Copy folder structure
I want to start off with a new empty pst-file (my current one gets too big to manage) but I’d like to keep the folder structure for my new pst-file.
Is there any way I can recreate that automatically?
I want to start off with a new empty pst-file (my current one gets too big to manage) but I’d like to keep the folder structure for my new pst-file.
Is there any way I can recreate that automatically?
While it is not a direct feature of Outlook, we can use Outlook’s Archive feature to achieve this.
- Outlook 2007 and previous: File-> Archive…
Outlook 2010: Office Logo-> section Info-> Archive Tools-> Archive… - Select the root of the folder set that you would like to mimic.
If you would only like to mimic the subfolders of the Inbox folder, then you can leave the selection on the Inbox folder. - Set the “Archive items older than” field to a date so far in the past that you are certain no emails will get moved.
- Set the location of your Archive file to the location where you like to store your pst-files. For instance;
D:\Documents\<your name>\Outlook\mymail.pst - Press OK to execute Archive
When Archive is done, only empty folders should be created in the new pst-file.
To set it as your new delivery location use;
Outlook 2002/XP, Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007: File-> Data File Management…
Outlook 2010: Office Logo-> section Info-> button Account Settings-> Account Settings-> tab Data Files
To rename the default name “Archives” of the folder set to something else;
Right click the root of the folder set and choose Properties-> button Advanced…-> tab Advanced…-> field: Name
Note: When you are in a corporate environment, it could be that the Archive feature has been disabled as a company policy. You’d then can create a copy of the original pst-file and use Advanced Find in Outlook to display all items in a single view. From here you can SHIFT+DELETE all the items (probably only a couple of hundred at a time). After that, make sure you compact the pst-file. This might not be as fast as the above method, but it might still be faster than recreating a large folder structure.