If you’re an Outlook user, you may already know that PST files can become oversized over time, slowing down your email performance. Fortunately, splitting your PST file into smaller parts can make your Outlook more efficient and prevent it from becoming sluggish. This guide will show you how to split PST files into smaller parts and help you manage your Outlook data more effectively.

Why Should You Split PST Files?

Before we dive into the “how” of splitting a PST file, we need to know why it’s crucial to split the PST file. A PST file keeps your emails, calendar events, contacts, tasks, etc. Over time, as PST files grow in size, it can lead to various issues like:

• Outlook performance issues: Slow start-up, delays in opening or sending emails.
• Corruption risks: Larger PST files are more prone to corruption, which can lead to data loss.
• Difficulty managing data: A large PST file contains many items that are difficult to manage and back up.

Splitting up PST files into smaller, more manageable parts is an innovative approach to avoid all these issues.

How to Split PST File: Step-by-Step Guide

There are several methods you can use to split PST files. You can do this manually or with the help of specialized tools. Here’s a breakdown of the most common approaches:

Note: Back up your data before applying these manual techniques to avoid data loss.

1. Manually Split PST Files by Year or Date

Microsoft Outlook does not come with any built-in feature to split PST files automatically, but you can do it by manually managing the data by archiving emails based on a specific year or date range.

Steps to split PST file by date:

• Open Outlook and go to File > Info > Tools > Clean Up Old Items.
• Choose Archive this folder and all subfolders, and select the folder you want to archive.
• Set the date range for the emails you want to archive. For example, select emails older than a year to break PST files by year.
• Choose a location to save the archived file and click OK.

This method lets you split your PST file based on your selected date range and helps reduce the file size by organizing your data into separate parts.

2. Split PST File by Size

If you’re concerned about the size of your PST file, you can set a maximum size limit for a PST file in Outlook settings. When the file reaches this limit, Outlook will create a new file, thus helping you break up PST files by size.

Steps to split PST file by size:

• Open Outlook and go to File > Account Settings.
• In the Account Settings window, click Data Files and select your current PST file.
• Click Settings, then go to the General tab.
• In the Maximum Size section, set the limit for your PST file. Outlook will automatically create a new file when the file reaches this size.

As you can see, these manual methods are challenging to apply, and there are always slight chances of data corruption, so you need to lean towards third-party utility to get the best result possible.

3. Using the Shoviv PST Splitter Tool

If manual methods seem too complicated for you or need more custom data, a PST splitting tool is the easiest and most efficient option. Shoviv PST Splitter Tool is an easier way to split PST files based on criteria such as size, folder, date, or year.

Benefits of using Shoviv PST Splitter:

• It can split PST files without losing any data integrity.
• Break PST files into smaller, more manageable parts based on custom criteria (size, folder, date, year).
• No manual effort is required, saving you time and energy.
• It supports all versions of Outlook and works smoothly, even with large files.
• The risk of data loss during the splitting process is almost zero.

How to use Shoviv PST Splitter:

1. Install the Shoviv Tool and launch the application.
2. Click on Add PST File to select the large PST file you want to split.
3. Choose your preferred splitting method by size, folder, date, or year.
4. Select the destination folder where you want the split PST files to be saved.
5. Click on the Split button to begin the process. The tool will divide the PST file into smaller, manageable parts without data loss.

By applying the steps, users can easily split the PST file using the Shoviv Tool and efficiently complete the task.

Final words

Here, we discuss why we need to split PST files and then understand a couple of methods to split the PST files: first, we use manual techniques, which are difficult to apply for non-technical users and also have many cons. On the other side, we have an automated way called Shoviv PST Splitter Software to break the PST files efficiently.