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RyanNg-6484 avatar image
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RyanNg-6484 asked AndrewBienhaus-3337 answered

Limitation of email per folder in Outlook 2016

Hi,

As we checked that Microsoft suggested that the limitation of email per folder in Outlook 2016 is 100,000 as below links:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2768656/outlook-performance-issues-when-there-are-too-many-items-or-folders-in

As we have some users need to save 100,000+ per folder in MS outlook. May I know is any method that can change the limitation in Outlook?

Thx

office-outlook-itpro
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Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

What type of Outlook account do you use (Exchange/Office365/IMAP/POP3/...)?

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ManuPhilip avatar image
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ManuPhilip answered

Hi,
I would suggest to have an archive policy to move the emails out of the folders before X days in local outlook or server to manage this situation (I am not sure, if this limitation is applied to your outlook/exchange version)

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JeffYang-MSFT avatar image
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JeffYang-MSFT answered JeffYang-MSFT commented

I really did a lot of research but have not found any workarounds to increase the limitation of email per folder. If you are using Exchange email account with cache mode, as I know, Outlook will sync your emails to your local datafile and this might be limited by the hardware, so it is suggested to turn off Exchange cache mode and work with Online mode to see if it could helps.

Besides, as mentioned in the official article you found, too many items per folder may cause performance issues which might bring inconvenience to you. To avoid these possible issues, it is suggested to archive your mailbox regularly to reduce the size of your mailbox.

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AndrewBienhaus-3337 avatar image
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AndrewBienhaus-3337 answered

Hi,
Migrated finally from Outlook 2010 to 365 - and have run headlong into this.
Mailbox folder that has 548,000 items in it, for good reason.

Outlook 2010 handled it just fine... as does the Exchange server.
Why does 365 now have this limit?
I thought things were supossed to get "better" as we move forward? :-)

Outlook 365 has fully sync'd the folder, no question, as the number of items total and unread - match.
But as it tries to load it up, after about 30 seconds, it gives up saying "unable to display".

I KNOW from past experience, on the rare occasions that I have had to "rebuild" a cached copy of the mailbox and this folder, that the first time you access it or ask for it, there is definitely a delay, as it organizes and indexes it
Granted - I get that.

But once done, Outlook 2010, handles it like a champ.
Comes up accessible within 3 seconds, fully searchable (the reason it's there), etc.

VERY useful.

Why is Outlook 365 "less functional" than 2010?
Or, is there any way, to tell Outlook, "keep working on that folder until you're done", much like Outlook 2010 would do after a first sync.
(it's defintiely a timeout issue)

Deployed TONS o'365 now, but had left myself on the old stable 2010 .... but finally trying to join the rest - don't want to regret that. ;-)

Thanks!
Andrew

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AndrewBienhaus-3337 avatar image
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AndrewBienhaus-3337 answered

With no replies here...

I began the chore of first testing that the "new search" would be able to search subfolders for items, and it would appear that the answer is "yes".
So, larger folders can be broken into subfolders.

After creating "year folders" to drop older items into, and doing so, Outlook 365 started recognizing the Deleted Items, when I hit 489,000 items. (that's when I noticed it was working)

So, sub 500,000 items, and it's ok, and honestly it's QUICK and WORKING.... so this isn't a performance issue, there's a size flag set somewhere, or a variable assumption somewhere.

Still wish I knew where, so if anyone knows, please share.

I would bet that it's actually 512,000 (or some 1024 variant of that)

Andrew

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