The Apptix Blog: The IT Guy: My Inbox is Out of Control! Tips to Manage Your Email and Save Your Sanity

By Mike Warstler, Apptix IT Manager

Is your email inbox, or your employees’ email inboxes, growing out of control? Are you thinking about getting huge hosted Exchange mailboxes (10GB, 25GB, or even unlimited) so you never have to worry about email storage again?

We’ve been in the hosted Exchange business for over a decade and I’m here to tell you – you don’t want to do that. As even Microsoft will tell you, extra large mailboxes cause a variety of problems from slow backups and searches to data corruption.

At Apptix, we give employees 2GB mailboxes, and you know what? It’s plenty. We follow industry best practices, teach Apptix employees how to keep their inboxes manageable, and send warnings to users approaching their limit.

Here are a few tips to keep your Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010 inbox under control and within your limit, including:

· Understanding how much storage you are using

· AutoArchiving old email

· Automatically emptying your Deleted Items

· Searching for and deleting large attachments

We’ll go through Outlook 2007 first, then do the same steps in Outlook 2010.

Got your own tips for taming the email beast? Share with us in the comments.

Managing Your Outlook 2007 Mailbox

How much storage am I using?

Select “Tools,” then “Mailbox Cleanup.”

Select “View Mailbox Size.”

Select the “Server Data” tab.

“Total size (including subfolders)” is the total amount of storage you’re using on the Exchange server in KB. To convert it to MB, divide your storage by 1024 (Example: 205079 / 1024 = 200.27 MB).

How do I AutoArchive old email?

Select "Tools," then "Options." Select the "Other" tab, then the "AutoArchive" button.

Here you can customize your AutoArchive settings. Below, I have it set to run every 14 days and archive items older than six months. Once completed, I select “Apply these to all folders now,” then hit “OK.” My email will be AutoArchived from now on.

How do I automatically empty deleted items?

Select “Tools,” then “Options.” Check the box “Empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting.”

How do I find large email attachments?

Expand “Search Folders.” Select “Large Mail.” It will take a few minutes for Outlook to display your large mail. Deleting mail items with large attachments or saving the attachments to your computer will greatly reduce your storage size.

Now, let’s answer those same questions for Outlook 2010 users.

Managing Your Outlook 2010 Mailbox

How much storage am I using?

Select File and look under “Mailbox Cleanup” where it shows your available storage space.

How do I AutoArchive old email?

Select the “Folder” tab, then “AutoArchive Settings.”

Select the “AutoArchive” tab, then the “Archive items in this folder using the default settings.”

Select the “Default Archive Settings…” button.

Here you can customize your AutoArchive settings. Below I have it set to run every 14 days and archive items older than six months. Once completed, select “Apply these to all folders now,” then hit “OK.” Going forward my email will be AutoArchived.