How to clean your Mailbox
DESCRIPTION
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.
PROBLEM
Most of the problem with the Mailboxes getting full, is not the amount of emails but the amount of attachments accumulated throughout the years.
SOLUTION
1- In Outlook, choose File>Cleanup Tools>Mailbox Cleanup
2- On the Second screen Select “Find items larger than” and type the number 1024 (1MB) this will look for any email with an attachment that is bigger than 1MB in size. Click “Find”. The following Window will open with the list of all emails with attachments. Sort your emails by size by clicking the column “Size” This should put all the emails with bigger attachments at the top.
3- After your sorted your emails you can either, open the email and work with one at a time or you can select multiple emails and delete them. Note: when you delete the email they will move to the Deleted Items Folder and they will still show up in the list. When you are done cleaning you need to empty your deleted folder.
4- After you are done, deleting emails or attachments, please allow the server a few hours to update your cleanup and your new mailbox size.
How to Delete the Attachments without deleting the email?
1-Open the email with the big attachment.
2- Click the drop down arrow on the attachment icon and select “Remove Attachment”, this will delete the attachment. If you want to save it, click “Save As” or “Save all Attachments…” first before deleting them. This way you can save the attachment on a local folder on inside the Public folder on the server. Note: if you want to delete all the attachments at once click “Select All” or on your keyboard you can press Ctrl+A and this will highlight all the files. Then just press the Del button on your keyboard.