Warning! Don’t Let Your Outlook.pst Folder Get Too Large

Just recently I posted an article about managing your emails, and one of the tips in that article was to run the AutoArchive feature, if your email program supported this.  I also said that you don’t really need to keep emails that are older six months – they just clog up your email program.  However, let me just clarify… I didn’t mean delete those emails, I meant move them into your Archive folder!

And here’s why…

If you’re using Outlook it’s really important that you don’t let your Outlook.pst file get too big.  There’s a bug in Outlook that once you let your Outlook.pst folder become very large (more than 2gb) then it will crash and you’ll lose everything. I know of a couple of people that this has happened to.  For me this would be disastrous as I use Outlook as my ‘Command Central’.  This is why I recommend utilizing AutoArchive because it will move everything that is older than a certain date into your AutoArchive folder. 

However, be aware that if you run a search in the future, it will not pull up emails etc. from the Archive folder, but you always have the option of searching the Archive folder itself.

By creating a system that automatically archives your emails that are older than a certain date, you can rest assured that you’re not deleting emails that you shouldn’t be and you’re not letting your Outlook.pst folder become huge and run the risk of it crashing.

Also, as well as running AutoArchive, make a point to save any email attachments (you know… documents, photos, graphics etc.) to your PC, and then delete the attached file from your email (you don’t need to delete the entire email, just the file attached to it).  This will also help to keep your Outlook folder from getting too large.

If you need me to clarify any of this, post a comment below and I’ll reply!

Tagged as: archiving, autoarchiving, managing emails, outlook