Fix the Error “Outlook Data File has Reached Maximum Size”

Microsoft Outlook is one of the most common email clients to send and receive emails. A Personal Storage Table (PST) is an Outlook data file that stores mail items like messages, contacts, attachments, calendar items, tasks, etc. Outlook only creates a PST on the local drive when you add a POP account. Sometimes you may encounter some errors while using Outlook. For example

You may receive an error like “Cannot Move the Items. The Outlook Data File has Reached its Maximum Size limit.”

This error generally occurs when your PST file exceeds the set limit. And it cannot hold or store more mail items. By default, Microsoft Outlook supports both ANSI and UNICODE PST files. The recommended limits for ANSI and UNICODE are 20 GB and 50 GB, respectively.

 

Reasons behind the “Outlook Data File Has Reached Maximum Size” Error

There are several reasons behind the errors but some of the major reasons are as follows:

1. File Size Limit Reached: Outlook data files have a particular size limit and exceeding the limit can cause errors.
2. Deleted Items Not Deleted Permanently: Sometimes you delete emails and forget to delete them from the trash. These emails and folders will still occupy your space until they are permanently deleted.
3. Archived Items: when you achieve your old emails and they are still showing in your inbox, that means archiving is not configured properly. You should reconfigure the archiving process to free up some space.
4. Corruption: Sometimes corruption of PST files causes issues with file size recognition, and leads to showing the maximum size limit reached error.
5. Outlook Version Differences: Different Outlook versions have different size limits for the PST files. Using an older version may lead to smaller file size limits.
6. Large Folders: sometimes having a large number of items in a single folder may also lead to an error. It makes the data file grow rapidly.

How to Fix “Outlook Data File Has Reached Maximum Size” Error

Method 1. Remove the Unwanted PST Files

To reduce the size of PST files, you can delete old emails that are no longer useful or important. You can easily filter unwanted emails and delete them manually. Try the steps to clean up your mailbox data.

1. First, go to Outlook and click on File > Info > Tools > Mailbox Cleanup.
2. Now in the pop-up window, you can use the Find feature filter option to specify old items by date and size.  
3. Delete the old emails to free up space. Or you can carefully select and delete the emails from the deleted section manually and delete all the alternatives to that file.

Method 2. Archive Outlook old Files

To archive PST file emails, which is the case when the Outlook data file is approaching the file size limit, is easy to do. Backups copy the data to another server, usually offsite or at the cloud environment of the organization. That means archiving data consumed less storage space, and also assist in shrinking the PST file.

How do I archive emails in Microsoft Outlook?

Open your Outlook application and then click File > Info > Tools > Clean Up Old Items.

1. Open the Outlook application and go to the File > info.
2. Then go to the tools option and select the Clean the Old items option.
3. Now select the PST folder that you wish to archive and set a date next to the archive file.
4. Last click the Browse button to select the destination path to store the archived files. Finally, click the OK button.

Method 3. Compact the PST Files in Outlook

Compacting a PST file is also an alternative solution to get rid of the “Outlook data file has reached maximum size” issue.

1. First, open Outlook and click on File > Account Settings > Account Settings.
2. Now move on to the Data Files section and click the Settings button.
3. Now go to the Advanced tab and tap on Outlook Data File Settings.
4. Last, click Compact Now, and then press the OK button.

 

Fix the error “Outlook Data File Has Reached Maximum Size” Using a Professional Method

The perfect method to fix the Outlook error The Outlook data file has reached its maximum size using the SysTools PST Splitter software. This application helps you to split PST by date, size, folder, and year. Easily split your PST files to protect your files from exceeding the file limits.

Follow the steps to prevent your PST files from exceeding the file limits

1. First of all, the tool should be downloaded and executed on the tested computer.
2. Import PST files and folders or select the destination for divided files To save the files.
3. In this case, choose the Split option and complete the prompted fields of Split By Size, Date, Year, Folder, Email ID, or Category.
4. Then make sure that each field in the split information summary is correct, after which press Next.
5. The software begins to divide PST in the manner as explained in the conversation above.

 

Greatest Features of The Automated Tool

• This software supports both the ANSI and UNICODE file formats.
• Option to split files from 1 MB to 1 TB.
• it can easily divide your PST file into smaller PST files without erasing any data.
• You have the option to easily create a new folder to store PST files, if required.
• Provides some unique features like
  1. dividing PST files by date.
  2. Truncate PST file by size.
  3. Split PST file by email ID.
  4. Divide PST by categories like contacts, messages, tasks, calendars, etc.
  5. Separate PST file by year.

 

Conclusion:

In this blog, we have discussed the error Outlook data file has reached maximum size, which generally occurs when you exceed the Outlook data file size limit. And we have also mentioned the major reasons behind this error. After that, we talked about the manual methods to solve the error. Manual methods are quite complicated and require technical expertise; on the other hand, professional methods come with unique and advanced features and even a non-technical person can also use the solution easily.