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Mailbox best practices using Outlook 2007 - how to keep your mailbox small
NOTE – this process might take some users up to an hour to complete (although some people will only require roughly 30 minutes) so please allot enough time.
Microsoft Outlook stores data (E-mail messages, calendar info, contacts, etc.) in a file. If you use Outlook at home and like most users are not connected to an Exchange server, the file is called a PST (Personal Storage) file and is stored on your computer. If you are at the iSchool or some other business and do connect to an Exchange server, the file is called an OST (Offline Storage) file and just contains copies of all the data which is actually stored on the server.
Regardless of what type of file you have, the size of this file is limited if you want good performance and reliability. For good performance the upper limit is 2 GB. Here at the iSchool, in order to make sure that everyone has lots of headroom we recommend that you limit your OST file to 1.5 GB.
These instructions will explain some best practices so that your mail store never grows too much and show you how to determine the size of your mail store.
HOUSEKEEPING
1. Check to see how big your mail store is.
- Right click the root of your Exchange Mailbox ("Mailbox – Martin Criminale" in my case) and select Properties.
- Under the General tab, click Folder Size.
- Under the Local Data tab you can see the total size of your OST file. This is what we want to keep under 1.5 GB. The size here will be displayed in KB so divide by 1,000 to figure out your size in GB. Note this number.
2. Make sure that AutoArchive is turned off.
- Click Tools > Options > Other > AutoArchive.
- Make sure 'Run AutoArchive every' is unchecked.
3. Make sure that your Junk E-mail folder is empty. Simply click on the folder, select all the messages inside and then press Delete.
4. Delete unnecessary items from your Sent Items folder.
- Click on your Sent Items and sort by date.
- Delete everything that is more than two years old or whatever you think you can live with.
5. Find all your large attachments. Attachments, along with saving your deleted E-mail, usually accounts for the vast majority of the space that is consumed.
- In your folder list expand Search Folders.
- Right click Large Mail and select 'Customize this Search Folder'.
- Click Criteria.
- Enter "1024" in the KB field and click OK.
- Look at all the messages in this folder and delete what you can. Best practices dictate that if you want to keep something you should save the attachment elsewhere and then delete the E-mail to help keep the size of your mail store to a minimum.
6. Make sure that your Deleted Items folder is empty and is getting emptied automatically.
- Delete everything in your Deleted Items folder. This is not a safe place to store anything; if you think you might want to save an item, create a folder and move the item to that folder. It is crucial you do not get in the habit of storing anything here as this plan will backfire on you, most likely at the least opportune moment.
- Click Tools > Options > Other.
- Check the 'Empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting' box.
- If you don't want to be prompted each time you close Outlook, you can also go to Tools > Options > Other > Advanced and uncheck the 'Warn before permanently deleting items' box.
7. See how much of a difference all this made.
- Check the size of your mail store again (see step #1) and see if you are now below the 1.5 GB limit. If you are still over 1.5 GB, go back to step #4.
MAINTENANCE
Another way to way to stay on top of this and monitor/clean up your mailbox is to use the Mailbox Cleanup tool.
- In Outlook click Tools > Mailbox Cleanup.
Here you will find links to many of tasks you performed above in one handy interface.
Last update: 2007-07-27 09:06
Author: Martin Criminale
Revision: 1.5
