PST file size and performance issue

Outlook stores emails, calendars, notes, to do list, journals, etc. in Personal Storage Table (PST) file on your computer’s hard drive. This PST file has a size limit, which is directly related to the performance of Outlook. In Outlook 2007 the maximum size limit for PST file is 20GB while in earlier versions it is limited to 2GB. Therefore, when the size of PST file reaches to its maximum limit, Outlook starts pausing during various operations, such as reading email messages, deleting email messages, and moving email messages from one folder to another.

Depending on the PST file size, you may experience different performance issues in Outlook 2007. Following are some PST file size categorizations that help you understand the performance issues of Outlook 2007:

• Up to 2GB: For this PST file size, Outlook 2007 performs well on most of the hardware configuration.

• Between 2GB and 4GB: Performance of Outlook 2007 for the PST file size between 2GB and 4GB is completely hardware dependent. That is if your computer system has much RAM and fast hard disk then Outlook 2007 will perform nicely. In case, your computer system has solid-state drives (SSDs) then Outlook 2007 may be hanged during typical Outlook operations.

• More than 4GB: As soon as the PST file size crosses 4GB, Outlook 2007 starts pausing on most of the computer systems.

• More than 10GB: When the PST file size reaches to 10GB or more then Outlook 2007 starts frequently pausing during read-write operations. At this PST file size, email downloading becomes very slow.

Increase in the PST file size can completely hangs Outlook due to which Outlook becomes unable to access emails, notes, calendars, etc. from PST file. In that situation, how will you access your emails and other related items?

Solution

If you continuously face pauses in Outlook then you should understand that the PST file size has been reaching to its maximum limit. In that scenario, you have to reduce the file size by permanently deleting some emails with large attachments. However, to delete emails you need to switch to offline mode. To switch to offline mode in Outlook, select Work Offline from the File menu. After you have successfully switched to offline mode, delete some emails with large attachments to free up the space in PST file.

This will make room in PST file for new email messages and therefore, Outlook stops hanging.

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