Mac OS X 10.4: "Mail cannot update your mailboxes because your home directory is full" alert

Issue or symptom

While opening Mail, you may see this alert message even if your Home is not full:

"Mail cannot update your mailboxes because your home directory is full. You must free up space in your home folder before using Mail. Delete unneeded documents or move documents to another volume."

Solution

Verify that your home directory is not full

Choose Home from the Finder's Go menu and make sure the volume is not full by checking the space available on the drive.

If it is full you can free up space on the volume by removing (or archiving to a different volume) files and documents such as ones in your Documents folder and on your desktop.

If your home directory is not full

1. Quit Mail if it's running.
2. Choose Go to Folder from the Finder's Go menu, then type :
   ~/Library/Mail/
   
3. Move the file named "Envelope Index" to the desktop.
4. Open Mail. Your will be alerted that your Mail messages will be imported again. Click OK.

Once the issue is resolved, you can remove (delete) the "Envelope Index" file from your desktop

.