Email accounts have limits. They can only take so much before they freak out and stop taking anything else that gets sent to it. You usually find out about it after a long break or weekend, and typically when you are expecting something important. It doesn’t have to be this way. There is a solution. It may have a drawback here and there, but it is a much more pleasant scenario than getting that dreaded “account is over its size limit” email.

So what can you do? The solution resides in a rarely used folder called a Personal Folder. It’s a folder that sits next to your inbox folder, but rather than being stored on the exchange server, it’s stored on your hard drive. The beauty in having one of these is that anything you want to keep for archiving purposes can be stored there and still used regularly(kinda).

Here’s how you do it.

1. Click File in the File Menu
2. Select Data File Management
3. Select Add
4. Select Personal Folders  File from the list and click OK
5.  Leave the file name as default or rename it and click OK
6. Name the file as how you want it to appear in your folders list and click OK
7. The next window will show you that it saved the folder. Click Close.

That’s it! Now you should see your new folder. To save messages to it, simply drag them over to it. You will still be able to read and manage them in Outlook, but now they are stored on your hard drive, instead of the limited server.

The drawback? If you use Outlook Web Access(webmail), you won’t be able to see any of the messages stored in this folder. So make sure you only save emails that you don’t plan on using when away from your computer.

Thanks for this tip, Allen!