The keys to keeping the size of your folders manageable are to
- Periodically empty the Deleted Items folder
- Archive or delete from Sent Items
- Remove attachments from sent messages, assuming that the attached files are stored elsewhere on your system
- Use one of the third-party tools listed here to compress attachments that you want to keep in your folders
- If you are using Personal Folders, periodically compact them to recover space left behind by deleted items.
This page lists tools that can help users and administrators manage Outlook items by archiving items, removing attachments, repairing .pst and .ost files, renaming special folders, calculating folder size, backing up Outlook data.
The More Information section includes links to additional types of tools that may be useful for housekeeping.
Housekeeping utilities for Microsoft Outlook end-users can be found here.
More Information
- Compression Tools -- By compressing attachments, these can reduce the storage space used by Outlook items.
- Search Tools -- These tools provide faster, indexed searching.
- Configuration and Maintenance Issues
- To repair a damaged Outlook PST file
- Overview of Archive and of AutoArchive in Outlook 2003
- OL98: How to Remove or Replace Folder Size Button in Folder Properties
- OL2002 How to Remove or Replace Folder Size Button in Folder Properties
- OL2000 An Overview of Archive and AutoArchive
- Incorporating Archiving into Your Exchange 2000 Migration Strategy -- vendor white paper on using archiving as part of a migration strategy
- Attachment Archiving to a File Server Script -- Script to run on Exchange 2000 Server to archive mailbox item attachments as system files and replace them in the original items with a text link to the archived file
- Outlook Mailbox Maintenance Plan