Outlook Performance Optimization

Many users wonder - why Outlook became so slow, although previously everything was OK? Others are simply unhappy with the performance of Outlook when working with Exchange/Office 365/IMAP and other mailboxes. How to speed up Outlook using the simplest methods?

For starters, disable or delete all Outlook add-ins that you do not use. Some add-ins perform many calculations for each selected item, while others work when you create and send messages. If you have several such add-ins installed, each of them will do the same thing over and over. It is better to have a universal Outlook solution from one manufacturer, rather than many from different ones, especially if they are doing the same thing.

It has been noted that the fewer messages there are in the folders, the faster Outlook works. Keep the minimal number of messages in your working folders. In addition, the fewer messages in the folder, the more attention the most important ones get. There is nothing worse than a bunch of unrelated message all jumbled together. You waste a lot of time every time that you glance through the same messages searching for the important ones. Try to take as a rule that the Inbox folder should always be empty. Here are some tricks that will help to follow this rule:

1. Sort the messages. Create a separate folder for each department or large event. This folder has subfolders for employees, clients, or financial documents. Sometimes it may be useful to create subfolders according to years and months. That way, you can find the information you need quickly, as well as move the messages from your Inbox right away, without having to decide what to do with the new message. Do not move messages to folders like "Sort Later" or "Unsorted" – as you will have to spend time sorting them later anyway.
2. Reply right away. Try to reply to the messages as soon as possible. All Inbox messages have to be processed within a day. Once you have replied to a message, move it to the right folder and simply forget about it. The only disadvantage of a large number of folders is that Outlook cannot search for folders by name. Luckily, our Quick Folders product, solves that problem.
3. Delete what you don’t need right away. If the message is not work related or does not require a response, delete it right away. Trust us, in a year or two you will not be interested in messages such as "Let’s go out tonight" or "Don’t forget to call your parents".
4. Use the message expiration date. If it is a mailing, set the "expires after" a week from the day and move it to the Mailings folder. To do it quickly, use the "Set Message Archiving Settings" utility. In the AutoArchive settings of this folder, set the "Permanently delete old items" option and these messages are automatically deleted after the expiration date.
5. Delete duplicates. For various reasons, duplicate items are created in Outlook. It could happen because of send/receive glitches, unsuccessful synchronizing, or mistakes in copying messages. We provide a comprehensive set of utilities for managing duplicates. Duplicates can be deleted, moved, assigned by category, or flagged. There is also a report option that shows duplicates in folders.
6. Export messages. If you do not want to delete some messages but your mailbox is running out of space, use utilities from the Export and Import set. Once the messages have been saved to a disk or cloud storage, you can safely delete them from Outlook. By the way, if you save messages to text files, they can be found easily by using standard Windows Search tools.

In short, the fewer messages in Outlook folders – the better.

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About Author

David Godfrin is a software developer and blogger for Outlook and Exchange. He has a strong background in IT and works in the field of software development and tech support since 2011.