Recommended Number of messages in an Email Account

[Tom Celica]

I'm wondering what is the recommended number of messages in an email
account. We are a small company and hard drives are cheap, and Exchange
doesn't put any size limits on the number of messages or the amount of disk
space any one account uses.

But if there are too many messages in an account Outlook 2003 client won't
run optimally.

Most of our users run Outlook 2003 Client in exchange cashed exchange mode,
with a copy of the messages on the server and a copy on their laptop.

What is the recommended number of messages for an email account, so that
Outlook Clients will run optimally?
Does this number include contacts?
Does this number include calendar events?
Does this number include total number of messages from multiple configured
email accounts in one Outlook session?
How do Archive folders effect performance of Outlook?

Thanks
-Tom

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

There is no recommended number since Outlook 2003 has a theoretical .pst
file size of 32 terabytes and a practical one of 20 gigs. The old version
of the Outlook .pst file had a ~65,000 item limit per folder and the same
limit for the number of folders.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Tom Celica asked:

| I'm wondering what is the recommended number of messages in an email
| account. We are a small company and hard drives are cheap, and
| Exchange doesn't put any size limits on the number of messages or the
| amount of disk space any one account uses.
|
| But if there are too many messages in an account Outlook 2003 client
| won't run optimally.
|
| Most of our users run Outlook 2003 Client in exchange cashed exchange
| mode, with a copy of the messages on the server and a copy on their
| laptop.
|
| What is the recommended number of messages for an email account, so
| that Outlook Clients will run optimally?
| Does this number include contacts?
| Does this number include calendar events?
| Does this number include total number of messages from multiple
| configured email accounts in one Outlook session?
| How do Archive folders effect performance of Outlook?
|
| Thanks
| -Tom

 

[john]

Whilst there may be no overall limit, at the folder level there are
recommendations as in http://support.microsoft.com/?id=905803. Quoting:

"You can help avoid poor performance in Outlook by carefully managing
the number of items in folders, especially the Outlook folders that are
heavily used. These folders include the Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, and
Sent Items folders and any other heavily used folders.

The recommended number of items in a folder depends on several factors.
These factors include the client's proximity to the server, the storage
infrastructure, the load on the hard disks, the number of users, and
the number of restricted views. We recommend that you maintain a range
of 3,500 to 5,000 items in a folder depending on the capacity of the
Exchange Server environment.

The following list includes ways that you can help manage the number of
items in folders:· Use folder hierarchies to help keep the number of
items in a folder to the recommended values.
· Use mailbox manager policies.
· Use client-based archiving solutions.
· Use server-based archiving solutions.
· Use mailbox size limits. "

The one that sneaks up on our users is the Calendar. Five meetings per
day at 240 days/year "only" allows two-three years worth of data. If
your company has pack-rats they'll want to keep everything forever.
(Even worse if they keep attachments on their calendar - and even worse
for other users opening their calendar as a shared calendar!)

John Samuel