Outlook 2007

[Ray]

Does any one who uses Outlook 2007 know if there is any size limit on your Personal Folders PST file? Mine is currently approaching 2GB.

The reason I ask is I've been getting a strange problem over the last 3 days I am finding that emails I've received are disappearing presumably after I close and re open Outlook, and I was wondering if my file was getting too large and causing the problem.

Fortunately as I use MailstoreHome to archive all my mail each day I have still got copies of the missing ones, any thoughts please.

[Rik]

I can't answer for 2007, Ray, but in 2003, I keep my 'active' folder down to about 14 days of mail, and then archive off everything at that point, each year I rename the archive file, so each archive is only 12 months of mail. I found Outlook got unwieldy with much bigger files (now the archive file is about 1GBpa, while the active file is only 30-40MB).

[Ray]

I can't answer for 2007, Ray, but in 2003, I keep my 'active' folder down to about 14 days of mail, and then archive off everything at that point, each year I rename the archive file, so each archive is only 12 months of mail. I found Outlook got unwieldy with much bigger files (now the archive file is about 1GBpa, while the active file is only 30-40MB).

Yes, Rik, Im just archiving mine to reduce the size of it, looks as though I'll have alter the setting to do it more often and reduce the time span down to 2 or 3 weeks instead of 2 months.

Found this in the Outlook 2007 Help, doesn't tell you a lot does it? 

If you are using a Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders file (.pst) that was created in Microsoft Outlook 97-2002, you can switch to a new data file format that is the default in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. The new .pst file format, called the Microsoft Office Outlook Personal Folders file (.pst), offers greater storage capacity for items and folders, and supports multilingual Unicode data.

[Rik]

It sounds like it was written by an estate agent, Ray.

[Ray]

It sounds like it was written by an estate agent, Ray.

It does, Rik, sounds like they're trying to tell you you've got an acre of ground when it's actually about 10ft square. 

[Glenn]

The PST file size limit for 2007 is the same as 2003 20Gb

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 have both a different format and a larger overall size limit for the personal folders (.pst) file than the .pst files that are in the earlier versions of Microsoft Outlook. In Outlook 2002 and earlier, the .pst files are in the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) format, and the overall size has a limit of 2 gigabytes (GB).

By default, .pst files are in the Unicode format in Outlook 2007 and in Outlook 2003. Additionally, the overall size of the .pst files has a limit that is more than the 2-GB limit that is imposed by the ANSI .pst files. By default, the limit for a Unicode .pst file in Outlook 2007 and in Outlook 2003 is configured to be 20 GB.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830336

[Sebby]

I wasn't aware of the limit, but I allow mine to auto archieve everything 3 months or older. If the pst file is smaller, Outlook is faster.

[Rik]

It also pays to close the archive folder unless you need it.

[Ray]

Thanks Glenn, I wasn't aware the limit was up to 20Gb but since I've archived everything over 2 months old and compacted it the file has shrunk to 534Mb and Outlook is running much faster. 

Reading the MS Kb articles there is one that refers to some registry entries to set the size of the files, these entries don't seem to exist in my registry certainly not where MS say they are anyway. 

[Sebby]

It also pays to close the archive folder unless you need it.

Indeed, I do that too.