How to Compress Over-Sized PST Files Manually

Personal Storage Table or PST file is created in MS Outlook. It contains crucial mailbox information including email messages, appointments, calendars, distribution lists, contacts etc which is often responsible for making your mailbox heavy due to frequent outgoing and incoming emails. People are often drawn by the misconception that deleting emails will make the application work at a faster speed but this isn’t as such because deleted emails are moved to ‘Deleted Items’ or the ‘Trash’ folder within the application that doesn’t solves the purpose. Therefore, users are found complaining about low space for storing more PST files due to restrictive size limit for PST files in Outlook application.

PST files come in two formats viz. ANSI code and Unicode. Microsoft Outlook blocks file loading if at any time either of the two formats PST file is seen exceeding size limit. This is done to prevent file corruption during transfer. Over sized PST files are more likely to get corrupted at any time. PST file compression is one of the wisest solutions for preventing file corruption associated with large PST files. Also, it can be split or broken to various small parts but this is not always a better choice because it becomes difficult for the end user to manage a whole lot of files together.

Also Read: How to Convert PST File into DBX Format ?
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PST File Compression and Mailbox Management

An over-sized PST file can be compressed easily by reducing PST file size and by effectively managing mailbox data. Let’s have a look at how both actions can be performed without any technical help.

Reducing an Over-sized PST File

(For MS Outlook 2010 users)

1.     Initialize MS Outlook.
2.     Go to inbox and delete any unwanted mail items from there.
3.     Now, click through ‘Folder List’, from the option, select Deleted Items or Trash folder. Right click     to choose from options and select ‘Empty Folder’.
4.     Now, Go to Account Settings by clicking on File tab.
5.     Choose Data Files tab and select data file that you would like to compress. Once done, click on Settings.
6.     By doing so, Outlook Data File dialogue box will open. From here, select ‘Compact Now’ and your preferred data file will be compressed in no time.

 Managing Mailbox Data

(For MS Outlook 2010 users)

1.     Initialize MS Outlook application
2.     From the file tab, click “Cleanup Tools”
3.     Now click through Mailbox cleanup
4.     Follow below given advice for quick performance:

From the ‘Mailbox Cleanup’ dialogue box
Go to Mailbox Size. This will tell you about the size of your mailbox and individual folders.
Also you would be able to view all mailbox data and acknowledge its size. From here you can archive heavy files and useless items or may delete these permanently by clicking on emptying Deleted items folder as already mentioned above.
Deletion of conflicts file recommended. You can do this by accessing conflicts folder and clicking on ‘delete’.

Make sure each useless or unused item is deleted from your mailbox permanently. 

Also Recommended: How to Recover Delete or Lost Emails ?

Third-Party Solution

Using either of the above two methods, anyone can compress an over-sized PST file. However, these fail to perform in case of less technical knowledge. Non-technical users are often found complaining about failed trails. In such cases, an advanced solution like some third-party software may help users in retrieving data on large PST files.

Now, this raises a question about authenticity of a third-party tool that can serve as a solution to non-technical users. Providers like SysInfoTools offer a range of such reliable products which can be trusted for competence and productivity. PST Compress and Compact software is yet another advanced tool for solving issues related to over-sized PST files. It is easy as well as safe to use as it operates in a highly secure environment, thus aids in solving size issues for PST files with utmost precision. DataRecoveryBlogger feels proud to announce this product as the most authentic PST file compressor we have ever seen. Its trial version can be downloaded for free from the company’s website.