MS Outlook is a world-renowned email manager that provides excellent services such as calendaring, emailing, task management, and contacts to its clients. Outlook stores all of its data in the Exchange server, mailboxes, and Outlook itself, and the data can be transferred in the PST and OST formats quite easily. With time the file size of the offline storage files or the PST files can gain size due to the data and information it contains. This can be due to the fact that files update as soon as the system goes online from offline mode. The standalone files of PST and OST formats containing data can be found at this location: C drive: \ Users \
Why Reduce PST file size?
The corruption of files is not unknown to any type of file and the same is the case with the PST files. As a matter of fact, as soon as the system gets online mode activated there is a chance of malware entering the system and destroying data. Since the PST files are updated in the online mode it is prone to get affected by harmful alien viruses. This can take down all of the information contained in the PST files at once and can cause a huge loss of work. This is one of the main reasons to reduce PST file size. However, there are advantages to doing the task that can help the users in a great way:
- Helpful in managing Outlook mailbox data.
- Splitting the PST file will improve the speed of Outlook.
- The corruption issue can be avoided and data can be saved.
How to reduce PST file size?
There are a few methods that can be used to reduce PST file size.
- Utilizing Outlook Compact Functionality
- The first step is to check and delete unwanted emails from your Outlook profile.
- From the navigation, the pane clicks on the Folder list icon to switch to the Folder List View.
- Right-click on the Deleted Items and choose the Empty Folder option.
- Click File > Account Settings.
- Choose Data Files and click Settings.
- Click on the Compact Now option.
- Applying Outlook Archive Option
- On your Outlook email page click on File then select Info.
- Select Cleanup Tools followed by Archive in the Mailbox Cleanup field.
- In the appeared dialog box browse the folder you wish to archive and click OK to achieve it.
This process is used for the cleanliness of your system by archiving unimportant email threads.
- Practice Saving Individual Emails – There are plenty of techniques that can be used to reduce PST file size. One of them is the restoration of PST mail items in an individual mail item which is also called MSG file.
- Select the required email item from your Outlook.
- Click on File > Save as option.
- Select the Outlook Message Format from Save as type drop-down menu and the location to save the file.
- The file is now available at the location you chose.
- Email Duplicity Removal – There are instances with multiple emails in your Outlook having the same information by the same sender. This automatically increases PST file size. You can remove the duplicate emails by following these steps:
- In the Sent email folder check out forwarded email items.
- By clicking the recipient criteria you can align the duplicate emails.
- Select the duplicate email and delete them. This will lighten your PST file.
- Third-party tools – The above-mentioned manual methods are all very effective and can work in most cases. In some cases when they don’t work or the user wants an easy way to solve the issue they can use third-party tools such as PST repair or PST split. This will reduce the time taken as compared to the manual methods as well as reduce the effort.
Conclusion
The PST file contains a lot of data from Outlook that can be accessed offline as well as online. The PST files can be at risk as soon as internet connectivity is available. This can corrupt the whole PST file and lead to loss of data. To avoid that and make the file lighter for better speed file size of PST files should be reduced.
