Outlook 2007 Becomes Unresponsive for a Long Time

Outlook PST file grows as you create and receive email messages. Even when you delete these items, the PST file size is not affected in same proportion. As a result, your Outlook might go slow and unresponsive while typical mail operations. There are several ways that you can use to reduce the PST file size, such as to Split PST File. You can also perform steps like archiving the file or emptying the Deleted Items folder. The further reading will describe performance issues that could specifically occur in Outlook 2007 and some methods to solve them.You might notice Outlook 2007 being unresponsive or appearing to stop responding for a considerable interval of time. When you click to read an email message, move an item or delete an email message, Outlook may pause and complete it after some time.

Cause

Some typical causes for this behavior are:

Your system doesn’t meet all the requirements for Microsoft Office 2007
You are not using Outlook with the latest service pack
There are large number of items in a folder
Outlook is interacting with an antivirus software
Your Outlook is installed with outdated or extra add-ins

Outlook PST file size is large

Solution

You should try resolving the existing issue as follows:

You need to check for the minimum system requirements for Office 2007 and complete them if any of them is not meeting

You are suggested to install and use Outlook 2007 Service Pack 1 with February 2009 cumulative update for achieving better performance results. With Outlook prior to 2007 SP1 update, 10,000 or more items in a single folder can create issues when you switch in and out of that particular folder. To solve it, you should move the items to a different folder or install the latest update for Outlook 2007.

• You should disable all the interactions of Outlook with the antivirus software
• You are required to remove or disable all the outdated and nonessential add-ins using the Add-in manager

For reducing the large .pst file size, you should perform steps like deleting the nonessential email items, archiving the file, compacting the file, emptying the Deleted Items folder or splitting the file.

PST file splitting can be securely performed using PST Split applications. These software undergo safe Split PST File operations and divide a single .pst file into several smaller ones, each usable with Outlook.