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      My mailbox is big and making Outlook slow to load. How can I quicken Outlook by reducing my mailbox size and using an Online Archive or auto delete old emails?

      Tidy your email mailbox by deleting and archiving

      Contents

      Search and remove large attachments in Outlook Desktop

      The quickest method in reducing your mailbox size is to find and remove large attachments.

      1. Open Outlook Desktop on your computer
      2. On the keyboard select CTRL+Shift+F
        1. Alternatively click into the Search bar at the top
        2. On the ribbon select Search > Search Tools > Advanced Search
      3. In Advanced Find, select the More Choices tab
      4. Under Size (kilobytes) select greater than and enter 5000 (for 5MB) or more
      5. Select Browse and choose the top level mailbox you wish to search in
      6. Select Search subfolders
      7. Select OK
      8. Select Find Now
      9. Any message larger than the amount you entered in step 4 will show in the search results. Open each message, save the attached file or inserted image to SharePoint or OneDrive then remove it from the email.
        1. Saving and removing attachments from emails >

      Tip: If you have caching enabled, Outlook desktop will only search whatever is stored locally. To improve results and search the entire mailbox, disable caching. After you've finished you can enable caching again. To do this see: Outlook Desktop Sync Options >

      What is an Online Archive?

      When mailboxes grow too large you won’t be able to receive or send mail anymore. Another common issue with large mailboxes is that Outlook will take longer to load. To solve this we can use Online Archives in Outlook.

      How to enable Online Archiving?

      Raise a support ticket asking to enable online archiving for your mailbox or a shared mailbox.

      Where can I see my Online Archive?

      Once enabled, you will see a separate mailbox in your Outlook's Folder Pane on the left called:

      • Online Archive - [primary email address]
      or
      • In-Place Archive - [primary email address]

      What automatic rules are applied to my mailbox once enabled?

      • Deleted items
        • Automatically deleted after 90 days
      • Junk Email
        • Automatically deleted after 30 days

      How can I applying automatic rules to individual folders in Outlook Desktop?

      1. In Outlook Desktop:
        1. Select folder
        2. Go to the Folder tab in ribbon at top
        3. Choose Policy

        4. In the bottom half choose your desired policy:
          1. Move email to archive after 1, 2, 3 or 5 years or Never

      2. In Outlook on the Web:
        1. Select the 3 dots to the right of the folder name
        2. Select Assign policy >
        3. Under Archive policy choose your desired policy

      3. Archived emails can be found in the same folder structure under:
        • Online Archive - [primary email address]
        or
        • In-Place Archive - [primary email address]

      How do I automatically delete old messages?


      Warning: This method may result in losing emails you actually intend to keep. If you want more control over what gets deleted then you can manually delete messages in Outlook on the Web but this would be time consuming. If you are concerned about a loss of data then use an Online Archive instead.

      Note that all mailboxes are backed up nightly to offline storage so messages can still be restored by the IT Team after deletion.

      Applying a Retention label to automatically delete messages

      Note: You cannot apply a policy on the entire mailbox or the main top-level folders (eg. inbox, sent items). If this is what you want to do please raise a support ticket with your specific requirements and the IT Team can create a custom policy for your mailbox.

      Note: Any sub-folders contained will inherit the same policy. If you require a different policy on sub-folders, set the policy on the sub-folders first before applying a policy to the parent folder.

      1. Select the folder you would like to automatically delete messages after a certain time period.
        1. In Outlook Desktop:
          1. Go to the Folder tab in ribbon at top
          2. Choose Policy

          3. Under Folder Policy choose your desired policy.

        2. In Outlook on the Web:
          1. Select the 3 dots to the right of the folder name
          2. Select Assign policy >
          3. Under Retention labels choose your desired policy

        3. If Use Parent Folder Policy is the only option then you won't be able to set a policy on that particular folder.
        4. For additional policies:
          1. In Outlook Desktop:
            1. Select Add or Remove Retention Policies to see additional policies that can be applied.
            2. You will be redirected to Outlook on the Web > Settings > Retention polices
          2. In Outlook on the Web:
            1. Go to Settings > Retention policies
          3. Select Add new policy
          4. Select the policy you wish to use.
            1. If you would like a different policy raise a support ticket and the IT Team can add this option for you.
          5. Save
        5. Apply the policy to the folder