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.
Do you need to save messages in your My Documents (or other folder)? See How to Save Email Messages to the Windows File System
Utilities for working with attachments, including attachment removers, reminders and attachment compression tools are at Attachment Management Tools
The More Information section includes links to additional types of tools that may be useful for housekeeping.
Administrator and Exchange server housekeeping utilities are now at Housekeeping & Message Management: Exchange Server.
Tools in the Spotlight
File emails via eFiler Outlook toolbar into LAN and Cloud file systems (Google Drive, DropBox, OneDrive and WebDAV for Sharepoint, ODB, Box, DriveHQ etc.) in msg format with definable filenames to keep within Mailbox size limits and archive emails securely. File into predicted folders, drag and drop or by eRules to automate repetitive filing. Mobile filing for iPhone, Android, OWA by IMAP. Fast indexing search to find and use saved emails as if still in Outlook. Autosave for offsite backup. For all Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016. Free 14 day trial. | |
Add support to Microsoft Outlook to save emails as PDF files. Automatically convert attachments of all kinds (120+ formats) to PDF documents. Combine emails and attachments to produce a one long PDF file along with table of contents and bookmarks that lets you jump from one email or attachment to another quickly. Use email metadata to name the PDF files saved from Outlook. Automate to save incoming emails and attachments as PDF files for business record keeping, legal discovery or simply for long term retention. Works with Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and Office 365. | |
File emails from Outlook into project or client folders automatically. Match email addresses, project numbers, client names or references to a folder name located anywhere on your network. Watch as the bulk of your emails are automatically filed (ZERO clicks!) and finish the task with manual filing for emails that do not fall within the scope of a project or client folder. Organize filed emails into relevant sub-folders within your mailbox and auto purge dated email over time. Supports Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013 & 2016 | |
HTML Email Archiver works with all types of Microsoft Outlook folders and archives Outlook items to HTML format or platform-dependent CHM format. This allows you to publish Microsoft Outlook folders on the Internet, or move data from Microsoft Outlook onto other software and hardware platforms, including mobile devices. These archives reproduce the structure of Microsoft Outlook folders, can contain messages or other elements in any language and with any types of attachments, support sorting by several criteria; search with advanced options. |
Tools
ArchiveAssist is a standalone program designed to overcome archiving failures in Microsoft Outlook. Outlook archives messages based not on their Received Date or Sent Date but on what Outlook calls their Modified Date, which changes to the current date any time you touch message by, for instance, by Editing, Importing, or Replying To a message. ArchiveAssist allows archiving to work on recently touched messages. | |
Archive Outlook data as individual files, preserving the Outlook folder structure. | |
Attach2Cloud Automatically uploads and shares your Outlook attached files on OneDrive and replaces them by OneDrive shortcuts in your emails at the time you click on Send. Thanks to Attach2Cloud, you can now attach files up to 15 GB unit size to your Outlook emails without any email size limit. These files will be automatically uploaded to OneDrive and shared with the recipients of your emails. Attach2Cloud also enables you to set OneDrive permissions, target folder and elapsing dates to the attached files to upload. | |
Sperry Software's Attachment Save Add-In for Outlook saves emails and/or attachments to your Windows folders, either all at once (in a batch) or as they arrive. It also now has support for Outlook 2010, both 32-bit and 64-bit. In addition, Sperry Software now has fully functional 14-day trial versions on its entire product line. | |
Auto-Mate is an Outlook utility that allows you use define rules to move mail from your Inbox (or other folders) based on several criteria, including the age of the message. While Outlook rules only run as messages are downloaded or when you click Run Rules now, Auto-Mate rules run on a schedule, enabling you to apply rules to messages that have been in your Inbox for a given number of hours, days or weeks. Available in Standard or Pro Version. Outlook O365, Outlook 2019 as well as Outlook 2010, 2013, 2016, 32 and 64 bit editions. Version 12. | |
Boomerang is an add-in for Microsoft Outlook that allows you to take a message out of your Inbox for a few hours or a few days, until you're ready to deal with it. Ask it to return a message tomorrow afternoon, and at noon tomorrow, it will bring that message back into your Inbox. For Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013. | |
CodeTwo Move & Delete Watchdog warns about unintentional moving or deleting folders in Microsoft Outlook. Whenever you move a folder in Outlook's navigation pane or are about to delete something from the Outlook folder tree, a popup dialog appears asking for your confirmation. You can configure it to notify you when you move a folder, delete it, or in both of these cases. Free. | |
Data Publisher add-in provides a means to bring your Outlook contents such as mails, appointments, tasks or contacts to SharePoint lists, where these can be shared with other users. This process can be performed manually, or automatically and is achieved without using any scripts or programming, with complete seamless experience to the users. In other words, Data Publisher extends your Microsoft Outlook to effectively act as a content provider for your enterprise SharePoint repository. It can be adapted to feed data to SharePoint lists for various purposes, such as for issue tracking, timesheets, projects or contact managements. | |
Database Exporter for Outlook enables you to export the contents of an Outlook folder to an external database. It is designed to overcome the inability of the Outlook's built-in 'Import and Export Wizard' to handle data in custom forms, including custom fields. Specify which fields to include in the export. Supports export of mail, appointments, tasks or contacts. Works on any Outlook form, field types and support any Outlook folder and Exchange Public Folders. | |
DeleteByDate is a standalone program that lets you delete messages by date or by a range of dates from all your Outlook folders at once, or from only those folders you select. | |
eeminders gives you an uncluttered inbox that shows you what you need to work on, in the order that you want to work on them. Defer/snooze emails out of your inbox and have them magically appear back when you actually need them. Get email reminders to follow-up on important emails right in your inbox. Get reminders for non-email actions in your Inbox. Prioritize or schedule your emails in the order that you need to work on them and more... Supports Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016 (32bit and 64bit). Free 30 day trial available | |
Save attachments as system files either as part of a Rules Wizard rule or manually, from either a folder view or the Advanced Find window. Can create subfolders to organize attachments by sender or date, pass an attachment to a script or other program, add a link in messages to point to the detached file, filter on attachment names, and automatically zip or unzip attachments. Version 5.5.1.327. | |
Utility hide unused folders in Outlook data files, include RSS, Calendar and Contacts in other .pst files. | |
Kernel Attachment Management is an add-in utility that processes and saves attachments of incoming and existing emails as per specified criteria and also leaves a link to the saved location for easy accessibility. Fully functional free trial of the software is also available for the period of 30 days. | |
MailToFile for MS Outlook is the integrated solution for filing emails outside your Outlook application. You can store your emails directly into a customer or project folder, with only a few mouse clicks. An archived message doesn't change: it remains a regular email! You can easily open, reply and forward all messages. With MailToFile you always have all your digital correspondence filed together. | |
MessageSave is an Outlook add-in for archiving and saving email messages. This powerful and intuitive plugin supports msg, txt, eml and mbox formats. It enables manual, rule-based and schedule-based operation. Use MessageSave to save e-mail messages for archiving, data retention, regulatory compliance, document management, backup, email sharing and exporting Outlook email to other mail clients, such as Mac Mail.app. Version 4.0.4.303. | |
OfficeIns is a small utility that displays the details of all installed Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, and so on...) add-ins on your computer, and allows you to disable / enable them. | |
OLAP Statistics tool for Outlook helps you gain insight into your folder items and make new discoveries. It analyzes Outlook data in multi-dimensional view in grids, charts and graphs and supports pivoting, drill down/slice and dice and filtering. You can run analysis tool on individual Outlook or public folders. Specify any field as the measure using functions such as sum, count, distinct count, maximum, minimum etc, and use this against other fields to generate statistics. Save and share reports as PDF, JPEG, HTML or PNG formats. | |
Filters, moves, deletes, and performs other cleanup operations through one interface showing all your folders. Filters Outlook Items across multiple folders by aging, subject, email, domain name and attachment match i.e. you can now identify all emails with a particular type of attachment and then delete or move them all. In addition, multiple profiles can be setup to be run interactively or via batch mode. Outlook 2000 SR-1 or later. | |
Extract just pictures or all attachments from items in any Outlook and save them to a system folder of your choice. Can optionally move processed items to a different Outlook folder. | |
Exports Outlook mail, calendar, and contacts to mbox, iCal, and vCard files for import into Entourage and other Macintosh mail and collaboration programs. Can also be used to extract all file attachments to a system folder. | |
The Pandali Folder Master for Outlook allows users to move, copy, and delete multiple Outlook folders in batches. No more right-clicking on folders one by one. | |
Sperry Software is releasing their Save As PDF add-in for Outlook 2013 out of beta testing. This add-in converts emails to PDF files (including attachments). The add-in can convert emails, Word docs, Excel files, and many more formats with no PDF printer driver needed. This tool is for Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010 and is now being released for Outlook 2013 (both 32-bit and 64-bit). In addition, several new features have been added like the ability to include the mailbox owner name and the ability to always include the attachments in raw format (instead of transcribing them into the PDF). | |
Sharepoint Upload is a command line freeware tool (with .NET source) that can extract e-mails from PST, Public Folders, and Exchange Mailboxes and place on a file system in MSG format (using Redemption). The extracted files are compatible to SharePoint naming conventions. | |
SimplyFile helps you file incoming and outgoing messages to the right Outlook folder with one click of a mouse. SimplyFile's state of the art algorithm learns as you file messages and suggests destination folders for filing. All you have to do to send a message to the right folder is click a button. SimplyFile also includes buttons for turning messages into Tasks and Appointments. Compatible with Outlook 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007. Version 2.3.4.106. | |
PST File Splitter reduces the size of a large PST file by splitting it into small parts and helps in avoiding the PST corruption situations. Stellar Phoenix PST File Splitter splits large PST file on the basis of email Id, date and folder size and keep the original PST file intact. It allows to create batch files for automating splitting process and also provides the log report of every operation. PST file splitter is available with both single user and corporate versions and efficiently works with Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000. | |
Topalt Reports allows you to create various Outlook usage reports: Count received emails during certain time frame, Extract email addresses that you have received emails from. Many reports available (sender name, sender email address, sender domain, recipient/to, cc, subject, category, importance, sensitivity). | |
VBOffice Reporter is an easy to use tool for data analysis and reporting in Outlook. A single click allows you to see the number of hours planned for meetings the next month, expenses for a specific project in the last month, and many things more. Features include the ability to create reports for all tasks, calendar, and journal items. Create a report with a single click and then sent via e-mail or open it in Excel. Trial available. Supports Outlook 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016. | |
Weight Diet for Outlook helps users shrink their mailbox and organize emails by finding & eliminating obsolete emails, such as duplicate, autoresponder or failure messages. Users can specify which folders to scan and how to filter messages so only certain emails will be found. Weight Diet can move email attachments out of the user's mailbox file while keeping a shortcut to the original attachments in the email message. Use Weight Diet to upload outgoing email attachments to file sharing servers and replace the attached file with a link. |
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
- Change Outlook Folder AutoArchive settings -- CDO script for changing AutoArchive settings on individual folders
- 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
- Attachment Management Tools - Utilities for working with attachments, including attachment removers, reminders and automatic attachment compression tools.
- Using Microsoft Outlook's AutoArchive feature
- Configuring Outlook's AutoArchive settings tutorial
Hi Diane
I just went back to windows from mac (work related) and was searching the web for Outlook archive software. I stumbled onto this post and am so glad I did. This is excellent information and I really appreciate your work and finding this all in one place. I use Diigo and have archived this where I can continue to refer to it in the future. Thanks again so much,
FJJ
I am looking for a script that will open the messages I send and bounce back because of bad email address on them, find the bad address and load them into an Excel or other file, so I can clean up my mailing list. Any ideas? I appreciate any help you can provide.