How to Reduce Outlook Mailbox Size without Deleting on Mac?
The Microsoft Outlook is an essential application for professional correspondence on the macOS platform, handling email, calendar, contact, and task management effortlessly. Nevertheless, the more months and years pass, the more cluttered the Outlook account becomes. Big attachments, long discussion threads, and well-stuffed folders increase the size of the database on the local machine. All this results in poor app responsiveness, syncing failures, and even freezing.
The default advice for freeing space from the Outlook on macOS is to delete unnecessary files, but not everyone can afford losing archives, important documentation, and nostalgic emails. Fortunately, you can reduce the size of the Outlook database on your Mac without deleting any information.
Why Outlook for Mac Mailbox Size increases Over Time?
As opposed to email service providers that keep most of your information on cloud storage, Mac Outlook stores everything in a localized database or cache. The larger the file size of each PDF document, the more space all the images and folders take up on your computer’s SSD. If you don’t manage the growth of the database, indexing via Spotlight will slow down and syncing with Microsoft Exchange/Office 365 will become difficult.
Smart Strategies to Reduce Mailbox Size Without Deleting Data
Instead of using any external software or deleting files permanently, you have an option to take advantage of some native settings that were designed for use in Outlook for Mac.
1. Use the Sync Slider in Exchange Accounts
In case you use a company or private Microsoft 365/Exchange account, there is no need for you to store all your previous archive locally on your Mac.
- In the top menu bar, select Tools and click on Accounts.
- Choose your email account from the left side column.
- Press the Advanced button.
- Open the Sync Slider tab and decrease the period of time for synchronization (for example, 6 or 12 months).
2. Configure “Download Headers Only”
Attachments are the biggest reason for large sized mailboxes. You can make it so that instead of downloading complete emails, Outlook will just download the message headers and metadata.
- Go to Tools -> Accounts -> Advanced Settings of your account.
- In the Server tab, choose to “Download Headers Only”.
It is easier to browse through your email this way and then download messages and attachments only when necessary.
3. Export Historical Data to an .olm Archive File
For the deletion of all old emails from your active mailbox and saving them locally, manual archiving is a very effective approach.
- Go to File located in the top menu and choose Export.
- Select which items you would like to archive (Mail, Calendar, Contacts) and press Continue.
- Store the file that was created in the form of Outlook for Mac Data File (.olm) on an external hard drive, NAS or another secure location.
When done, you will be able to delete those older mailboxes from your active mailbox without changing its size.
4. Rebuild the Outlook Database
Over time, fragmentation occurs within SQLite and database logs, resulting in white spaces that increase the size of the files. A database rebuild gets rid of all that structural waste.
- First of all, you should close Microsoft Outlook completely.
- Hold the Option button on your keyboard and click the Outlook icon on the Dock to open the Microsoft Database Utility.
- Choose your current identity and hit Rebuild.
Securing Your Data Footprint using Ultimate Backup Solution
Although native archiving techniques are useful, sometimes dealing with .olm files might become quite limiting when you need to use these archives elsewhere or transfer them to other places in the future. In order to ensure that your backups are fully secure and future-safe without wasting your Mac’s storage space, using a dedicated tool such as MacMister OLM Converter for Mac & Windows is recommended.
Why Introduce a Backup Utility?
By exporting heavy mailboxes out of Outlook for space management purposes, storing them in the same proprietary file format could prove to be a challenge when it comes to accessibility. MacMister OLM file conversion utility for Mac can serve as a full-fledged intermediary and safeguard. The program will let you convert your bulky OLM files to a universal format like PDF, MBOX, PST, EML, or HTML.
Key Advantages for Mailbox Optimization:
- Rather than shifting the whole large-size file, this tool provides state-of-the-art filters for both date and folders. This feature allows you to convert selective emails which are older than a certain period of time (e.g., before last year) into portable formats.
- It becomes convenient for you to convert your historical emails into portable PDF documents that can be archived and saved in external memory devices.
- This powerful tool makes sure that folder structure, unread/read status, metadata, and attachment are all kept safe during the extraction process.
- It works offline in your Mac OS environment, so that there is no chance of your sensitive emails getting exposed through any online servers.
Epilogue
Combining the built-in Outlook optimization techniques with efficient external backup tools such as MacMister OLM data conversion app, it becomes possible for you to have a highly effective email box on your Mac without compromising even one email.