PST size never decrease when delete emails

Question

_{Sunday, May 28, 2017 1:38 AM | 1 vote}

Hi,

I've faced this problem long time ago until now since Outlook version 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016.

Email type is POP using .PST file.

My customer receives a lot of emails every day and PST size grow to 50GB in two months and cause Outlook 2013 not working.

I keep deleting older emails than three months but the PST size never decrease.

Also tried scanpst and compress PST never help (decrease size only 10%).

The only way for me is to create new PST and import emails from old 50GB PST. Then PST size reduce to only 20GB.

I keep asking Microsoft but no good solution than scanpst and compress or archive PST which not help.

Any good and quick solution? As scanpst and compress consume double times than create and import new PST and also reduce zide only 10%.

Thank you very much.

Neung

Poonyalid Penpargkul

All replies (9)

_{Monday, May 29, 2017 3:33 AM}

Hi Neung,

When deleting the emails, how did you do that? If you just pressed Delete button, the emails will be moved to the Deleted Items folder, but the Deleted Items folder is also a part of the PST file, this won't really free up the space. You will need to delete the emails from Deleted Items folder again to free up the space. However, even you have emptied the Deleted Items folder, the PST file size won't reduce immediately. The PST file will be automatically compacted in the background when you’re not using your computer and Outlook is running.

In addition, depending on your hard disk performance and how much you have deleted, the compressing PST process could sometimes last for hours. Since your have deleted 30GB items, it will take some times to finish the compression. You might need to wait for some time until the compression completes.

Regards,

Steve Fan

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_{Thursday, June 1, 2017 7:09 AM}

Apart from Compressing and using ScanPST.exe you can split your PST file into multiple smaller PST file. That makes your PST small and also helps to manage your PST file.

_{Friday, June 2, 2017 6:48 AM | 1 vote}

Apart from Compressing and using ScanPST.exe you can split your PST file into multiple smaller PST file. That makes your PST small and also helps to manage your PST file.

Hi,

Please explain more how you split PST file?

I archive or move 50% email from primary PST to a new PST but the original primary PST still same size.

Thanks.

Neung

Poonyalid Penpargkul

_{Friday, June 2, 2017 6:50 AM}

As you know that in MS Outlook the mailboxes space differ in all MS Outlook version, if your mailbox size exceeded from limit then arise the problem for email clients. If scanpst and compress pst solution fails to decreasing size of mailbox then you can try third party PST Compress & Compact tool that reduce size of PST file.

https://www.voimakassoftware.com/pst-compress.html

 

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

The Microsoft Outlook itself should be able to simply fix this problem without the use of 3rd party software.

Now I create new PST andn import email from old PST is fastest and make file smallest. But it still consume a lot of my times for this problem for many many years ago.

Thanks.

Neung

Poonyalid Penpargkul

_{Friday, June 2, 2017 6:53 AM}

Hi Neung,

When deleting the emails, how did you do that? If you just pressed Delete button, the emails will be moved to the Deleted Items folder, but the Deleted Items folder is also a part of the PST file, this won't really free up the space. You will need to delete the emails from Deleted Items folder again to free up the space. However, even you have emptied the Deleted Items folder, the PST file size won't reduce immediately. The PST file will be automatically compacted in the background when you’re not using your computer and Outlook is running.

In addition, depending on your hard disk performance and how much you have deleted, the compressing PST process could sometimes last for hours. Since your have deleted 30GB items, it will take some times to finish the compression. You might need to wait for some time until the compression completes.

Regards,

Steve Fan

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped.

If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

Hi Steve,

Many thanks for your reply. I'll try and wait to see how it compress the deleted emails.

I'll let you know the results soon.

Thanks.

Neung

Poonyalid Penpargkul

_{Monday, June 5, 2017 2:20 AM}

Hi Neung,

How is everything going? Does the PST file size decreased after a sufficiently long time?

Regards,

Steve Fan

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped.

If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

_{Friday, July 14, 2017 12:01 PM}

After deleting the PST files from <g class="gr_ gr_177 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling" data-gr-id="177" id="177">delete</g> folder in Outlook, the size of the PST files in not decrease. Sometimes Outlook does de-allocate PST from the memory, so to perform some action we have to take the pain to Compact/Compress PST files. Another way to decrease PST Files Size in Outlook is to Empty Delete folder. This will reduce some storage space in your Outlook and will easily erase the undesired mail messages.

You can Read this Article to more: https://sysinfotools.com/blog/manage-pst-files-in-microsoft-outlook/

_{Sunday, July 23, 2017 12:49 AM}

Hi,

I test delete 15,000 emails and empty Delete Items.

Left Outlook turn on for two days.

The PST size in Windows not decrease, but increase a bit from new emails.

Really headache.

Thanks.

Poonyalid

Poonyalid Penpargkul

_{Friday, August 31, 2018 11:25 AM}

I would like to suggest you Compress PST Pro tool by which you can easily decrease PST file of your outlook PST file. It is the all-in-one solution that allows to decrease PST file and Compress large sized PST files by removing unused space, junk space and unused cache. Download tool from here - https://www.softaken.com/compress-pst-pro