Email Data filling all memory space, why is my email filling all of this memory space?

[AC Question]

Email Data filling all memory space

I have an LG G2 android phone running v4.4.2, email v 6.30.40.
The email data memory shows 29.41GB of used storage.
Says I have 630MB remaining and
I.m getting a memory full warning.
How do I clear all this data space?
I have 3 email accts setup.
One hotmail
One Gmail
and one MS Exchange
Why did my email fill all this memory?
Help!

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Email Data filling all memory space

Welcome to Android Central! Open the Email app, tap Menu>Settings, and select one of those accounts. Look at the sync settings, and see how far back it's set to sync. If each account is syncing all messages from the beginning of time, that might add up and take up a lot of space.

 

[GREG SLOBODZIAN]

The "Days to sync email" is set to 1 day, so I don't think that's the cause.

 

[B. Diddy]

You may want to try removing each email account from the Email app, then adding them back again.

 

[GREG SLOBODZIAN]

Will that recover memory space?
I'm using the default email that came with the phone. Is it known to have these types of problems?
Should I remove it and install a different email app? And if I did that will it recover the memory space it says it has?
I'm concerned that my phone will soon run out of memory and then crash.

 

[B. Diddy]

I've never heard of Email data taking up that much space. Either it's really saved all of that data for some reason, or there's some weird glitch where it's reporting that much data used (when there really isn't).

I would think that removing an email account would also remove the associated data for that account. If it still shows that much space taken up, then the next thing to try would be to go to Settings>Apps>All, select Email, and Clear Cache/Clear Data, then Force Stop. Now open the Email app again, and wait for the accounts to sync again. See if it still takes up that much space.

 

[GREG SLOBODZIAN]

The Clear Data button is greyed out in the email app settings. I previously cleared the Cache since it was enabled, but that didn't help much.
Can you recommend a third party email app that has better features and is known to be reliable?

 

[B. Diddy]

My wife tried Blue Mail recently, which seemed ok, but the UI is more like iOS than Material Design, so it can be a bit jarring. Aqua Mail is another popular one.

 

[GREG SLOBODZIAN]

I dumped all of the emails and disabled the default email app which then allowed me to use the Clear Memory
button and that recovered the memory space.
I tried to remove the android email app but I couldn't locate a point where it could be removed.
Apparently its either not removeable, or its not easy to remove it.
I loaded the BlueMail app that you suggested and reinstalled 2 of my email accts.
Tried to install a third acct but wasn't able to shut off the imap feature and only run it as a pop acct.
It said I could do that if I installed it using the manual mode, however when I did that it wouldn't connect.
Oh well, not a big deal as I just use it so my wife can do a quick check of her e-mail via my smart phone.
BLue mail is OK, but would like more direct control in a few areas... maybe I'm just not up on the learning curve.
Thanks

 

[B. Diddy]

I'm glad that seems to work better. Try a few other email apps as well, like AquaMail, Maildroid, or K-9, which are all very popular.

Since the stock Email app is a preinstalled system app, you can't uninstall it if you're unrooted. You can disable it, which prevents it from automatically opening and taking up active RAM. Go to Settings>Apps>All​, select Email, and tap Disable.