Outlook Mailbox Full? Here’s How to Clear Space Quickly
MS Outlook is a commonly used email client by professionals and for personal communication. However, most users may end up facing frustrating errors, such as “Outlook mailbox full” or “Your mailbox is full in Outlook, you cannot send or receive messages.” This problem may interrupt a person’s work or email usage, as it slows down Outlook’s performance and prevents data storage.
In this article, we’ll discover why this error is coming up, fix it, and how we can prevent this for a chaos-free future. And also, multiple users want to know why their Outlook mailbox full after deleting everything. So, stay tuned with us, and read complete information and tricks.
Why Does the Outlook Mailbox Get Full?
Your Outlook mailbox is full may be due to large emails and attachments taking up more storage space, or you have not deleted unwanted emails and data files from your Outlook account. Multiple other reasons exist, which are given below:
- Deleted Items and Junk Email folders are not emptied automatically.
- PST/OST files grow large over time if not. Improper management of mailboxes can also cause this error.
- Calendar items, tasks, and notes can also take up space.
- No archiving policy has been implemented for old emails.
- In some cases, wrong settings and configurations of Outlook also cause this problem.
- Sometimes the server hosting the mailbox also gets full due to its maximum storage limit.
Outlook mailbox capacity differs by account type if you’re using:
- com:15 GB (free) / 50 GB+ (premium)
- Exchange/Office 365:Typically, 50 GB-100 GB or exceed, based on plan choice.
How to Check Mailbox Size in Outlook?
Before starting any process, cross-verify that your mailbox is full or not by following the steps:
- Open Outlook
- Navigate to “File”, go to “Tools”, then click on “Mailbox Cleanup”.
- View the size of your Outlook Mailbox
- Also, check how much space is occupied by how many items.
You’ll have to know about your mailbox size in Outlook, now it’s your turn to use the best ways to resolve the issue of Outlook mailbox full after deleting everything.
Watch a Video to Fix “Outlook Mailbox Full” Error
Top 7 Ways to Fix “Mailbox is Full in Outlook”
You can fix the “Outlook mailbox full after deleting everything” error by deleting removed emails from the Trash/Bin folders and also cleaning your Trash folder, which contains unnecessary spam emails. Some of the other ways are explained below:
- Use the Mailbox Cleanup Tool
- Archive Old Emails Automatically
- Delete or Compress Email Attachments
- Increase Outlook Mailbox Size (for Exchange/Office 365 Users)
- Compact Outlook Data File (.PST/.OST)
- Use a Professional Tool
Let’s discuss them one by one quickly
How to Solve “Your Mailbox is Full in Outlook” Error?
Here we have explained all the possible ways to resolve this problem one by one. Understand the way that suits your needs best and use it. But follow each step carefully, one wrong step may lead data loss situation.
#1: Empty Trash and Junk Folder
Sometimes happens when your Outlook mailbox full after deleting everything like emails and data files, because all your emails are moved into the Trash/Bin folder after deleting them for 14 to 30 days to be deleted permanently. And the Junk folder contains spam emails, which are not so important for users. So, we can empty the Trash and Junk folders to fix “Outlook mailbox is full” situations:
- Right-click on Deleted Items >> Empty Folder.
- You can do the same for Junk Email.
You can auto-delete:
- File > Options > Advanced > Outlook Start and Exit > Empty Deleted Items.
Cons:
- Permanent Deletion: Items cannot be easily recovered simply after getting removed from their folders unless a backup is available.
- Accidental Deletion: Important emails that have been mistakenly deleted and placed in these folders may be lost forever.
#2 Use the Mailbox Cleanup Tool
Outlook includes a native tool for managing the size of the mailbox.
- File > Tools > Mailbox Cleanup.
- Options to choose from include:
- It helps to view Mailbox size.
- Large items.
- Auto-deletes anything older than 100 days.
Cons:
- Not Immediate: considerable manual picking and deciding is required.
- Attachment-free: no deep clean for attachment-heavy accounts.
#3 Archive Old Emails Automatically
- AutoArchive will automatically relocate older items into a local archive file, thus reducing the size of your mailbox.
- File > Options > Advanced > AutoArchive Settings
- Decide how often you want to auto-archive and where you want that automatically archived data stored.
Cons:
- Accessibility: Because an archive is saved locally, it won’t sync across devices.
- Risk of Missing Email: If the archived file is corrupted or lost, you’ll lose that history completely.
Note: Don’t disable AutoArchive – it is a very useful space-saving feature.
Quick Suggestion to Fix the Error Without Deleting Data
Your Outlook mailbox is full because of large data files, and if you don’t want to delete any items from your file, then download the SysTools PST Splitter Tool. This is the right and accurate method to fix the “Outlook Mailbox Full” error.
It can split PST file without Outlook into smaller parts using specific filters and settings. Like you can divide by size, date, year, subject, folder, email ID, category, and sender. Also, it comes with a free demo version to understand how the tool works.
#4: Delete or Compress Email Attachments
Email attachments take up the most space.
- Use Search > Has Attachments to find and get rid of the attached emails.
- Save the attachments to your PC or laptop and delete them from your email.
Note: Use a third-party tool like SysTools Outlook Attachment Extractor to extract the attachments from mailbox (keep them as a backup) as attachment takes up maximum space in emails. So, you can also delete from the original Outlook PST file, which makes your Outlook mailbox size less and accessible.
Cons:
- Loss of Valuable Data: Deleting an attachment without backing it up could result in data loss.
- User Effort: Searching, saving, and then deleting attachments is a time-consuming manual task.
#5 Increase Outlook Mailbox Size (for Exchange/Office 365 users)
If you use Outlook as part of your business plan, you are likely receiving Outlook mailbox full issue, which is increasing the size of your mailbox quota.
- Speak to your IT admin or upsize your subscription plan.
- Some Office 365 enterprise plans show mailbox sizes up to 100 GB or auto-increasing archives.
Cons:
- Not Free: Requires paid plan upgrade or additional payment.
- No change in behaviour: It only increases the space in your mailbox; it does not improve email management or behaviour.
Recommended– How to reduce PST file size in Outlook.
#6 Compact Outlook Data File (.PST/.OST)
After removing the items:
- Navigate to File, then Account Settings, and click on Data Files
- Choose the File, click on Settings, then Compact Now
Cons:
- No Storage Gain: Compaction only occurs after the email is deleted or discarded.
- Risk of Damage: Compacting a PST/OST file with a large size can cause file integrity issues if the compaction is interrupted.
This method regains the space that is not used up and boosts Outlook’s performance.
Note: The above manual methods can be challenging for normal Outlook users. Professionals recommend using modern and automated tools, rather than implementing a large-scale method for resolving Outlook Mailbox full issues.
Automate Solution to Fix “Outlook Mailbox Full After Deleting Everything” Issue
To resolve the issue of Outlook mailbox full, you just need an advanced utility like SysTools PST Compress Tool, which allows you to compress your PST file reliably. This can help you to do it automatically and without any risk of data loss.
This advanced utility will ensure the file is intact while compressing, allowing you to save your PST file size in good conscience by safely deleting, extracting, or saving your file attachments to a distinct folder and leaving the email content unaffected.
Let’s discover more features of it:
This professional tool is designed to make the PST file smaller in size as it offers many compression modes like removing, extracting, and saving the attached files to reduce the size of the Outlook mailbox. It also supports batch removal, where the user can process many files according to his or her choice while preserving the data or structure of the file intact. It doesn’t need any third-party installation or any software, as it is a standalone utility.
Steps to Use an Advanced Tool to Fix Outlook Mailbox is Full Issue
To resolve the problem, follow the steps given below:
1) Firstly, launch and run the aforementioned tool.
2) Click on the Add Files or Folder button by choosing the compression options provided by the tool.
3) Click on Browse button and select the file to fix Outlook mailbox full error.
4) Choose the options from Select Item Types.
5)Finally, press the OK button to complete the task.
This is how you can easily and quickly reduce the size of your Outlook mailbox by compressing the files.
Pro tip: You can also choose SysTools Outlook Duplicate Remover, which can also help to reduce the size of the mailbox by identifying and removing duplicates which are causing chaos and cluttering the mailbox. For further information, visit the official webpage.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve discussed how many users face an Outlook mailbox full after deleting everything while manually reducing the Outlook mailbox size. To fix the Outlook full mailbox error, we provided a simple and reliable solution that helps to make large-sized Outlook data files into smaller files. It is compatible with cutting the corrupted Outlook PST file without any obstacles. Try to use an automated method instead of a manual method, as it can save more time than manually working. Also, while using the software, always take a backup of your data to prevent the accidental loss of data.
FAQs on “Mailbox is Full in Outlook”
Q.1 How Can I Fix Outlook Mailbox Full but no Messages Issue?
A. The possible reason for displaying this error is that your Outlook data file is data file corruption. You must have to repair a corrupted Outlook PST file, and for that, you can use SysTools PST Repair Tool.
Q.2 What is the Best Solution to Deal with Oversized PST Files?
A. You can split oversized Outlook data files into smaller parts that are the best way to fix oversized file issues. To do so you can take the help of the PST file splitter tool.
Q.3 How Can I Create a New PST File in Outlook?
A. 1. Open Outlook. Click Items >> More Items >> Outlook Data files
2. Give a name for the new PST file and select the desired location
3. Click OK.
Q.4 Why is my Outlook Mailbox Full After Deleting Everything?
A.It happens because when we delete items from the file, we forget to remove those items from the deleted items folder, also, which makes performance and problems occur, like an Outlook mailbox full after deleting everything. To prevent this, either use our suggested tool mentioned above or use manual steps, where you can check other folders too.