Why isn't my Outlook.pst file compacting?

[J.F.]

I'm trying to compact my Outlook.pst folder (which is 3.28GB) and it just
refuses to.

In Outlook 2007 :

I'm using File / Data File Management

I click on the Personal Folders item.

I click Settings.

I click Compact Now.

It seemed to be doing some kind of work the first time I used it, because it
took 30 seconds to finish. However, the file remained 3.28GB when it was
done. I tried compacting again, and this time it did it in 1 second. So it
actually DID do something the first time.

I exit Outlook and reload it. Outlook.pst is still 3.28GB.

I exit Outlook, empty recycle bin, and reloat Outlook. No change.

I reboot the friggin computer. No change. Outlook.pst is still 3.28GB.

The hell is going on here?

 

[Russ Valentine]

You neglected to state how you are assessing the file size. Seems like that
should be in play when you ask a question like this, right?

 

[VanguardLH]

I'm trying to compact my Outlook.pst folder (which is 3.28GB) and it just
refuses to.

In Outlook 2007 :

I'm using File / Data File Management

I click on the Personal Folders item.

I click Settings.

I click Compact Now.

It seemed to be doing some kind of work the first time I used it, because it
took 30 seconds to finish. However, the file remained 3.28GB when it was
done. I tried compacting again, and this time it did it in 1 second. So it
actually DID do something the first time.

I exit Outlook and reload it. Outlook.pst is still 3.28GB.

I exit Outlook, empty recycle bin, and reloat Outlook. No change.

I reboot the friggin computer. No change. Outlook.pst is still 3.28GB.

The hell is going on here?

We are to guess that this is for a fresh install of Outlook, that it created
the .pst file when you first started Outlook, and that you have NEVER
retrieved any e-mails, sent any, or created any tasks, notes, or calendar
entries in Outlook? Obviously if you have content in your message store
then it takes up some space. You never mentioned if your message store was
completely empty.

Outlook may have automatically compacted its message store. If it wasn't
empty then it will take some bytes to hold your data. You compacting and
re-compacting and re-re-compacting will do nothing to further to reduce the
size of an already compacted .pst file.

 

[DL]

You would need to remove a significant amount of data from the pst in order
for compact to result in any size reduction.
Presumably you don't Archive.