Removing messages from PST doesn’t reduce PST size (C# .NET)

Aspose.Email Product Family
1

Hi,

I want to find out if Aspose has added functionality to compact PST that we can use after deleting messages. If so, which version of Aspose has it and how do i use it?

I found one of issue where Aspose said they have entered feature request NETWORKNET-33398 back in 2014. But no updates to it i can find online.

Let me know.

Thanks,
Hiren

2

@hirenp,

I have observed your requirements and like to share that the concerned support is already available in API since Aspose.Email for .NET 17.4. If you remove the message from PST the size shall compact.

3

I have tried deleting messages from various PST of different sizes, but the size of destination PST remains same as source PST. I don’t see any size reduction. I saw older post where someone requested same, and answer was that enhancement request has been entered, and also DeleteChildItems() has been improved so it permanently deletes messages. But I don’t know status of NETWORKNET-33398. And with latest version of Aspose.Email for .Net, (19.2), i still see same behavior.

4

@hirenp,

I have observed the issue shared by you and request you to please share the source PST with us around with used sample code. I will be able to verify the issue further on my end on provision of requested information.

5

Hi Mudassir,

The test pst i used is inside uploaded zip file.

unicode-tmp.zip (2.9 MB)

My sample code i use to delete emails from PST is as follow:

     private void ReducePSTSample()
    {
        string path = @"D:\Temp\unicodepst\unicode-tmp.pst";
        var pstFile = PersonalStorage.FromFile(path);
        var rootFolder = pstFile.RootFolder;
        EnumerateFolder(rootFolder);
        pstFile?.Dispose();
    }
    
    private void EnumerateFolder(FolderInfo folderInfo)
    {
        var beforeDelete = folderInfo.EnumerateMessagesEntryId().ToList();
        if (beforeDelete.Count > 0)
        {
            //delete messages
            folderInfo.DeleteChildItems(beforeDelete);
        }

        if (folderInfo.HasSubFolders)
        {
            foreach (var folder in folderInfo.GetSubFolders(FolderKind.Normal))
            {
                EnumerateFolder(folder);
            }
        }
    }

After running such code to delete all emails in this pst, i look at the file size and it remains same as original file size and its not compacted. If i use outlook to compact it, it goes down to 265 KB.

Let me know if this is a bug or i’m doing something wrong here.

6

@hirenp,

I have observed the sample code and it does seem to remove the emails but does not reduce the size of storage. It seems to be an issue and we are investigating this on our end. We will get back to you with feedback as soon as the issue will be resolved.

7

Any update on this issue?

8

@hirenp,

I have worked with the issue shared by you and it seems to be an issue in API. An issue with ID EMAILNET-39439 has been created in our issue tracking system to further investigate and resolve the issue. This thread has been linked with the issue so that you may be notified once the issue will be fixed.

12

Hi, is there any update on this issue?

13

Hello @dunghnguyen,

Unfortunately, we are unable to fix this.
The PST structure allows deleting items without reducing the file size in proportion to the deleted data. You can see this behavior in Outlook—when you delete messages and even empty the Deleted Items folder, the file size remains unchanged. Outlook provides a separate option to reduce the file size.

Aspose.Email does not have this feature because we believe it can be achieved by creating a new file and moving the remaining items there.

14

Thank you for your support.

15

You are welcome.

16

Hi
Sorry for jumping in to this thread.

I think creating a new PST and moving the remaining items there mostly will cause the data loss due to lack of support for many class types and full structure support.

I have a long waiting request to add support for IPM.OLE.Class, do you know when it will implemen?

Please let me know how do you handle reading and writing of tens of unsupported message classes like? Or folder classes, or extra xml based properties like color classes…

IPM.SkypeTeams.Message
IPM.OLE.Class
etc…

17

Hello @australian.dev.nerds,

Consider the following code:

using (var sourcePst = PersonalStorage.FromFile(sourcePstPath))
{
    using (var targetPst = PersonalStorage.Create(targetPstPath, FileFormatVersion.Unicode))
    {
        // Get the folder from the source PST
        var sourceFolder = sourcePst.RootFolder.GetSubFolder(folderToCopy);

        // Create the same folder in the target PST
        var targetFolder = targetPst.RootFolder.AddSubFolder(sourceFolder.DisplayName);

        // Read items from the source folder
        foreach (var msg in sourceFolder.EnumerateMapiMessages())
        {
            // Add message to the target folder
            targetFolder.AddMessage(msg);
        }
    }
}

Each message will be read regardless of its Message Class and added to the new PST file. Therefore, the data loss you mentioned does not occur in this case.

Perhaps you are referring to issues with converting messages of the specified classes. However, the lack of support here is due to insufficient information about these message classes.

18

Thanks and no, I meant folder associated information (FAI) items which are not transferred and there’s no way to make an exact clone. Best :slight_smile:

19

It depends on the use case:

  • If you only need to move messages, you can ignore FAI since they don’t affect the email content.

  • If it is important to preserve user settings, rules, or views, FAI should be transferred since they contain this information. In this case, it is better to use the Outlook utility to reduce the PST size.