Outlook Can Only Handle So Much Mail
The actual truth is that the limitation has more to do with the size of the total email rather than the number of messages. In a default installation, Outlook saves all messages into a special file called a “.pst” file. When your .pst file gets to big, Outlook gets temperamental… even more so than it usually is. Do you want Microsoft Outlook to run as stable as possible for you? This article explains how to properly manage your saved email without having to delete your message history.
The Personal Information Store
The .pst file is known as a “Personal Folders” file, although the file extension directly translates into something from an earlier Windows 95-OSR1 16-bit Microsoft email application called “Inbox” as p-s-t / “Personal Information Store” or sometimes even known as a “PoST office file.”
All of your messages, appointments, tasks, and other data entries are saved in a personal folders (.pst) file. When the .pst file grows to over 1GB in size, Outlook starts to behave strangely. When the .pst file grows to over 2GB in size, Outlook becomes down right nasty. What I mean by nasty is that it becomes slow, unstable, and tends to crash a lot. You can always delete old messages, that works. Auto Archive does help too, but it is not a long term solution if you are the type of person that needs to save everything.
Clarification on the Limitation
Do not confuse the issue of a large .pst file (which is a soft limitation) with the hard limitation of the .pst file as defined by Microsoft. Outlook 2002 and earlier versions had an actual hard limitation of 2GB for the .pst file. If the file hit that limitation you would not be allowed to receive further email messages.
Microsoft talks a lot about how the old 2GB limitation is not their fault, and it is because of ANSI this and blah blah that, but it is actually quite irrelevant (KB article 830336). The fact is that with old versions of Outlook, there was a 2GB limitation, and now there is not. The thing they do not mention is that either way, if your .pst file is 2GB - you will have trouble, new Outlook or old!
What Causes Your PST File to Bloat?
The short answer: attachments!
If you receive text emails and save them all, I mean a lot of email; you will NEVER have to worry about your .pst file getting too large. Text is small. Text will not get you into trouble in regards to your .pst file size.
Attachments, on the other hand, can cause .pst file growth to get out of control in a hurry, especially if you save every message with every attachment in Outlook. What’s the answer you ask? Simple, export the attachment to your file system where it belongs and delete it from the message. Do not keep the attachments saved in Outlook. Just don’t do it! Are you still doing it? Stop it now!
How to Archive Attachments
You can still save the message the attachment came with. First save the attachment to a place on your file system or a network share where you want it kept. Now simply “remove” the attachment from the email message by right clicking on the attachment and selecting “remove.” You have to remove them one at a time due to a limitation in Outlook (poor programming.) Then close the email message and select YES when prompted to save the changes.
Keep the text, and remove the attachments! If you do this, then your .pst file will stay small.
Graphic Email Signatures Are Attachments Too
They are pretty, they might also be kind of cute, and some consider them a professional touch to your outgoing email… I am talking about graphical signatures. They often have a company logo and sometimes even look like a business card.
Well, I hate to break it to you, but those are attachments and they will cause your .pst file to grow. Microsoft has a facility for sending a “Virtual Business Card” (vcard) that allows people to add you directly into their contacts. Vcards make a lot more sense and are convenient for the recipients of your email.
A graphical business card or signature is actually rather pointless if you think about it. You can’t quickly copy and paste the information in it to your contacts or CRM database. It makes your .pst file grow because it is technically just an attachment. And people that use email software other than Outlook may not even see your pretty little graphic signature because it is technically not even an RFC standard, it is a Microsoft proprietary thing that is for Outlook users to email other Outlook users… when the whole world decides to use nothing other than Microsoft Outlook to send and receive email.
And it makes your .pst file grow, did I mention that? The same holds true (maybe more so) for people that put pretty graphical backgrounds in their emails (which is actually over the top annoying.)
But I Wanna Keep Attachments in Outlook!!!
The stubborn type hey? Well fine, there is even an accommodation for you. In fact, you have a couple different options available. One option is to use multiple .pst files. You can actually configure your INBOX to be a separate .pst file from your sorted message store folders in Outlook.
Another option is to make your INBOX continue to use the .pst file and your other message stores, which look like Outlook folders, in actuality, configured to be shortcuts to physical folders on your file system or network share.
Either way you choose is up to you, but will require you to sort though your messages and organize them. If you expect to keep everything in your INBOX and save every attachment in Outlook, then you will eventually have problems.
In fact, all of our solutions will require some organization on your part. If you keep everything and keep it all in your INBOX, you might just be beyond help. Organization is a “stitch in time” and whether or not you have been properly dealing with your attachments, if you are - at minimum - “organized” you will have a smoother road to .pst file size reduction than the linear thinking INBOX packrat!
trc contributor: Derek Winterstien