“Why is my Outlook running so slowly?” It’s a question that regularly echoes around offices throughout the land.
If figuring out how you can speed up your Outlook is an ongoing issue, fear not – this article is for you. Here’s why your mail client is running slowly:
It’s probably all about your email cache…
What is an email cache?
Your email cache is a little store of data that helps any future requests for data get served faster.
It does this by storing some files locally on your device. Then, the next time you need to perform a function, it already has the data ready to go.
In short, this little bit of software is trying to help you. Unfortunately, any cache – and caches are in broad use across modern technologies and applications – can become overloaded.
An overloaded cache can quickly become a problem. If your Microsoft Outlook has started to run slowly or its AutoComplete suggestions are getting weird or showing old results, it’s probably time to clear that cache.
Luckily, the process isn’t very complicated.
How to delete your Outlook cache
First of all, it’s important to note that cleaning or deleting your cache will not delete emails, contacts, or message histories.
Now we’re confident in this, we can delete the Outlook cache:
- Save anything you’re working on and close the Outlook app.
- Open the Run dialog box (the shortcut is Windows key+R).
- Type %localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook into the dialog.
- Hit Enter.
- Navigate to the RoamCache folder
- You can now see all of the files in the cache (At this stage, you might want to make a backup if you’re concerned something may go awry – simply create a new folder somewhere else and copy and paste these files into it.)
- Then, highlight all of the files in the cache, right-click, and select Delete.
How to clear your Outlook AutoComplete cache
The Outlook AutoComplete is the function that tries to complete the words you type into the “To”, “Cc”, or “Bcc” fields of an email you want to send.
This has its own cache (trying to help you out again) that can also get overloaded if you haven’t cleared it out recently. Here’s how to do that:
- Navigate to File tab > Options > Outlook Options > Mail tab > Send Messages section.
- Choose Empty Auto-Complete List.
- Answer “Yes” when prompted if you’re sure.
If you don’t want Outlook to make these suggestions at all, you can disable AutoComplete at the same time.
Say hello to a faster Outlook
There are other potential culprits if you are suffering from an Outlook email client that’s slow to load, but the email cache is by far and away the most common cause.
If this quick and easy fix doesn’t do it, it’s time to progress to asking for a little professional help from your resident IT geek.
Want to ensure problems like this don’t impact your team’s productivity?
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