PST keeps expanding

Topic

New Reply

I am running Outlook 2007 (as part of Office 2007) under Win 7 with all updates. My PST file keeps expanding for no apparent reason, for example: This morning when I opened Outlook the PST file was 161MB, I received 10 emails, none with attachments, and deleted them all, I went out for a few hours and when I returned I had received one small email (23KB) but my PST file had expanded to 181MB, where is all this electronic dross coming from?

Thanking you for your help.

Peter Ledden

Reply | Quote

Replies

Junk mail could be part of it.

Have you tried compacting the PST file?

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

All my junk mail is caught by MailWasher and deleted on the server and I compact the PST twice a day.

Peter

Reply | Quote

Many database engines preallocate blank space within the file. This makes disk I/O more efficient. Unless you are very tight on hard disk space, if your item counts don’t seem to be growing abnormally, I wouldn’t worry about it.

Reply | Quote

HDD space not a problem but PST has expanded to 219mb this morning.

Reply | Quote

Compact the file to reduce it’s size.

Reply | Quote

Interesting, the PST file has stayed at 219mb for 2 days, perhaps Outlook does preallocate space and the natural size for my data is 219mb. I have been compacting back to approx’ 150mb every day and as I have plenty of HDD space I think I will just let it find its natural level.

Thank you all for your input.

Reply | Quote

The most common areas that cause PST files to grow are the Deleted Items, RSS, and Sent Mail folders. When you delete a message, it gets moved from the In Box folder to the deleted items folder and so every mail message you receive increases the pst file size. Similarly, every message you send goes to the Outbox folder and then to the sent mail folder after it is actually sent. Cleaning out these folders by emptying them just marks the items as no longer accessible but doesn’t reduce the pst file size. Compacting the file, will go through all these items and remove them from the file compressing the file size. To compact your your file see How to compact the personal folders (.pst) files in Outlook(Close the fixit that pops up without running it). While you are in Data File Management (File>Data File Management), you might also want to click on the RSS tab and remove any feeds that are there.

Jerry

Reply | Quote

Useful, Jerry, but how do I compact files in Outlook 2010.

I can’t find Data Management even.

Reply | Quote

From http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289987
Microsoft Office Outlook 2010

[*]Click the File tab on the Ribbon, and then click the Info tab on the menu.
[*]Click the Accounts Settings tab, and then click on Accounts Settings again
[*]Click the Data Files tab.
[*]Click to select your Personal folder, and then click Settings.
[*]On the General tab, click Compact Now.
[*]Click OK, and then click Close

Reply | Quote

So far you have only talked about mail, but the PST file contains all of your Outlook data. Have you done anything at all with the Calendar, Contacts, Appointments, Reminders, Tasks and umpteen other such things that Outlook manages for you?

Reply | Quote