Large Mail Search Folder in Microsoft Outlook

Outlook 2003 has a feature that can help you reduce the amount of space your mailbox is taking up on our email server.

There are search folders which search your mailbox based on criterion you set. A helpful search folder that exists by default is the "Large Mail" search folder. This folder specifically finds large mail stored in your mailbox.

Large mail is typically anything that has an attachment of 100 KB or larger saved with it. This can be something you have received or even something you sent out. The attachment contributes to the size of your mailbox even if you have saved it elsewhere (your computer, the network drives, etc.), as it's still in your mail as well. Much of the large mail found by the search folder can be dealt with fairly easily by saving their attachments to your computer and deleting the messages in Outlook. If you want to keep the non-attachment portion of the message but remove the attachment, you may do this as well.

Follow these directions to search for and deal with large mail.

In your list of mail folders (on the left side of the screen in Outlook), look for Search Folders. Click on the + next to this folder to expand it.

Look for Search Folders, click on the + next to it, and then click on Large Mail

Then click on the Large Mail folder.

The Large Mail folder may display messages by date. You will want to sort them by size to make it easier to find the largest messages. To do this, click on "Arranged by: Date" and then choose Size.

Large Mail sorted by size, largest on top

You may either delete the large messages or remove the attachments from the messages (with the option of saving the attachment locally first).

This help file assumes you already know how to delete messages, but it will cover how to save an attachment locally and remove it from the message in Outlook.

To save attachments locally:

Double click on the message to have it open up in its own window.

Right click on the attachment you want to save and choose Save As.

Right click on an attachment and choose Save As

Choose the location you want to save the attachment (like the Desktop or My Documents) and click Save.

To remove the attachment (but keep the rest of the email message):

Double click on the message to have it open up in its own window.

Right click on an attachment and choose Remove

Right click on the attachment and choose Remove.

Close the message and click on Yes if you want to save it.

Decide whether or not to save changes

If you accidentally remove the wrong attachment, choose No when asked if you want to save the message. Then repeat the steps above to remove the correct attachment.

Important Note: Make sure to empty your Deleted Items folder when you are finished!

Click on Tools and choose Empty 'Deleted Items' Folder

One way of doing this is to click on Tools and choose Empty "Deleted Items" Folder. Then click Yes.

Learn more about search folders in Outlook.

If you have any further questions, please contact the Service Desk.