iOS 10.2

Posted on Dec 31, 2016 2:35 PM

Reply

Answer 1

DogDocNJ Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 1, 2017 6:04 PM in response to sterling r

Hi there:
The sent emails are not visible from my laptop computer, so I am unable to delete anything from here either.

(I do shut my phone down every night.)

I've thought about deleting the email account and then adding it back in. Do you think this might work?

Thank you!
Kris

Reply

Answer 2

sterling r

Community Specialist

Jan 1, 2017 6:02 PM in response to DogDocNJ

Hello DogDocNJ,

Thanks for that info and choosing the Apple Support Communities. Based on what you stated, it seems you are having issues with storage on your iPhone and you believe it is the Sent mailbox of your email account that is causing your issue. Even though you tried deleting these emails on your iPhone, they may still be on your email account server. If you can, sign into the email account on a computer, then delete the emails from there. Then restart your iPhone as the shut down and start up process is important to keep the iOS software running properly. iOS clears cached data and does other system optimizations when you turn your device off and on. Once your iPhone is back on, check Mail app to see if these emails are gone and then check your iPhone storage again.

Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Check the storage on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Cheers!

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Answer 3

mario49

Community Specialist

Jan 1, 2017 6:29 PM in response to DogDocNJ

Thanks for replying, Kris, and that additional info, it really helps! Removing the account and re-adding is a great troubleshooting step, based on this article from Apple on mail issues, so please try that and let us know if your issue is resolved:

If you can’t send or receive emails on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Have a great day and thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!

Reply

Answer 4

DogDocNJ Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 5, 2017 10:22 AM in response to mario49

Hello - deleting the account and adding it back in seems to have done the trick!
From now on, I won't forget to delete my sent emails as I go along!

Thanks for your suggestions.

Kris

Reply

Answer 5

CarlAVII

Community Specialist

Jan 5, 2017 11:37 AM in response to DogDocNJ

Wonderful, glad to hear you were able to resolve this issue, Kris!

Take care and thanks again for letting us know!

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