Summary: The PST or Personal STorage file for Microsoft Outlook can easily grow to an extreme size. There are some tips for managing its size.
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What can I do about Outlook's huge PST? |
.pst files are one of Outlook's repositories for email, contacts, calendar information, and much more. (Not Outlook Express, by the way.) There's a physical limit on .pst size that's up around 2 gigabytes but more practical considerations like speed often make us want to control the size well before reaching that stage.
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Step one is pretty obvious: delete what you can. Remember though, when you delete an item in Outlook it is simply moved to the Deleted Items folder which doesn't actually free the space until you empty it. So right click on the Deleted Items folder and select the Empty "Deleted Items" Folder to permanently delete its contents. This will free up the space that the deleted items took. But it will not immediately make the file smaller.
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Click the video above for a one minute video showing you how to add a .pst to Microsoft Outlook. (Windows Media 9 format, 408,492 bytes.) |
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I'd Like Your Comments: let me know if you find the video above useful, or if you have suggestions to make this technique more helpful. Thanks! |
Step two: after you've permanently deleted what you can, it's time to compress. Microsoft has a knowledge base article about compressing your .pst here. In short: File-> Data File Management, select your Personal Folders, Settings, and then Compact Now.
If the resulting file is still too big then it might be time to create an additional .pst. Outlook supports having multiple .pst's open at the same time. Your existing "Personal Folders" will remain the destination for email but you can easily move items into another .pst file.
To create a new .pst, select File-> New-> Outlook Data File..., then select "Office Outlook Personal Folders File (.pst)", and OK. In the next dialog box specify the location and name of your new .pst. I tend to place my archive .pst files in a common mail directory on another machine on my network but keeping it along side your existing personal folders is also common. Pick something that reflects how you'll organize your email and press OK. In the next dialog, specify the display name (I usually just use the file's name). Leave the other settings as they are for now and press OK.
Once you've created your new .pst, it will show up at the bottom of your email or file folders list. You can expand it, create sub folders in it, and drag and drop messages from your old .pst into your new one.
Your new .pst will automatically show up each time you open Outlook. You can explicitly close it if you like (Right click on it, and select "Close") which will speed up Outlook's start time somewhat. To open it again later, select File-> Open-> Outlook Data File....
Update 16-Jan-2004: In Outlook 2000 and in other versions of Outlook as well, it might be easier to find the "Compact Now" button this way:
- Make sure that View - Folder List is selected.
- Right click on Outlook Today - [Personal Folders], and select Properties.
- Press the Advanced button and you'll find the Compact Now button on the resulting dialog.
Related:
How do Outlook and Outlook Express Relate? Even though they share similar names and do similar things, Outlook and Outlook Express are actually not related to each other at all.
Article C1867 - December 7, 2003
Good efforts to solve the 2 GB size problem.You can use Inbox repair tool to solve this problem.If pst file is badly corrupted then go for pst repair software.To check the capability of the software download the free demo version from the site:
Posted by: Justin at June 23, 2008 4:41 AMhttp://www.repair-outlook-pst.com/
In demo version you can see preview of 5 emails and 20% of your contact and calender.After getting desired result go for full version to complete your recovery.
What I did, was creating a new Archive folder from the current Archive, with cut-off date of e.g. one year. This reduced my pst file by 60%. Easy and automatic.
Posted by: Antti Linden at September 7, 2008 4:28 AMyou guys are funny. microsoft provides free tools to scan corrupted .pst files and to trim them from the 2gb size so they can be read in outlook again.
Posted by: kyle at October 30, 2008 3:51 PMlol spend all that money...
Well, using SCANPST.EXE is fine, WHEN it works. Doesn't work for me. RecoveryFIX works fine in Demo mode, but I don't really want to spend $79 bucks to get the version which will allow me to save the results.
Posted by: Danny at October 30, 2008 9:42 PMFind details on 2GB .pst problem
http://www.repairpst.info/qd.php?questionid=12&pg=2gb_outlook_.pst_problem
Posted by: php2asp at November 13, 2008 1:04 AM2 Questions:
1. After exporting my OE 6 data to Outlook 2007 - I find that there are a number of messages in SOME of the folders that are missing. I have tried to do this several times...and each time it appears that it is the same messages. I have compacted my OE data before exporting it - makes no difference. On the other hand I had no problem exporting the data from OE to WLM. Any ideas?
2. After deleting all the folders from Outlook and deleting all the files in the deleted folder - and then making sure by using Tools - empty deleted folder and then checking properties personal folders and finding that there are no messages and that all the folders are zero sized..I still have my personal folder (gem.pst) file showing that it contains 2.5 gb... and it is using that room on my disk. I need that disk space back... how do I do that. Do I just erase that file or what? I have bought a new laptop so will be using that machine for my email...so I just want to get rid of all my outlook data..so it is just not a matter of reducing the file size. Or should I just erase this file and set up a new .pst as described above? Thanks for your help
Posted by: Gerald Meltzer at December 28, 2008 10:36 AMCompressing the PST is a good solution to manage huge PST files to safeguard against file corruption. Get the tool from http://www.compresspst.com to compress pst files.
Posted by: Apls at January 9, 2009 12:06 AMOne of the procedures I do to keep the PST manageable is to save and detach/delete the large attachments that people send to me.
I open the email item, select and save the attachment to a folder (in a project structure that makes sense to me) and save a copy of the email text there as well. Then I delete the attachment (graphic, ppt, docs, zip, whatever) from the email message, while letting the message itself remain in outlook.
This way, Outlook remains useful as a total history of the various project communications, but is much smaller, as it is mostly text info. And, I have the attachment on my HD when I need to use it.
I know there are some commercial products which will also do this (save off attachments) but I have not tried any of them.
Posted by: Bruce at January 20, 2009 2:06 PMThe Crop tool and SCANPST tool work on oversize files. unfortunately the crop tool will lose emails
Posted by: Dave at April 28, 2009 1:53 PMAm I correct in assuming that the Archive PST file is similarly restricted in size? If so, is there a suggestion for re-arranging and/or grouping the Archive folders to avoid problems in the future?
01-May-2009