Mailbox Cleanup Tips

Tips for Cleaning Up Your Mailbox.

Are you reaching the limit of your mailbox storage quota or simply want to get rid of some clutter in your mailbox but don't know where to start? This is the guide for you!
While there is no single "holy grail" method in storing your emails, the strategy used for cleaning up your mailbox effectively are much more generic and can be used for pretty any storage method you use.
In addition to having that "cleaned up" feeling, there are also technical benefits to having a tidy mailbox such as faster loading of Outlook, less clutter in your Search results and quicker backup ups since the mailbox to backup is now smaller.

Deleted Items

This one is easy; you wanted to get rid of it? Well do get rid of it! Right click the Deleted Items folder and choose "Empty Deleted Items folder".

Do you want to be prompted to empty the deleted items folder when you close Outlook?

File-> Options?-> section Advanced-> select: Empty Deleted Items folders when exiting Outlook

Junk E-Mail

Unfortunately, nowadays everybody needs a Junk Mail folder. Cleaning this folder is nearly as quickly as emptying the Deleted Items folder. Scroll through this folder one last time to make sure that there aren't any needed e-mails in it. If so, you can move these to the appropriate folder. Once you're done, you can easily empty the folder by right clicking on the folder and choose "Empty Junk E-mail folder". 

Inbox, Sent Items and other subfolders

Are you getting weekly or even daily messages saying that you are about to run out of mailbox space? Mailbox Cleanup is a one-stop-clean-up tool you can use to trim the size of your mailbox.

1. Click File> Cleanup Tools > Mailbox Cleanup.

1. Do any of the following:

• View the total size of your mailbox and of individual folders within it.
• Find items older than a certain date or size.
• Archive items using AutoArchive.
• View the size of your Deleted Items folder and empty your Deleted Items folder.
• View the size of your Conflicts folder and delete this folder.

Archive older items manually

Your Outlook mailbox is only so big, and it?s a good bet that you won?t stop getting email anytime soon. To keep it from filling up, you can move old items you want to keep to an archive, a separate Outlook Data File (.pst) that you can open from Outlook any time you need it.

By default, Outlook uses AutoArchive to archive items at a regular interval. To learn more, see Archive older items automatically.

You can also archive items manually whenever you want. That way, you can control which items to archive, where to store them, and how old an item needs to be before it can be archived.

1. Click File > Info > Cleanup Tools > Archive.

Tip Archive and AutoArchive might not be available if your mail profile connects to an Exchange Server. It's also possible that your organization has a mail retention policy that overrides AutoArchive. Check with your system administrator for more information.

2. Click the Archive this folder and all subfolders option, and choose the folder you want to archive.
3. Under Archive items older than, enter a date.

4. You can create multiple .pst files if you want to archive some folders using different settings. For example, you may want to keep items in your Sent folder longer than items in your Inbox folder.
5. Check the Include items with ?Do not AutoArchive? checked box to archive individual items that are excluded from automatic archiving. This option doesn't remove that exclusion from these items, but instead ignores the Do not AutoArchive setting for this archive only.
6. Click OK.

Best practices to keep your mailbox lean!

If your email is stored on an email server such as Exchange, after your mailbox reaches its upper limit, you may experience issues with sending/receiving mail. For example, at 90 MB you might get a warning; at 100 MB you might no longer be able to send e-mail; and at 110 MB you might no longer receive e-mail.

Here are some ways to keep your mailbox size under control:

• Archive older items: Move old items you want to keep to an archive, a separate Outlook Data File (.pst) that you can open from Outlook any time you need it. By default, Outlook auto-archives items at a regular interval. You can also archive items manually whenever you want. That way, you can decide which items to archive when, and where to store them.

Note If you don?t see the Archive command, your organization may have turned this feature off.

• Empty the Deleted Items folder: Empty the Deleted Items folder frequently to make sure you aren?t keeping messages you don?t need.
• Empty the Junk Email folder.
• Store attachments outside your mailbox: As they accumulate over time, attachments can take up a lot of room, so consider saving ones you want to keep to a team site, OneDrive, or folders on your computer. Here's where you can find messages with attachments.