How Do I Fix My Full Mailbox in Outlook 365? – Detailed Guide For Solving Problem!

Ritu Roy | Email Conversion email migration file conversion File Repair fix Forensics How to's IMAP Software Technology | 5 minutes read | Modified on: 16-08-2023
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Summary: The Outlook OST File format used by Outlook 365 to keep a local duplicate of mailbox data. The ‘your mailbox is almost full’ issue may appear when this OST file grows huge. In order to resolve this error “How do I fix my full mailbox in Outlook 365’ and manage your Outlook 365 storage space, both short-term and long-term alternatives are provided in this post.

The OST file, which has a 50 GB limit, is where Outlook 365 saves the mailbox data, which includes emails, contacts, calendars, tasks, journals, and notes. However, when the OST file becomes huge and reaches 10 GB in size, Outlook users begin to encounter problems. Send/receive issues, sluggish search results, sluggish loading of Outlook, etc. are a few examples.

Outlook users start getting the alert “your mailbox is almost full” when the OST grows too large and exceeds the administrator-set limit (10 GB, 20 GB, or more). This is a troubling warning that needs to be corrected in order to maintain email services and prevent problems like Outlook being unable to send or receive fresh messages.

The problem of OST file storage capacity can be solved in a number of ways, which is fortunate. The most popular ones include getting rid of spam messages, emptying junk mail folders, turning off Cached Exchange Mode, and many others.

What Reasons the Mailbox Full Error in Outlook 365?

Users of Outlook 365 send and receive hundreds of emails daily, which reduces available storage space. Large attachment files are another cause of the mailbox full error in addition to emails. To ensure that you have adequate storage for your Outlook 365 profile, it is crucial that you organize your inbox effectively.

The following are the main causes of the problem “Outlook 365 mailbox is almost full”:

1. A large OST File Size

One of the causes of performance concerns with Outlook 365 is the size of the Outlook OST file. Each Outlook profile typically has access to up to 50 GB of storage (with more in rare circumstances). When it runs out, an error message stating that the inbox is full appears.

2. Deleted Emails

Most of the time, when a person receives useless emails in their inbox, they delete them without realising they are being sent to the deleted things folder. Receiving an Outlook 365 mailbox full error is due to their huge storage space use.

Fixes for the Outlook 365 Error “Your Mailbox is Almost Full”

Let’s explore how to resolve the mailbox full error now.

Solution 1: Mailbox Items Can Be Archived

You can archive the older emails to manage the Outlook 365 storage space. Below are the steps:

  1. Locate to the File tab in Outlook.
  2. Archive may be found under Info > Cleanup Tools.
  3. Select Archive this folder and all subfolders in the Archive options.
  4. From your Outlook profile, pick the mailbox items you want to archive.
  5. Choose the date on which you want the older content archived.
  6. To choose a save location, click Browse.
  7. Make sure the “Do not auto-archive” checkbox is selected.
  8. Tap the OK button.

Solution 2. Delete Oversized Email

The large sized emails and attachments consume the Outlook 365 mailbox storage space easily. One can delete and remove the huge mail items and attachments by following the provided steps:

  • Open Outlook 365 and choose Search Folders in the folder screen.
  • Press the New Search Folder and pick Large Mail option under the Organizing Mail.
  • Choose Mail at least this large and specify the mail size.
  • Now click Ok to complete the process.
  • After that, a new folder of a specified size will be created under your Outlook 365 profile. It includes emails bigger than the specified size automatically.  

Solution 3. Use Outlook Clean-up Tool

Utilise the Outlook cleaning tool to clean unnecessary mails and attachments files from your mailbox. Follow these steps:

Choose File from the Outlook ribbon.

Select the Info option, then go to Tools, and choose Mailbox Cleanup

Now, set the number of days to locate items older than and the file size to find items larger than in the mailbox clean-up window.

Finally, press the Empty button to delete the deleted items folder permanently.

Siltation 4. Turn Off Cache Exchange Mode

A local copy of the OST files will be created on your computer if Cached Exchange Mode is enabled in the Outlook 365 profile, taking up a significant amount of storage. Additionally, Cached Exchange Mode consumes a lot of storage when used with a shared mailbox, which hurts email client performance.

To solve the problem in such circumstances, turn off the cached exchange mode:

  1. Go to the File tab first.
  2. Click the profile symbol for Account Settings.
  3. Click the Change option after choosing the Microsoft or Exchange account.
  4. Restart Outlook and uncheck Use Cached Exchange Mode to download mails to an Outlook file under the Exchange Account Settings.

These techniques allow you to control Outlook 365 performance while continuing to send and receive emails. Users can also regenerate OST files as a long-term fix for the Outlook 365 mailbox full problem.

Get CubexSoft OST Converter. In the event that the OST reproduction fails or the OST file becomes inaccessible or orphaned, it serves as a convenient fix. You can also use the software to recover the missing mail items when the mailbox data is missing after creating the OST file again.

Additionally, the software saves emails in PST file format as well as huge OST mailbox attachments separately in a folder. This decreases overall file size and lowers the likelihood of corruption or inconsistent data in Outlook data files.

The Concluding Words!

The maximum storage size offered to customers of Outlook 365 is 50 GB. In order to continue receiving and sending emails, it is important to organise the mailbox. In this article, we’ve covered a variety of approaches to managing your Outlook 365 storage and also explained how do I fix my full mailbox in Outlook 365. Additionally, you can get CubexSoft OST to PST Converter, download it, and use it to convert the inaccessible mail items from OST file to PST files and preserve the attachments separately, hence reducing the size of the total Outlook data file. By dividing huge OST files into many PST files with attachments, the software can also be used to manage storage space.