Archiving through outlook doesnt clear space

Question

Hey all. We have a user whose inbox is pegging out right around 49.2GB out of 50GB and we tried going through and archiving anything older than January 2025 but the process is not removing space. The inbox shows that its at 42GB right now just by itself. We went through the procedure that I saw linked below from another discussion about this topic and it did not resolve the issue.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/archive-items-manually-ecf54f37-14d7-4ee3-a830-46a5c33274f6

It ends up taking a while to complete and once it does, the pst file size never seems to match up to what it should, often being under 1GB. I went looking through to see what the oldest email was and it looks like its from the beginning of 2022, so I assume at some point it was archived for anything prior to 2022, but it was never removed from the inbox so its just taking up the space. What is the best route to take to get all the emails back and then maybe archive them by 2-3 year sections (2016-2018, 2019-2021, etc) and actually remove it from the inbox into a pst file so the space is taken up by the hard drive and not by the inbox?

Answer 1

Alexis,

Thank you very much for the detailed response. Ill respond in sequence to your responses below:

1. The "Recover deleted items" selection was not available when I selected this mailbox. I am not sure if its because I just have myself delegated to it right now until I can figure out the problem or what, but it was greyed out.
2. After running the powershell command, it confirmed that his inbox is 42gb, sent items is almost 5gb, and deleted items is 1.5gb.
3. Did the exporting change at some point where it no longer removes it from the inbox? I thought it used to remove it and put it in the file. I dont remember ever having to go back and delete it after exporting. That may be the next thing to try.

Answer 2

Hi @Faas, Jason,

Good day, and thank you for offering a clear description of your issue.

When Outlook runs an AutoArchive or manual archive and the mailbox size doesn't budge, it usually means the items were copied but the pointers in the Exchange database weren't updated to "deleted," or the Recoverable Items folder is holding onto them.

Even if you move emails to a PST, Exchange may move them to a hidden "Recoverable Items" quota instead of deleting them immediately. This is especially true if Lithold or In-Place Hold is enabled.

• In Outlook, go to the Folder tab.
• Select Recover Deleted Items from Server.
• If this folder is full of the emails you just "archived," they are still counting against that 50GB quota. You may need to purge them here to see the 42GB number drop.

Since the built-in Archive tool is giving you a tiny PST (<1GB) despite years of data, it’s better to use the Export feature then process to bulk delete the old data. It is more forceful than the Archive command.

You can also find where the bulk is actually hidden before you spend more time exporting by using PowerShell:

Get-MailboxFolderStatistics -Identity "UserAlias" -FolderScope all | Sort-Object FolderSize -Descending| ft -a name, foldertype, foldersize, itemsinfolder

Example:

The Get-MailboxFolderStatistics cmdlet can be used to get information about hidden mailbox folders that are not accessible from the Outlook or OWA client interface. For example, about item statistics in the RecoverableItems (Dumpster) or Archive mailbox.

Get-MailboxFolderStatistics "UserAlias" -FolderScope RecoverableItems | Select Name, FolderSize, ItemsInFolder

or

Get-MailboxFolderStatistics "UserAlias" -Archive

You can process to hard delete it and archive the rest by using the Export tool:

1. Go to File > Open & Export > Import/Export.

2. Select Export to a file > Outlook Data File (.pst).
3. Select the Inbox (ensure "Include subfolders" is checked).
4. Click the Filter button.
5. Go to the Advanced tab.
6. Define the criteria:
   • Field: Received
   • Condition: between
   • Value: 1/1/2019 and 12/31/2021
7. Add to List and click OK. Save this as Archive_2019-2021.pst.

However, the Export tool does not delete the original emails; it only copies them. So you have to hard delete the leftover content.

1. Once the export is finished, go back to the Inbox.
2. Use the Search Bar and type: received:1/1/2019..12/31/2021.
3. Select all results ($Ctrl+A$) and Shift+Delete them. (Shift+Delete bypasses the Trash and helps trigger the server to update the mailbox size faster).

I hope this provides enough clarity and helps you stay inform with your current situation.

In the meantime, if you see my replies bring helpful information, please kindly accept it as an answer and vote it up by your original account, which raised this question. Once marked, it will automatically pin to top. As other users will also search information in this community, your valuable vote up will definitely also help other users who have similar queries easily to find the correct channel and useful information more quickly.   

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.    

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Answer 3

Archiving from Outlook only reduces the mailbox size if items are actually moved out of the server mailbox into a local .pst (or into an Online Archive mailbox) and then the server has time to update quotas. Several things in this scenario can prevent space from dropping.

Use the following checks and steps:

1. Confirm what “Archive” is doing

• If the mailbox has an Exchange Online Archive mailbox or retention policies, the Archive feature may move items to the Archive mailbox (server-side), not to a local .pst, and it may not reduce the primary mailbox as expected.
• The article used describes manual archiving to a .pst via File > Info > Tools > Clean up old items, which creates/moves to a local Outlook Data File (.pst). Verify that this is the method being used, not just clicking the Archive button on the ribbon.

2. Manually archive to .pst by date range To move older items out of the mailbox in chunks (for example, 2016–2018, 2019–2021) and actually free server space:

1. In Outlook for Windows, go to File > Info > Tools > Clean up old items.
2. Select Archive this folder and all subfolders and choose the top of the mailbox (or a specific folder like Inbox).
3. Under Archive items older than, set the end date for the first range (for example, 12/31/2018).
4. Choose or create a .pst file as the archive destination.
5. Optionally check Include items with “Do not AutoArchive” checked so nothing is skipped.
6. Select OK and let the process complete.
7. Repeat for the next date range (for example, 01/01/2019–12/31/2021) by adjusting the date and using a different .pst if separate files are desired.

This process moves items out of the mailbox into .pst files stored on the local drive, which should reduce mailbox size once the server updates.

3. Turn off AutoArchive if needed If AutoArchive is also running, it can complicate what is where. To ensure only manual archiving is used:

1. Go to File > Options > Advanced.
2. Under AutoArchive, select AutoArchive Settings.
3. Clear Run AutoArchive every n days.

4. Verify mailbox size after archiving Use Outlook’s Mailbox Cleanup to see what is still in the mailbox:

1. In Outlook, select File > Tools > Mailbox Cleanup.
2. Use View Mailbox Size to see the total and per-folder sizes.
3. Confirm that large folders (Inbox, Sent Items, etc.) have actually decreased after archiving.

If the mailbox is still near quota:

• Check Deleted Items and Junk Email and empty them.
• Check for large attachments that remain in the mailbox and consider saving them outside the mailbox (for example, to OneDrive or local folders) and then deleting the messages.

5. Allow time for quota to update Exchange Online quotas do not always update instantly. After large moves to .pst and emptying Deleted Items, allow some time for the server to recalculate the used space.
6. If Archive feature is enabled but quota still hits limit If the Archive feature is enabled but the mailbox still reaches quota, messages may not be moving automatically. In that case, either:

• Continue using manual archiving as above, or
• Work with the admin to configure retention/archive policies that move items automatically to the Archive mailbox according to policy.

If the organization has a specific retention policy assigned, only the admin can change it.

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References:

• Archive items manually
• Manage my mailbox size in Outlook
• Your mailbox reaches its quota even if the Archive feature is enabled
• Mailbox storage limits in Outlook