How can I clean up my mailbox?
To ensure good operation of Outlook and our mail server and to ensure fast recovery of mail, the amount of mail you can store in your mailbox is limited (for more info, see 'How do I check the mailbox size in Outlook').
When you exceed this limit, you will get a notification to remind you to clean up.
This FAQ file lists the options you have to clean up your mailbox.
1. Must do's
Turn off journal logging and empty the journal folder
- Choose Tools > Options. Click the button 'Journal Options'.
Be sure nothing is checked in "Automatically record these items" and "Also record files from". - Select the Journal folder and erase all messages in that folder (unless you are an active user of Journal).
- Bonus: the other Office applications run faster. This is the most important suggestion, please DO IT!
Empty your deleted items folder
- Choose Tools > Empty Deleted Items Folder
- Choose Tools > Options.
Click on the tab 'Other'
and check 'Empty Deleted Items Folder
upon exiting'
Remove large attachments from your mail
Attachments take up most of the space in your mailbox.
You can easily search for large attachments and remove them from the mail
message. This way, you can keep the original mail message and store the
attachment on your share.
- Search for large mail.
In the navigation pane in Outlook, open the folder 'Search Folders' and click 'Large Mail'.
Outlook will search your mailbox for large mail. - Remove large attachments.
Open the message and choose File > Save Attachments.
Click 'OK' and store the attachments on your share.
In the Outlook message, right-click the attachment and choose 'Remove'.
Close the message and answer 'Yes' on the question to save changes.
Turn off tracking (read and delivery notification)
- In Outlook, choose Tools > Options.
Click the button 'E-mail Options', click the button 'Tracking Options'.
Make sure the settings are checked as in the following screenshot.
- If you want to use tracking, you can only set it up when needed:
When composing a new message, choose View > Options and select the needed options in the section 'Voting and Tracking Options'.
2. Best practices
Use your department's share
Each department, CC or project group has or can have a share on the fileserver. If you want to share a file with your colleagues, you can put it on your department's share. Do not mail the file. You can mail your colleagues to inform them that the file can be found there. Ask the helpdesk for assistance if necessary.
Use the intranet
Files that are important to all users are put on the Intranet.
Do not make unnecessary copies of these files. You could have files that are important to all users. Do not mail them to all, please ask for Intranet space.
Use the upload form
If you wish to send a file to several persons outside the school, use our upload form. In that way all persons involved can pick up the file on the website.
Note that this is a win-win situation for all contacts: you will not have the file in your mailbox and your recipients mailboxes will not get oversized too.
Do not keep mail to have the e-mail address of your contact
You can easily import the sender's e-mail address in your contacts by opening the mail message, right-clicking on the contacts name and choosing '
Add to Contacts'.Mail to all: use an expiration date
- When you create the mail, choose View > Options.
- Check 'Expires after' and indicate the expiration date.
- Users who log on to the mail system after that date will no longer see your mail.
Log off when you go home at night
Our mail server makes a backup of your e-mail at night. The backup is less reliable when you are logged in. A cleaning routine that optimizes free disk space also runs at night. Being logged in also harms that routine.
In case of a problem do not hesitate to contact the helpdesk at +32 92 10 97 24.
Author:
DVSM\administrator
| Modified by:
DVSM\wimpou,
Thursday November 19, 2009 19:07:25 +0100