Know How to Reduce Outlook Mailbox Size Mac When Exchange Mailbox is Full?

Sarabjeet Kaur | How to's Software Technology | 5 minutes read | Modified on: 19-02-2024
reduce outlook mailbox size mac when exchange mailbox is full

Overview– Your Exchange mailbox gets full quickly due to duplicate emails, attachments, and so on. So, it becomes required to minimize the mailbox size by freeing up space. In the following write-up, we’ve discussed how to reduce Outlook mailbox size Mac when Exchange mailbox is full.

A fixed quantity of storage space is provided for each user on the majority of email services available today. Once the storage capacity gets full, you may experience problems, errors, or slowdowns. Similar to this, each user on an Exchange-connected Mac computer has their own dedicated storage space in Outlook for Mac, which starts to display space-related problems when an Exchange mailbox fills up.

Outlook can quickly exceed Outlook for Mac’s maximum size restriction since it is connected to the Exchange server, which holds all of the users’ data, including contacts, calendars, emails, tasks, and other essential data. You immediately consider removing unnecessary data items from your Exchange mailbox when it happens. The creation of a proportional space for incoming data is not required, even after deletion.

We’ll discuss in detail in the upcoming post on what Mac Outlook users can do if their mailbox has grown larger than it can be. What triggers the problem and what steps can be taken to tackle the storage problem?

Why is my Exchange Mailbox Filling Up?

When an Outlook mailbox linked to Exchange exceeds the maximum mailbox size, storage-related issues start to occur. This is because an Outlook mailbox connected to Exchange is allotted a limited amount of storage space by the Exchange administrator. The primary causes of an excessive number of emails in the Exchange inbox are attachments, large-sized emails, and duplicate items. You may experience corrupted database files, poor performance, and sometimes the loss of important data when this occurs.

If you can reduce the mailbox size from Outlook for Mac directly, you can avoid this kind of situation. Removing unnecessary messages and keeping attachments separate from emails are two ways to achieve this. It can, in part, keep your mailbox from growing larger than what Outlook for Mac allows. But there are more effective methods, such as archiving the data from the previous Mac Outlook mailbox rather than removing mail items. Most likely, you can keep the most recent and important emails and items in your inbox.

Before archiving the contents of the mailbox, be sure the mailbox in Outlook for Mac exceeds the size that has been prescribed or assigned.

How Can I Check the Mailbox Folder Size on Mac Outlook?

You are unable to check the size of the full mailbox in Outlook for Mac. As a result, examine each folder separately when checking if the mailbox folder in Mac Outlook exceeds the mailbox size limit. The ways to check the mailbox size in Outlook for Mac are as follows:

  • Press on the File, pick Tools, and click the Mailbox Cleanup.
  • Then, right-click the folder.
  • Choose Folder properties from the drop-down menu.
  • Navigate to the Storage tab under the Folder properties dialog window.
  • Its subfolders’ sizes are now visible, as is the folder’s overall size.

How to Archive Mac Outlook Mailbox Folder Data?

Archiving is one of the greatest ways to prevent Mac Outlook mailbox exceeding the maximum mailbox size. You must thus understand how to archive Mac Outlook mailbox folder data as a user. To effortlessly archive folders in Outlook for Mac, follow to the instructions provided below:

  • To begin, choose the message or messages you wish to transfer to the archive.
  • Click the top ribbon and choose Archive.
  • Tick Continue when requested to make a new archive folder.
  • Archiving rules are going to be specified by you. To accomplish this, choose Rules from the Tools menu, then click Edit Rules.
  • Choose Exchange from the menu’s left side. Now, to add a new rule, hit the “+” sign.
  • Name the rule and indicate the parameters. Now, to save the rule, press “OK.”
  • Choose All Mails, tap Message, choose Rules, click Apply, then Choose Rule to apply the rule to a folder.

The storage will have more space if old mail is archived in the mailbox. Attachments should be kept outside of the mailbox, though, to reduce the chance that the mailbox will fill up more space than Exchange can handle.

How to Save Attachments outside the Mailbox?

Instead of storing an attachment in your Outlook for Mac mailbox, you should try to save it outside of Outlook, most likely in a personal folder on your hard drive or disk. The steps mentioned below can help you implement this:

  • Start Outlook and tap on the attachments you wish to save outside of your mailbox.
  • Select the place on the hard drive by clicking the “Save As” option now.
  • After they have been saved, remove the attachments from Outlook.

By doing this, you’ll be able to keep the space in your mailbox and avoid getting storage problem warnings. To reduce the chance that the mailbox will become larger than its allotted space, you may also use the next technique for backing up the data of your Mac Outlook mailbox into PST files.

To Reduce the Size of Your Outlook for Mac Mailbox, Make a Backup of Your OLM Files

In order to access their mailbox in Outlook for Windows, users of Outlook for Mac frequently choose to backup their OLM files in PST or other file types. The article “How to Convert OLM to PST Manually?” has the detailed instructions to carry out this conversion.

The above manual solution can be utilized to reduce the risks of Exchange mailbox exceeding the maximum size in Mac Outlook. But, if you like, you may look for expert third party solution like CubexSoft OLM Converter to migrate your Outlook for Mac OLM files, including contacts, emails, attachments, tasks, calendars, notes, journals, and more items to a more compatible Outlook importable PST files or other file formats.

Wrap Up

When Exchange keeps displaying the error message “storage capacity full,” it’s easy to reduce the size of your Outlook mailbox Mac. When your Mac Outlook mailbox size reaches its limit, you can use the manual techniques covered in the above article to reduce the storage capacity. But software-based solutions such as OLM File Converter exist and can be helpful software when exporting OLM to PST files for use in a Windows-based system. To utilize it later, you may simply change the OLM file and save it in PST file format. It’ll enable you to remove the converted OLM files from your Outlook for Mac mailbox, reducing the size down to a level that can be easily handled.