OUtlook deleted message folder
December 22, 2009 10:21 PM Subscribe
My Outlook deleted file is 17,000 messages. It runs off of a windows server for our organization
I understand that is not the best idea. But i find that i return to even deleted messages with great frequency.
What would be the best way to archive those messages so i can easily search them while improving the performance of outlook?
Set up a Gmail or other email account. Add an IMAP profile to Outlook for that account. Move messages you would otherwise delete to your Gmail account. You can search for them via Gmail and keep your organization-side Outlook folder cleaner.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:53 PM on December 22, 2009
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:53 PM on December 22, 2009
Outlook has an archive function just for this. Move them to personal folders organized your way and select "File-->Archive...". Then highlight your folders. Repeat as preferred. They will be stored in a separate file from the .pst main file.
Or just start a new .pst file for the items you want saved separately.
posted by TDIpod at 11:04 PM on December 22, 2009
Or just start a new .pst file for the items you want saved separately.
posted by TDIpod at 11:04 PM on December 22, 2009
Outlook has an option to archive everything X months old, it can even do it automatically. Most people see a box pop up every few months that says "Outlook wants to autoarchive your old items," the box is promptly closed because they aren't sure what it means.
You can invoke this manually by going to the file menu and selecting Archive... Be sure to select the entire "Mailbox - dougiedd" as what you want archived and choose how far back you want to start archiving (so 2 months means your mail server would only hold the most recent 2 months of mail, the rest would be on your hard drive). You can even archive your deleted items, although I wouldn't recommend it.
It will then create another tree that looks a lot like your normal mailbox beneath the "Mailbox - dougiedd" on the left hand side of Outlook. It keeps the same structure so that things were filed in a certain folder are there, sent items where they should be, etc.
As for using deleted items as a sorting bin, don't. If you used your office trash can as a temporary place to store stuff, you'd quickly get very angry that it is gone one day. The only thing that should be deleted is actual trash that you'll never need again. If you're unsure, file it. If you don't have a place for it, make a folder and put it in there.
Once you have folders for different clients or companies or cases or what not, you can then create filters that will automagically move all mail that meets those filters into the proper folder. Such as everything received from the @companyx.com will go into the companyx folder. If you're afraid of missing something when it comes in since it will bypass your inbox, you can right click on a folder and "mark all as read" so that you'll get a nice bold (1) next to the folder when you get a new message in it. Adding filters has gotten pretty easy, and is mostly wizard driven. Google "outlook filters" for numerous tutorials. If you need to sit down with your IT guy one day and grind through creating a lot of filters, do it. I'm sure he'd rather help with this than clear out your deleted items one day because he needs to free space and you inadvertently lose something you need.
posted by ijoyner at 11:10 PM on December 22, 2009
You can invoke this manually by going to the file menu and selecting Archive... Be sure to select the entire "Mailbox - dougiedd" as what you want archived and choose how far back you want to start archiving (so 2 months means your mail server would only hold the most recent 2 months of mail, the rest would be on your hard drive). You can even archive your deleted items, although I wouldn't recommend it.
It will then create another tree that looks a lot like your normal mailbox beneath the "Mailbox - dougiedd" on the left hand side of Outlook. It keeps the same structure so that things were filed in a certain folder are there, sent items where they should be, etc.
As for using deleted items as a sorting bin, don't. If you used your office trash can as a temporary place to store stuff, you'd quickly get very angry that it is gone one day. The only thing that should be deleted is actual trash that you'll never need again. If you're unsure, file it. If you don't have a place for it, make a folder and put it in there.
Once you have folders for different clients or companies or cases or what not, you can then create filters that will automagically move all mail that meets those filters into the proper folder. Such as everything received from the @companyx.com will go into the companyx folder. If you're afraid of missing something when it comes in since it will bypass your inbox, you can right click on a folder and "mark all as read" so that you'll get a nice bold (1) next to the folder when you get a new message in it. Adding filters has gotten pretty easy, and is mostly wizard driven. Google "outlook filters" for numerous tutorials. If you need to sit down with your IT guy one day and grind through creating a lot of filters, do it. I'm sure he'd rather help with this than clear out your deleted items one day because he needs to free space and you inadvertently lose something you need.
posted by ijoyner at 11:10 PM on December 22, 2009
Sorry, they're more often referred to as "rules" not "filters"
posted by ijoyner at 11:13 PM on December 22, 2009
posted by ijoyner at 11:13 PM on December 22, 2009
Response by poster: a good 50% of the deleted would fall into the unsure category: so i could reduce the size of my folders by 1/2 but i would still need one large unsure folder...no?
posted by dougiedd at 11:30 PM on December 22, 2009
posted by dougiedd at 11:30 PM on December 22, 2009
Yeah, hopefully that "unsure" folder would just be all the leftover stuff in the inbox after sorting everything else.
If you don't like having that much in the Inbox all the time you can sort by date and move everything 2 weeks or older into another folder of your choosing.
posted by ijoyner at 11:34 PM on December 22, 2009
If you don't like having that much in the Inbox all the time you can sort by date and move everything 2 weeks or older into another folder of your choosing.
posted by ijoyner at 11:34 PM on December 22, 2009
Yes, use folders to organize the messages and then .pst for archiving.
posted by Silvertree at 5:24 AM on December 23, 2009
posted by Silvertree at 5:24 AM on December 23, 2009
With search, you don't really need narrowly-focused folders. It's just as efficient to have a couple of enormous archives, and then search for a particular whatever.
posted by hexatron at 5:31 AM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by hexatron at 5:31 AM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
a good 50% of the deleted would fall into the unsure category: so i could reduce the size of my folders by 1/2 but i would still need one large unsure folder...no?
Yes. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you actually should use the deleted folder for deleted messages only, not messages you may need in the future. It's just ridiculous. Do you not empty your trashcan at home because you put letters and documents in there you may need in the future? No, of course not, that would be stupid, that's not what the trashcan is for. Well, there you go.
posted by splice at 5:46 AM on December 23, 2009
Yes. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you actually should use the deleted folder for deleted messages only, not messages you may need in the future. It's just ridiculous. Do you not empty your trashcan at home because you put letters and documents in there you may need in the future? No, of course not, that would be stupid, that's not what the trashcan is for. Well, there you go.
posted by splice at 5:46 AM on December 23, 2009
Exchange admin here: most Exchange environments have an administrator setting that automatically empties items from the deleted folder that are older than a certain age. Please please please do not use the trash as a folder. Users do this and it baffles me, cause they get pissed when items automatically get deleted from the trash in the nightly server maintenance. Make a folder called NotDeleted or AlmostTrash and store the items in there. Please. I beg you.
Also - to comment on hexatron's suggestion - the higher the item count in a folder, the more intense the i/o on the server. For most people doesn't mean shit but the upshot for the end user is you experience a lag - that annoying outlook pausing - when you click on a folder that has more than 5000 items. Have you ever gotten the 'outlook has lost/restored connection to the exchange server' bubble in the taskbar or clicked on a folder and it takes like 30 seconds to enumerate the contents? That's from too high of an item count. Microsoft recommends no more than 5000 items per folder, and from long experience troubleshooting this kind of stuff, I concur. Even one master folder with subfolders simply divided by year/number/alphabet is way easier on client and server than one folder with 75000 items in it.
posted by 8dot3 at 6:11 AM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
Also - to comment on hexatron's suggestion - the higher the item count in a folder, the more intense the i/o on the server. For most people doesn't mean shit but the upshot for the end user is you experience a lag - that annoying outlook pausing - when you click on a folder that has more than 5000 items. Have you ever gotten the 'outlook has lost/restored connection to the exchange server' bubble in the taskbar or clicked on a folder and it takes like 30 seconds to enumerate the contents? That's from too high of an item count. Microsoft recommends no more than 5000 items per folder, and from long experience troubleshooting this kind of stuff, I concur. Even one master folder with subfolders simply divided by year/number/alphabet is way easier on client and server than one folder with 75000 items in it.
posted by 8dot3 at 6:11 AM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
As an IT guy I always feel free to empty anyone's trash or deleted items folder if needed. I also don't feel bad when someone tells me they had stuff in there that was needed.
Email is a pretty crappy storage medium. If you need the information, offload it into something that makes sense, the same holds true for attachments.
Due to a server failure or file corruption it's possible for you to lose your entire collection of email (unless you are backing up your database daily).
Not that I have ever been able to get this draconian, but look over Inbox Zero. There's got to be a sane compromise between what he's doing and what you are doing.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:04 AM on December 23, 2009
Email is a pretty crappy storage medium. If you need the information, offload it into something that makes sense, the same holds true for attachments.
Due to a server failure or file corruption it's possible for you to lose your entire collection of email (unless you are backing up your database daily).
Not that I have ever been able to get this draconian, but look over Inbox Zero. There's got to be a sane compromise between what he's doing and what you are doing.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:04 AM on December 23, 2009
Response by poster: well there is no way i am NOW going to go back and sort through that 17K messages so can i move that trash folder out of outlook? i like the gmail idea just not sure how to do it...
posted by dougiedd at 9:35 AM on December 23, 2009
posted by dougiedd at 9:35 AM on December 23, 2009
Best answer: I'd set up your gmail account as a second imap client from Outlook, then either export the trash to a pst from the work outlook and import it into the gmail outlook, or drag the items from the outlook (work, exchange) folders to the gmail imap folders, per the instructions at the bottom of this page> Then once they are in gmail you can tag the items with searchable/groupable tags.
Users always say this - well it's too late NOW it will take too long. The thing is, in a month/6 months/year you are going to be in the exact same boat, but waaaaay suckier.
posted by 8dot3 at 9:50 AM on December 23, 2009
Users always say this - well it's too late NOW it will take too long. The thing is, in a month/6 months/year you are going to be in the exact same boat, but waaaaay suckier.
posted by 8dot3 at 9:50 AM on December 23, 2009
Before I switched to Gmail, I used hexatron's solution: I kept a bunch of local folders organized by date ranges (year first so they showed up in order, like 2009-09-11 for September-November 2009), and picked the date ranges so they had around 4-5000 messages each. Then I'd use search to find old messages when I had to. Oh, and of course I backed these up to an external hard drive.
Admins, don't blame the user! Yes most e-mail servers have trouble dealing with folders with tens of thousands of messages, but that's a flaw in their design. Gmail works fine with folders containing tens of thousands of messages and customers love that about it.
posted by miyabo at 10:03 AM on December 23, 2009
Admins, don't blame the user! Yes most e-mail servers have trouble dealing with folders with tens of thousands of messages, but that's a flaw in their design. Gmail works fine with folders containing tens of thousands of messages and customers love that about it.
posted by miyabo at 10:03 AM on December 23, 2009
Don't do anything and just use Google Desktop for searching. It's kicks Microsoft's butt when it comes to any type of desktop search.
Google has really good software for searching :-)
posted by qsysopr at 10:53 AM on December 23, 2009
Google has really good software for searching :-)
posted by qsysopr at 10:53 AM on December 23, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Electrius at 10:44 PM on December 22, 2009