How to Save Space on the Email Server

People constantly ask me this question so I decided to write up my way of "fixing" this...

Every so often, you'll get an email from your System Administrator stating that your Mailbox is full. To stop this from happening for a while, you can follow the steps below at least once every 6 months:

• First, check the space used in your mailbox:


1. Go to the top level folder entitled “Mailbox”, right click and select Properties.
2. Select “Folder Size” to see the size of each underlying folder.
3. Take note of this information so that you can compare after you’ve cleaned out your Mailbox using the steps below.


• Delete your deleted items
  
  1. Right click on the Deleted Items folder and select “Empty Deleted Items Folder”.
  2. Select OK.
  
  
• Delete your Sync Issues
  
  1. At the bottom left of your screen in Outlook, click on the folder icon. All folders in your Mailbox should expand.
  
  
  2. Expand the “Sync Issues” folder.
     
  3. Select the top folder “Sync Issues” and delete its contents.
     
  4. Select each underlying folder and delete their contents.
     
  5. Now delete all items from your Deleted Items folder again.
     
  
  
• Create New PST’s for older emails
  
  1. Go to File, Data File Management and select “Add”.
     
  2. Select Office Outlook Personal Folders File (.pst) and select OK.
     
  3. Choose where to save the file (preferably on your computer in a safe location)
     
  4. Name the file something you will remember (i.e. 2009-Inbox or 2009-SentItems)
     
  5. Select OK
     
  6. Name the Folders by removing the title “Personal Folders” and naming it something you’ll remember (i.e. 2009-Inbox or 2009-SentItems)
     
  7. Select OK
     
  8. The new PST file has been created. Now select Close on the Data File Management screen and you will be back in your inbox.
     
  9. On the left side of your Outlook screen under Folder List, look for the new PST you’ve created under the name you named it (i.e. 2009-Inbox or 2009-SentItems)
     
  10. Expand the folder by clicking on the + sign. Right click on the top of the folder and select new folder. Name it something relevant (2009-Inbox-April) and select OK.
      
  11. The new folder has been created. Now you can drag items from your Inbox and other folders into this new folder. You should pay special attention to emails that have attachments as they take up the most space.
      
  
  
• Archive your Calendar
  
  1. In Outlook, select File > Archive
     
  2. Select the second radio button for “Archive this folder and all subfolders:”
     
  3. Select the Calendar
     
  4. Choose a date to Archive from
     
  5. Choose a location to Archive to (you can name the file if you’d like by selecting Browse. Name it something you remember like “CalendarArchive.pst”.
     
  6. Click OK and the archive will begin.
     
• Now check the space used in your mailbox again:
  
  1. Go to the top level folder entitled “Mailbox”, right click and select Properties.
     
  2. Select “Folder Size” to see the size of each underlying folder.
     
  3. Compare this information with the information you took down at the beginning of this process.

If you still need help after this, call the help desk - not me!!!

Thanks so much!

-s