Maximum number of messages in your inbox? Outlook 2007

B

boe

Hello,

I have a client who has a LOT of messages in their inbox. For some reason
I thought there was a limit to how many you can have before outlook has
issues. I could be wrong - anyone know?

Thanks
 
F

F.H. Muffman

I have a client who has a LOT of messages in their inbox. For some
reason I thought there was a limit to how many you can have before
outlook has issues. I could be wrong - anyone know?
Click to expand...

At least 65k is the max size.

Before you have issues? It might not be the number of items, it might be
the size, it might be a combination of the two.

Are they actually having problems?
 
B

boe

Thanks for your help.

65k - max size - do you mean the most number of messages is 65,000? or are
you talking size? They have 68,500 messages in their inbox (not including
subfolders) Is this limit on any MS web page?

When they select a column header to group by - e.g. from - it will sort but
for some reason not all the messages show- e.g. if I sort by received - I
see messages going from 2008 to 2004 with messages in all years from John
Doe. If I sort by FROM instead I only see messages from John Doe from 2005
to 2007 - I'm not doing anything fancy, just clicking on the column/field
names at the top - no filtering or anything.
 
F

F.H. Muffman

I have a client who has a LOT of messages in their inbox. For
65k - max size - do you mean the most number of messages is 65,000? or
are you talking size? They have 68,500 messages in their inbox (not
including subfolders) Is this limit on any MS web page?
Click to expand...

Number of messages, forgive my earlier phrasing. This was the limit of items
in a legacy PST file. 2k3/2k7, with a unicode format, likely have a much
higher limit. Is it on a MS web page? Beats me. If someone has 68k items,
then I'd say the limit will be rather much larger.
When they select a column header to group by - e.g. from - it will
sort but for some reason not all the messages show- e.g. if I sort by
received - I see messages going from 2008 to 2004 with messages in all
years from John Doe. If I sort by FROM instead I only see messages
from John Doe from 2005 to 2007 - I'm not doing anything fancy, just
clicking on the column/field names at the top - no filtering or
anything.
Click to expand...

Well, that does sound odd, but I'd really want to troubleshoot it deeper.
Could it be a side affect of the number of messages? Sure. Or it could
be something different with the From field between some of the messages.
Did he add anything to his display name? Are some resolved as John Doe
<[email protected]>, while some are formatted differently? My wife sees
multiple groups from me depending upon how I send, be it my winmo phone,
Outlook or gmail directly, even tho all are using the same email address.
 
M

Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

That limit is for an ansi format .pst file with large table support.

The unicode format for Outlook 2003 and 2007 does not have a "reachable" limit.

--
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, F.H. Muffman asked:

|| I have a client who has a LOT of messages in their inbox. For some
|| reason I thought there was a limit to how many you can have before
|| outlook has issues. I could be wrong - anyone know?
|
| At least 65k is the max size.
|
| Before you have issues? It might not be the number of items, it
| might be the size, it might be a combination of the two.
|
| Are they actually having problems?
 
B

boe

Thanks again - I thought it might be their name as well/e-mail address but
that doesn't seem to be the case
 
B

boe

Thanks any thoughts on why grouping is messed up?

That limit is for an ansi format .pst file with large table support.

The unicode format for Outlook 2003 and 2007 does not have a "reachable"
limit.

--
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, F.H. Muffman asked:

|| I have a client who has a LOT of messages in their inbox. For some
|| reason I thought there was a limit to how many you can have before
|| outlook has issues. I could be wrong - anyone know?
|
| At least 65k is the max size.
|
| Before you have issues? It might not be the number of items, it
| might be the size, it might be a combination of the two.
|
| Are they actually having problems?
 
F

F.H. Muffman

|| I have a client who has a LOT of messages in their inbox. For some
|| reason I thought there was a limit to how many you can have before
|| outlook has issues. I could be wrong - anyone know?
|
| At least 65k is the max size.

That limit is for an ansi format .pst file with large table support.

The unicode format for Outlook 2003 and 2007 does not have a
"reachable" limit.
Click to expand...

Hence why I said 'at least', meaning no less than, since there is no documented
limit that I can find. Even an 'unreachable' limit exists and should be
documented. I'm pretty sure the limit is not 'infinite'. It might not be
logically possible (say, a googol of messages), but it is still a limit.
 
F

F.H. Muffman

I have a client who has a LOT of messages in their inbox. For
Thanks again - I thought it might be their name as well/e-mail address
but that doesn't seem to be the case
Click to expand...

Here's what I would try.

Try copying messages to a different folder in the PST. Not all of them,
just grab a few that don't show up and a few that do. Click on the From
field. Are all the messages grouped together, or do some end up in different
groups?
 
R

Roady [MVP]

Our assumption is 32-bit = 4294967296 items. We're looking for volunteers to
actually check this ;-)



-----
 
F

F.H. Muffman

I have a client who has a LOT of messages in their inbox. For
I put a thousand into a subfolder and it sorts them fine - thanks
Click to expand...

Well, I'd probably call Microsoft and report the issue.

As a workaround, try creating a search folder instead.
 
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