The “Folder is Full” error in Outlook means that your Outlook .pst File or .ost File has reached its maximum size limit. The another reason for Outlook Folder is Full error is the presence of corrupted data files in Outlook.  This article is to discuss the Folder is Full error and also it will tell you how to get rid of this issue.

Before starting the troubleshooting of this error, let’s discuss the symptoms of Folder is Full error.

How to know that The Inbox Folder is Full in Outlook?

• When you try deleting or moving your Folder, you may get an error message saying “cannot move the items. The Folder is Full”.
• You may also receive the same error while renaming the same Folder. The error message pop-up says “cannot rename ‘<new Folder name>’. The Folder is ”
• This error may also occur even in empty
• When you try Hard deleting by pressing Shift+Delete keys from your keyboard an error message again occurs saying “The message interface has returned an unknown error, if the problem persists, restart the window.”
• Decreased performance due to the presence of more than 10,000 Folders in Outlook it takes place because Outlook takes lots of time computing the Folders.

Reasons for getting this error: –

After knowing about the symptoms of the Folder is Full error you should be aware the causes of the same error. The error occurs when you Outlook Folder has exceeded its limit of holding the item in a Folder and also the number of Folders has surpassed.

The ceiling of the items and the Folders in Outlook depends on its version. The limit of Outlook 2016 is:

• Maximum number of Folders in Outlook should be 500 Folders
• Moreover, item per Folder should be 1,00,000 items

Steps to fix the Outlook Folder is Full error: –

Step1: – Discover the Format and Size of Outlook file

• Verify the format of your Outlook file

• The first thing which you should verify is whether you are working in .pst or .ost file.

1. To verify the format, click on the File tab in your Outlook window.
2. Under account information, click on Account Settings

• A new window appears, select Data File tab from there. Under Data File window you can see all your Outlook data available there.

1. Double click on the file whose format you want to know.
2. A new pop-up box appears. Look at the format field if an Outlook Data File is written there, then it means the file is in UNICODE format and if Outlook Data File (97-2002) is written there it means the file is in ANSI format.
3. After checking the format just click on OK button available at the bottom of the screen.

• Check the size of your Outlook data file: –

After checking the format of your Outlook data file you should also check the Size of Outlook data file.

1. To verify the size of the file, just turn on your Outlook and click on File tab.
2. Under Account information click on Account Settings.

• Select data file tab from the next window. You can locate your Outlook data file.

1. Click on Open File Location option presented on the same window
2. A new window showing the location of all your files appears there, under the size column you can check the size of the compulsory file.

Step2: – Actions depending on precise cases: –

According to the size and format of the Outlook, you can choose one out of the following measures:

1. If you have the Outlook data file in ANSI format and if it is about to reach the limit of 2 GB in a .pst Then in this situation, you have to use pst2gb tool to crop the extra length of the file. So you can easily access it later on also and you can perform the various actions which you were unable to perform before
2. If you are using the data file in UNICODE format and if it has reached the maximum limit of 4 GB of your disk which is in FAT32 Format. Then in this situation, you need to convert the FAT32 format into the NTFS
3. Press and hold the windows + R key. The Run dialog box appears.
4. In the search box, type cmd to activate a command prompt. In command prompt use convert disk name: /fs:NTFS command.
5. If you have saved your Outlook data file is in UNICODE format and its size is about 20 GB or 50 GB, then this means your file has reached the default size limit. You can overcome this situation by following two ways: –
6. Firstly, you can temporarily change the default size limit of your .pst or .ost file simply by changing the registry key. Moreover, you will be allowed to access the previous files.
7. Secondly, you can also change the default size limit of the file by splitting the file into numerous small parts.

Step 3: – Repair corrupted file

If the problem persists even after applying the above-mentioned phases or if the above cases do not apply to your .pst or .ost files, then the reason for the issue may be the availability of the corrupted file.

In this case, you can repair your Outlook file by reading the next article Repair Corrupted File of Outlook.