Sometimes archiving just doesn’t do the trick. Your mailbox is full, you archive, and still find yourself close to the precipice of another notification that you will need to free up space. So you go through old emails, deleting hundreds of junk mails, only to see the tiniest bit of space free up. What is going on? Well… the culprit is usually not the hundreds of text-only junk emails, but rather a handful of very large emails. Here is how you can isolate those large emails, and free up space FAST by contending with those large beasts in your mailbox.

Method 1: Sort

At the top right of your email list, notice that your default is to sort emails by Date. This is usually what you want, but for the moment, you want to find your largest emails.

Click on this dropdown, and select Size.

Notice how this organizes your mailbox. Your emails are separated into:

• Huge: 10-25 MB emails
• Very Large: 5-10 MB emails
• Large: 1-5 MB emails
• Medium: 25KB – 1 MB emails
• Small: 10-25KB emails.

This is often an “aha!” moment for people. You might discover, for instance, that a newsletter you receive weekly is the culprit for the size inflation in your inbox. Perhaps you forgot about how a month ago a large quantity of pictures were sent to you, and so on.

Combing through and deleting a handful of your Huge and Very Large emails can free up tons of space in no time.

Method 2: Incorporate a Search Folder

Search Folders are not a new topic in Office Bytes… See this article for more: Outlook Search Folders and Smart Folders. Long story short, you can create a variety of search folders to create a window into a search in your Outlook program, and Large Mail is an excellent option if you want to keep an eye on large emails long term.

1. On the left side of the screen, scroll down to Search Folder. It is usually toward the bottom of your screen.

2. Right click and select New Search Folder.

3. In the popup, scroll down to Large Mail. Customize this folder further by choosing a size at the bottom. Press OK.

4. Now you will have a handy folder on the left side of your Outlook  screen that you can access any time to keep track of large emails.

You can delete emails from either your sorted inbox view, or from the Search Folder you created.

Don’t Forget to Empty Deleted Items!

Don’t forget, those items you delete will sit in your deleted items folder and continue to take up space in your Office account until you empty the folder.

One way to do this is to right click on the Deleted Items folder, and select Empty Folder.

Remove Large Attachments

Perhaps you have found a large email; and while you still wish to hold on to the email itself, the attachment is no longer necessary, or has already been downloaded. Another option you might consider is removing the attachments from large emails.

1. Select the email message.

2. Click on the dropdown next to the attachment, or click on the attachment. Do not double click, as this will open the attachment, just a single click to select it.

3. In either the dropdown, or in the Attachments contextual tab that appears when you select the attachment, select Remove Attachment.

Thoughts?

What do you think? Will this clear up some space in your Inbox? I did this last week, and cleared out almost 2 GB in about fifteen minutes. I was shocked to discover that an image laden newsletter I had been receiving weekly was the primary culprit.

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser