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Emptying of Email Trash Folders Began on 09 January 2006

The following information pertains to all oberlin.edu email account users:

Various email programs are in use on campus - ObieMail, Thunderbird, OS X Mail, and others. These programs handle message deletion in various ways. Usually, unless the user modifies his/her preferences, deleted messages are placed in the Trash folder, but not actually removed from the user's directory on the mail server.

This activity has often caused people to maximize use of their established quota, resulting in additional messages bouncing back to the sender as undeliverable. This problem has affected many individuals, often at the worst possible time (e.g., user is expecting an important message). We are now also experiencing server problems due to the large volume of mail messages being retained on the server.

To alleviate the problems indicated, both for individuals and on the server, we implemented a procedure to delete and remove messages residing in users' Trash folders. Starting on 09 January 2006, all messages in users' Trash folders, dated ten calendar days or more prior to the current date, is automatically deleted and removed from the server. Those messages will no longer be retrievable. Please consider the following examples:

• If you have a message in your Trash folder dated 22 December 2005, it will automatically be deleted/removed on 09 January 2006.
• If you have a message in your Inbox dated 28 December 2005 and you move it to your Trash folder on 09 January 2006, it will be automatically deleted/removed. The systems checks the date of the message, not the date you moved it to the Trash folder).
• If you have a message in your Inbox dated 09 January and you move it to the Trash folder, it will remain in the Trash folder until 19 January 2006, when it will then be automatically deleted/removed.

Once messages are deleted and removed, they will not be retrievable. If you have been purposely storing messages in your Trash folder (and some people have), do not continue with this practice. If you need assistance with storing messages in other folders, please contact the CIT Help Desk at x58197 or at cit@oberlin.edu.