How to Change How Long Mail is Stored Locally in Outlook

Using the Microsoft Outlook email application has many benefits. It can be extremely helpful and save time because when you use it, you can access email, calendar information and tasks even when a device is not online. Most of the time we have access to wireless Internet regardless of where we are, but there are times when this is not possible. If you are travelling and Internet service is unavailable, if a network is not secure or you will be charged per GB of data transferred, having these files stored locally is helpful. 

By default, Outlook keeps Exchange email for different periods of time based on the size of the local hard drive. The purpose of the varying default setting is to keep the Outlook data file from taking up too much storage no matter the size of the local drive. However, sometimes the default setting may not be the best setting and luckily it can be modified at any time.

How to Change How Long Mail is Stored Locally in Outlook

When the email account is an Exchange account, the default length of storage on a hard drive equal to or greater than 64 GB is 12 months. Other mail accounts may default to all email, but no matter what the setting, it can be modified to represent a greater or lesser amount of time.

To change how long mail is stored locally in Outlook:

• Open Outlook.
• Click "File" in the upper left corner.
  
  
  
• Click Account Settings and select "Account Settings" in the drop down menu.
  
  
  
• On the Email tab in the Account Settings box, double-click on the email account to modify.
  
  
  
• In the Change Account box, move the slider to change how much mail to keep offline to the desired setting.
  
  
  





• Click "Next" to save the setting and "Finish" in the final box. 
• Click "Close" to close the Account Settings box.

Whether the appropriate amount of email to keep is 3 months or forever, the ability to modify this setting for each email account connected to Outlook helps manage local storage. Changing the length of storage can be done by accessing the account settings in Outlook and accessing the local settings for any and all email accounts individually. Once set, these settings will remain unless they are changed again.

As always, knowing what settings are available, and how to access them, is the key to better device management and efficiency when it comes to technology.

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