Best 3 Tips To Reduce Outlook Mailbox Size

I’m using Outlook 2013 which has my 8 years Outlook data which are associated with multiple accounts. But the size of my Outlook mailbox has almost reached its limitation. Now the problem is that, my Outlook email client performance is slowing down day by day. I’m assuming if there will an easiest simple technique that can help me to reduce Outlook mailbox size.

If you’re going through the same situation, then Yes! you’re at the right place. Here you’ll learn how to improve your Outlook performance by reducing the PST File size using different technique like Archive feature. To proceed further, lets start with the introduction to Outlook Archive feature.

What is Archive Feature in Outlook

As we’re aware of different types of features provided by Outlook email client. Similarly, Archiving is just another awesome feature of MS Outlook that will help you to reduce Outlook data file size by moving the unwanted data that are no longer used to the archive folder.

Solved: Manual Method to reduce Outlook Mailbox size

There are some in-built feature in Outlook by which you can maintain the Outlook PST file size. Such as Outlook Archive Feature, Import/Export feature of Outlook, and by Move to Folder option in Outlook. To get the best result, follow the steps mentioned under each below shown method carefully.

Method 1: Move unused OL data to Archive to reduce PST file size

• Start your MS Outlook>> click on File>> click on Archive.

• Select the box pointing to Archive this folder and all subfolders and then from the list, choose the folder to move.

• Under Archive items older than, select the desired date from the calendar.

• Click on Browse and provide the location>> click on OK. It will creating a new PST file with all the archived data by name Archive.pst.

Method 2: Reduce Outlook Mailbox size using Import/Export feature

• Launch your Outlook and click on File>> click Account Settings.

• In the next screen, select Data Files tab and click on Add.

• Under the Create or Open Outlook Data File, provide the location to store the PST file. Here, you can also rename the file.

• Now click on File again>> click on Open & Export>> click on Import and Export, then click Next.

• Under the Import and Export Wizard, select the option Export>> click on Next.

• Now select the PST file from you want to export PST items>> click Next.

• Choose the desired items to export from the PST file and click on Next.

• Once you’ve selected the items, provide the destination location to save the Outlook data items to be exported.

• Click on Finish. When you’re asked to create a password to lock the PST file, you can choose the password otherwise click Cancel.

Method 3: Export Outlook Items to a New Location

• Open Microsoft Outlook>> click File>> click New>> Outlook Data File.

• Under New Outlook Data File, choose a PST file and click on OK.

• Under Create Microsoft Personal Folders, enter the name for new PST file>> select a folder to move to the newly created PST file.

• In the Edit menu, click on Move to Folder>> under Move Items, click on New.

• A new window will appear namely Create New Folder, type a new name for the folder.

• Under Select where to place the folder, select new PST file and then click OK.

• In Move Items, select a new folder and click on OK.

Limitations of Manual Solution

• Using manual way of splitting PST file, you can split PST files up to a fixed level but instead you may face several difficulties. In some situation user may loss their Outlook data too. So our main aim is to break the Outlook data files without losing any data.

• With manual solution, you cannot split Outlook PST files by Size, which is a great disadvantage of manual method.

Alternative Solution to Reduce Outlook File size

Splitting a large sized PST file into smaller files to reduce Outlook mailbox size is not a big deal but to choose the right Outlook data file need to be divided into smaller parts without any data loss is a challenge. With manual solution you may face several other issue while performing steps, such as: Splitting the PST file to the required number of folders, finding the suitable date or year and selecting the size. However to overcome these issues, there are some advanced third party utility like Split PST software that will allow you to divide your Outlook mailbox items into smaller parts. The tool helps to split PST by providing four options: by size, by date, by year and by folder.

Conclusion

In this article, you’ll get to learn the Archive feature in Outlook, manual steps of splitting PST file, situation where manual solution fails and how to get rid of the difficulties you face with manual method.

As author of MS Outlook Tools, Peter has experience more than 21 years in IT industry and he is now working with an expert data recovery firm. He has quality expertise in Microsoft Outlook & love to solve users query by providing excellent solutions.