# Outlook Express for Mac question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-for-mac-question/119629>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 18, 2002, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-for-mac-question/119629 "2002-07-18T15:34:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-for-mac-question/119629/1 "2002-07-18T15:34:05Z")

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Outlook creates a single file called “Messages,” which apparently stores all the info and attached files in all the emails that are stored on the computer. My problem is that file doesn’t seem to be losing any of the old info. It just keeps growing and growing, and is currently getting painfully close to a Gig in size. How can I permanently delete all of this old stuff? Do I only think I’m deleting old files, but they’re really being archived somewhere? And yes, I do know to delete stuff from the “Deleted” folder.

Help! It’s eating my hard drive!

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**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-for-mac-question/119629/2 "2002-07-18T20:18:26Z")

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you can delete this file. You will lose all the content of your old mail messages though. It might be the simplest though

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**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-for-mac-question/119629/3 "2002-07-18T20:40:45Z")

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hold down the option key when starting up OE. This will compact the database!

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**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-for-mac-question/119629/4 "2002-07-18T20:59:53Z")

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Yowza. That made a huge difference. The file went from 920 MB to 190, which is much more in line with what I’ve actually got saved. Do you have any idea if what that did was just compress everything, or did it actually get rid of old stuff that I didn’t know I had?

Anyway, thanks for the tip.

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**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-for-mac-question/119629/5 "2002-07-19T04:50:47Z")

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A lot of databases leave behind the allocated blocks, like empty apartments, when you delete data until you compress the database file again. I don’t know if this is true for Outlook’s database, but it seems likely.

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**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-for-mac-question/119629/6 "2002-07-19T11:53:13Z")

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Haven’t used Outlook Express in a while, but there’s also an Advanced rebuild option. Hold the option key as SCM1001 said, and answer NO. The next question will allow the advanced option. To that, answer YES.