Folder is full

[Clitheroekid]

I tried to respond to a private message last week, but I'm not sure it was actually sent. When I checked my `sent messages' folder I couldn't see it there, and on further checking it's still sat in my outbox.

There's a note at the top of my sent messages folder, saying: Folder is 100% full (50 out of 50 messages stored).

I readily admit that I've no idea how this PM system works, but does that mean that the message couldn't be sent because the folder was already full? If so, how do I make room for this message to be sent?

And is there any way the sent messages can be saved, as I may well want to refer to them in the future?

TIA for any assistance.

[Itsallaguess]

I tried to respond to a private message last week, but I'm not sure it was actually sent. When I checked my `sent messages' folder I couldn't see it there, and on further checking it's still sat in my outbox.

There's a note at the top of my sent messages folder, saying: Folder is 100% full (50 out of 50 messages stored).

I readily admit that I've no idea how this PM system works, but does that mean that the message couldn't be sent because the folder was already full? If so, how do I make room for this message to be sent?

And is there any way the sent messages can be saved, as I may well want to refer to them in the future?

Hi CK,

Ping me a PM, and I'll see if I can open it tonight without you having to mess about with your 'Sent messages' folder.

I suspect that the person you've sent it to has simply not opened it yet to receive your PM, at which point it might move from your 'Outbox' and into your 'Sent Messages' folder (as is normally the case, I should add...), with perhaps the oldest 'Sent message' then being deleted.

I suspect this is the case, and if you're keen to perhaps keep some of your 'Sent messages', then I think it might be worth you knowing this happens at this stage, if indeed there might be a delete-rotation of your oldest sent messages...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Gengulphus]

You can probably create an extra folder and move messages from the full folder into it. To create the folder, click on the "Rules, folders & settings" item in the left-hand column when looking at the folder concerned and the resulting page has an "Add folder:" option among others. To move messages into the new folder, mark them and then select the appropriate option from the options just to the left of the "Go" button at the bottom of the list of messages before clicking that button.

There is also a fairly small limit on the number of folders you can have, so that option will eventually cease to be possible - or might already have done so if you already knew about and have used your extra folders. If so, the only real facility I think the software provides properly is the ability to delete messages. If you cannot find ones you're happy to delete permanently, you can of course take copies of them to your own computer or other device first - there are unfortunately no proper facilities in the software to do this, but numerous methods exist - e.g. screenshots for not-too-big messages, copy-and-pasting them into any of a large number of applications. My own preferred one would be to start a reply quoting the message concerned, copy-and-paste the contents of the resulting input box into a text file, save that text file and then abandon the reply without submitting it. The resulting text file is usually reasonably readable as it stands, though that doesn't apply to messages with a lot of formatting; it can be read properly with all formatting by copying it into a new message and previewing, without ever submitting it; I can actually still have an easy option to reply to the message if I discover a later need to do so by doing the same with a final submission. I do however suspect the technique has the problem of too-deeply-nested quotes being pruned by the software.

By the way, I say "suspect" because I haven't yet used the 'start a reply, grab the text, abandon the reply' technique on messages - but I have used it on posts to do things like copying a table from a post of mine in one thread to a post in another, and it definitely has that drawback there (though that hasn't been a problem for the uses I've made of it). A more serious drawback is that the system doesn't even let one start a reply to a post in a locked thread, so once a thread has been locked, quoting from any post in it is a real pain if the stuff one wants to quote has a lot of formatting...

I'll end with one other solution to your problem: if you donate to TLF, one of the things you get is an increased allowance of 100 messages per folder...

Gengulphus

[Clitheroekid]

I'll end with one other solution to your problem: if you donate to TLF, one of the things you get is an increased allowance of 100 messages per folder...

Sorted!

[gryffron]

Any message you write stays in your outbox until the recipient reads it. At which point it is moved to the recipient's inbox, and copied to your sent messages. If they never read it, it will sit in your outbox indefinitely (until deleted)

By default "sent messages" shows the last 50 (or 100) you have sent, and discards the oldest without warning. That means you can't rely on using "sent messages" to keep old ones, as they will routinely be deleted whether you want it to or not. If you want to keep them, you need to move them to a different folder, as Gengulphus suggests. OR you can change the rules on what to do when a folder is full in your mail settings. But with most options, this is eventually going to run out of space.

Gryff