Mac Mail and/or Entourage

Oh Dear...I am a "newbie" and couldn't even figure out how to post and now that I'm here, forgive me if I am on the wrong forum. If you can help me, here is my problem:

I use Entourage and also sometimes Mail. Lately I get notices about the High Water Mark and friends tell me that when they try to send emails to me, they also get a message that my mailbox is full. What is happening, I think...is that emails are going to both Entourage and Mail, but I don't know how to quit one program and just use the other. I can "hide" Entourage or remove it from the dock, but it's still working in the background. I don't really want to uninstall it, but how can I disable it, so it will not be active, and yet be there if I ever choose to use it later. The same question applies to Mail. Can I deactivate one and use the other and vice versa, without emails still piling up on both?

Thanks.

gere

I believe you actually have two questions here and I think I can answer both.

First of all, what email service are you using? Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, etc.?

You can specify which program you want to use as default so that the other will not come up when you click on an email link. If you want to use Entourage, select "Preferences..." from the Entourage menu in the top bar, go to the general settings and click the button labeled "Set Entourage to be my default e-mail client". If you want to use Mail, select "Preferences..." from the Mail menu in the top bar, go to the General tab and select Mail to be your default email reader from the dropdown bar near the top. You can also disable your account in one or the other from the account options window in each.

Now, for the (real) problem:

The "mailbox is full" notification could actually be from your email service provider, meaning that wherever your inbox exists on the internet, that is where it is full. The solution would then be to go there and delete messages from that inbox through your internet browser.

One reason why that might be the case is that you are receiving your email through POP in Mail and Entourage and it is set to leave all your messages on the server where they are stored. You can check whether you have a POP account for both Entourage and Mail:

In Mail:
1. From the Mail menu in the top bar, select "Preferences..."
2. Click on the "Accounts" tab icon on the top of the window that appears.
3. You should see your account listed. If it says "POP" under the account name, then it is a POP account.

In Entourage:
1. From the Entourage menu in the top bar, select "Account Settings..."
2. You should see your account listed. If it says "(POP)" next to the name of your account, then it is a POP account.

If you are using POP, you will need to make sure that your messages are being removed from your email service provider's server.

In Mail:
1. Again, go to the Mail Preferences like in step 1 for Mail above.
2. Click on the Accounts tab.
3. Click on your POP account.
4. Click on the Advanced tab on the right.
5. Check the option to "Remove copy from server after retrieving a message" and select the options you want below.

In Entourage:
1. Go to the Account Settings windows like in step 1 for Entourage above.
2. Double-click your POP account.
3. Click the Options tab at the top of the window that appears.
4. Uncheck the option to "Leave a copy of each message on the server" or simply adjust the options just below to delete your messages after a certain amount of time.

I hope this helps!

-Nik