PST File just gets bigger

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tim
  • Start date Start date
T

Tim

My PST file is about 500Mb so I thought I'd get rid of some unwanted
emails -

I have just deleted over 3000 emails, and emptied the Deleted Items folder -
but the PST file didn't get any smaller!

Is there any way I can free up the space that these 3000 emails were taking
up?

Thanks
Tim
 
Yes, you'll need to compact your pst-file to get rid of the "white space".

Rightclick the root of the folder (probably Outlook Today) and choose
Properties. Press Advanced... and the Compact Now... Since you deleted a lot
I suggest you run it 3 times

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"Tim" said in news:[email protected]:
My PST file is about 500Mb so I thought I'd get rid of some unwanted
emails -

I have just deleted over 3000 emails, and emptied the Deleted Items
folder - but the PST file didn't get any smaller!

Is there any way I can free up the space that these 3000 emails were
taking up?

Thanks
Tim
Click to expand...

Deleting an item or moving it to a different information store (i.e., .pst
file) only *marks* the item as deleted. The item does not get physically
removed from the .pst file. Its status changes to "Deleted" so that further
access to it is denied (items in the Deleted Items folder really aren't
delete-marked but have simply been moved to that folder). Once you delete
an item from the Deleted Items folder or use a hard delete (Shift+Del) to
delete an item in any folder, its status and only its status gets updated to
"Deleted". To actually purge the delete-marked items from your .pst file,
you need to compact it.
 
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