Spring 2006

PDF version, 3 pages, 341KB

Keeping Your Lotus Notes Mail Database Size Smaller Helps You and the System

We have all received the messages from the Lotus Notes management team with requests for users to reduce their mail database size to help reduce the load on the server. Did you know that having a smaller mail database size will also make access to your e-mail run more quickly?

The Lotus Notes team recommends that you keep your mail database size under 200MB. Following are several practical and easy-to-follow tips for Lotus Notes R6 you can use to check the database size and to reduce its size.

Check your mail database size

While in your Lotus Notes Inbox, select File > Database > Properties from the menu. The Database dialog box will open. Click on the i tab to see the size information. The mail database sample shown here has 3,026 documents using 142MB of server disk space.

Delete the e-mail you don’t need

Many people keep too much e-mail because they are afraid to put something in the Trash that they will need to look at the next day or next week. But, did you know that you can put e-mail in the Trash and keep it there for a few weeks before it disappears? You will need to change two settings to make this happen.

First, go to File > Preferences > User Preferences. In the Basics section of User Preferences change the “For trash... empty trash folder” setting to Manually (see sample at right). Click on the OK button to save the change.

Next, click on the Tools button in the Action bar and select Preferences (sample screen of Tools - Preferences menu). In the Preferences dialog box, the Mail - Basics section will be showing and the last option is to change the “Soft Delete expire time in hours.” Change to the desired number of hours and click on the OK button. For example, you can set the number of hours to 720. Now when you delete an e-mail note it will be in the Trash folder and stay there for 30 days. After 30 days, the note will be automatically deleted from the server.

Reduce the number of attachments you keep on the server

Did you know that every time you reply to or forward a note with an attached file (or multiple files), the Lotus Notes system makes new copies of the files to go with the new note? That means each file has the potential to be stored multiple times on the server.

You can easily avoid creating unnecessary copies of attached files by selecting the “Reply without Attachments” or “Reply to All without Attachments” or “Forward without Attachments” option.

Also, when you receive attached files, don’t keep all of the files on the server. You can easily store the attached file on your local hard drive or departmental file server by using the “Save and Delete” option.

1. Right-click the attachment and from the shortcut menu select “Save and Delete All.” If there are several files and you don’t want to save all the files, select those you want. Then right-click on the group and select “Save and Delete All Selected.” These options are also available in the Attachment menu.
2. In the “Save Attachment” dialog box, select the drive and folder to store the file(s).
3. Click the Save button.
4. Your e-mail message screen will now have a text message in the body: [attachment "file name here.doc" deleted by Your Name/UNIT/IANR/UNEBR].
5. Click on the “Save and File” or “Save and Close” button (above the mail header on the left side) to exit this e-mail message. You can keep or delete the e-mail message as needed.

Don’t keep all your Sent e-mail

Did you realize Lotus Notes, by default, saves a copy of all Sent mail? Do you need to keep a copy of all those quick notes about meeting reminders or notes sent to family?

To change the setting to NOT save your sent mail automatically, select File > Preferences > User Preferences. In the dialog box, select the Mail - General tab on the left. In the “Sending - Save mail that you send” option setting, select “Always prompt.” Each time you send an e-mail, you will be given the choice to save the message or not.

If you have been using the default setting of saving all of your sent mail, you should now clean-up your Sent mailbox. To delete messages from the Sent folder follow these steps.

1. In the Sent folder, select multiple messages by clicking in the blank column to the left of each message (a check mark will appear).
2. Click on the Delete button in the Action toolbar.
3. In the “Deleting from Sent” dialog box, select Delete to delete the messages and put them in the Trash folder (sample screen of Deleting... dialog box).

Remember to periodically clean out old e-mail in your Sent folder.

Use the Archive feature to store old e-mail

If you have old e-mail you are keeping for historical purposes, such as participation in a task force or a project that ended last year, you should use the Archive feature. Archived e-mail is moved from the server to your local machine. This will be especially helpful if you have used folders to sort and file your e-mail.

Archived e-mail is stored on your local hard drive and is easily accessed just like e-mail on the server. When you use Archive, it is important to include the archived mail in your desktop backup routine.

NOTE: The Archive feature as described here is only available in version 6.5 or newer.

Follow these instructions to activate the Archive feature. After the archive setting and location are created, then you can move selected e-mail notes to your archive.

1. While in the Lotus Notes Mail Inbox, select Actions > Archive > Settings on the menu.
2. In the Archive Settings dialog box, click the Settings tab on the left. The Settings window may be empty or there may be old settings. If there are old settings, then disable each setting by highlighting it and un-checking the “Enable archiving” check box. All items should be unchecked as shown in the sample at right.
3. Click on the Add button.
   
   
   
4. In the Archive Criteria Settings dialog box, enter a “Descriptive name...” This is the name that will show in the left panel of your Mail database screen. Next, click on the Select Documents button.
   
   
   
5. In the Archive Document Selection dialog box, change the “All documents” setting to the “selected by user” option. Then, click on the OK button.
6. You will return to the Archive Criteria Settings dialog box. Click on OK to save your settings and close the dialog box.
   
   
   
   
7. You will return to the Archive Settings dialog box which will now display the setting option you just created. The sample at right shows a new setting for “Mrutt.” Click on the archive setting name you just created. Then, click in the “Enable archiving” check box to enable your new archive (checkmark should be visible). Click the OK button to save the Archive setting and return to you Mail Inbox.
   
   
8. From the menu, select Actions >Archive > Archive Now. You will receive a message box asking “Do you wish to archive now?” Click on the Yes button to build your local archive location. Be patient as it could take a few minutes to build your archive.
   
   
   

After the hour glass goes away, your archive should be built and you will be able to access it from the Tools option in the left panel (sample screen with archive named PKParchive). When you click on the archive name to open it, you will see that your whole folder structure in your mail file has been duplicated in your archive on your local hard drive. No e-mail has been moved, you now need to select the e-mail notes you will move to the archive.

To move e-mail to the archive, follow these instructions.

1. Open the folder (or Inbox) that contains the e-mail you want to archive.
2. Select multiple messages by clicking in the blank column to the left of each message (a check mark will appear).
3. From the menu select Actions > Archive > Archive Selected Documents. The Move to Archive Destination dialog box will open and will show the location name for your archive. Click on the OK button. The e-mail messages you selected to be archived will now be moved to the archive on your local PC in the same folder location as it had on the server.
4. If you have moved all the files in a folder and no longer need the folder, you may also want to delete the folder from the mail file structure on the server. Select the folder and then go the menu Actions > Folder Options > Remove Folder. You will receive a warning that this cannot be undone. Click the Yes button to continue and the folder will be deleted.

You can now view any of the archived messages by simply opening your Archive location under the Tools option. You can view, print, reply to, or forward any message just like when it resided on the Notes mail server.

When you make your backup of your data files, be sure to back up your archived e-mail. Add this folder to your backup routine: C:\Program Files\Lotus\Notes\Data\Archive.

[ Return to CIT Information newsletter Index ]

Posted April 10, 2006

CIT Information is published by Communications and Information Technology, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Newsletter articles may be copied and distributed for nonprofit, educational purposes only and the source must be acknowledged. Direct all correspondence to the editor, Pamela K. Peters (E-mail: pkpeters@unlnotes.unl.edu; Phone: 402/472-5630; FAX: 402/472-5639).

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is an affirmative action - equal opportunity employer.