.pst size does not decrease when deleting (Outlook 2002 SP3)

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Hello all,
I am trying to clean up my Outlook.pst file to make backups faster.
I have archived a lot of mail and deleted even more.
Nothing seems to cause the size to decrease. The Archive has increase from 43M to 109M.
I checked the size of Outlook.pst (246Mb) before emptying the deleted items folder and again afterwards. There was no change.
Can you offer any advice please? I’ve searched the forum but not found reference to this problem
Thanks in advance, Judith

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Have you tried compacting the .pst?
– Right-click “Personal Folders” or whatever you have named the top level of the .pst.
– Select Properties for … from the popup menu.
– Click Advanced…
– Click Compact Now.
– OK your way out.
The effect is usually not very big. You could create a new .pst, copy all items you need to the new .pst, tell Outlook to use the new .pst as delivery location and close the old one.

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Thanks Hans.
I’ve followed your instructions and reduced the Outlook file to 181Mb.
That size change will do for now.
Thank you so much.
Judith

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