How to Clean Up Outlook Mailbox: Quick Guide to Free Up Space

Are you experiencing that your Outlook inbox is stuffed with thousands of emails along with other items which had exceeded mailbox capacity and are looking for smart fixes on how to clean up Outlook mailbox? In this article, we will discuss some of best fixes to make space in Outlook and organize it effectively.

Whether your Outlook storage is filling with duplicate emails, attachments, older conversations, etc., we have covered all possible ways to free up Outlook storage. However, many users facing storage limit error, slowdown in performance, and this is due to their mailbox becoming too large. Thus, they search for smart solution so that they can easily avoid all challenges and get clean Outlook inbox. Let’s walk through article to clear up storage space in Outlook.

Why Is There Need to Clean Up Outlook Mailbox?

Each user who is facing this error and if they tried to clear up storage space in Outlook, which results in:

1. To free up Outlook storage
2. This helps users to search or look for important emails quickly.
3. Organise inbox more effectively
4. It avoids Outlook Mailbox Full error from occurring.
5. Enhances Outlook syncing process.
6. Also, improves its performance, which increases productivity.
7. Lessen data files storage capacity size.

If you are thinking about how to free up storage in Outlook or want to handle your mailbox efficiently, then follow all possible solutions covered in this blog.

Read: How to Remove Duplicate Emails from Outlook

Let’s get started to effectively make space in Outlook mailbox.

Method 1: Delete Unwanted Messages

This is most easy and simplest way to clear up storage space in Outlook, as it enables users to remove unwanted emails to reclaim Outlook storage.

Steps:

1. Open Outlook and go to Inbox folder.
2. Sort emails using filters such as date, sender, to, cc, bcc, etc., to detect unnecessary messages.
3. Choose all by CTRL+A and press Delete button.
4. One has to repeat this process for different folders.

Note: User can also use search bar to identify emails quickly from any particular sender or on date.

Method 2: Archive Outdated Emails

Steps:

1. Launch your MS Outlook.
2. Choose folder from your mailbox that you want to archive.
3. Click File tab, then press Tools, and finally Clean Up Items or Archive option depending on your Outlook version.
4. Choose Archive this folder and all subfolders option.



5. Browse destination for archive data file.
6. Finally, tap Ok button to quickly free up storage on Outlook.

Method 3: Empty Junk Mail Folder

Knowing how to clean up Outlook mailbox, users have to empty their spam and junk folders, as these unwanted messages also take up space. Cleaning helps to free up space in Outlook.

Steps:

1. Run Outlook on your respective system.
2. Click on Junk folder and ensure that it does not contain any important emails.
3. Press CTRL+A to select all emails and tap Delete button.
4. Now, go to Deleted Items folder and right click on it.
5. Simply remove deleted emails from there to permanently elimination.

Method 4: Remove Large Attached Files

If your mailbox has large attachments, then most of space is consumed by them only. So, you can save them after removing them from emails, which helps make space in Outlook mailbox.

Steps:

1. Open Outlook application on your system.
2. Click Search box and type:
• hasattachments: yes
• size: >15MB
3. Open emails having large attachments.
4. Right-click and choose Save As option to save it on your local system.
5. One can also select Remove Attachments option to free up Outlook storage.

Method 5: Try Outlook Built-in Cleanup Tool

This feature allows users to view mailbox size in Outlook, search for outdated emails, and try to clear Deleted Items folder in Outlook. Follow steps given below:

Steps:

1. Open Outlook on your computer.
2. Press File tab, then tap on Tools, and lastly on Mailbox Cleanup.
3. It helps to auto-remove any deleted items that are older than 100 days.

This option is usually for someone who is looking for how to clean up Outlook mailbox using its own built in tools.

Method 6: Clear Up Conversations

Steps:

1. Firstly, launch MS Outlook.
2. Hit Clean Up tool shown on ribbon bar and expand its options.



3. Here you will see three options:
• Clean Up Folders
• Clean Up Conversations
• Clean Up Folder & Subfolders
4. Choose Clean Up Conversations option.

This will help you to free up Outlook email storage by removing similar conversations while preserving latest email intact.

Method 8: Compact Data Files

Outlook offers built in option to reduce Outlook mailbox size by compacting it.

Steps:

1. Launch Outlook on your system.
2. Go to File tab, then click on Account Settings and finally Account Settings.



3. Choose Data Files option and select PST data file.
4. Select Settings and tap on Compact Now feature.



5. At last, wait for some time to reduce PST file size.

Method 9: Enable AutoArchive Option

This simple solution allows users to free up space in Outlook mailbox without deleting emails. Instead, it transfers older emails into archive folder automatically, which results in slight change in mailbox size.

Steps:

1. Open your Outlook.
2. Navigate to File and then tap on Options.
3. Choose Advanced tab and open AutoArchive Settings.
4. Finally, check how much Outlook archives your outdated messages.

Conclusion

In this article, we have discovered how to clean up Outlook mailbox by understanding its importance. We have explained both manual and automated solutions to free up Outlook storage, that is, by deleting unwanted emails, archiving older messages, compacting large data files, removing large attachments, and using built in clean up tool in Outlook.

If you are dealing with large mailbox that contains redundant messages, then we recommend using professional method to get accurate and effective results. If you are still facing any problem in clearing up storage space in Outlook, you can contact our support team via live chat available.