My mother has a Samsung Android tablet with 32 GB of internal data
storage (and no provision for an SD card).

Of this, about 28 GB is used, so leaving only about 4 GB available.
(first attachment below)

It seems that Outlook (app, not mail domain!) is using about 5.8 GB, the
vast majority being in the "Data" category, as opposed to "Application"
category. (fourth attachment)

But even with very few emails showing in Outlook's various email
folders, and with "Deleted Items" empty, I cannot reduce this figure.

Is there something I'm forgetting to do?

Here are screenshots...

https://i.postimg.cc/kGx0ZGHX/Screenshot-20230430-102751-Device-care.jpg
(Device Care - overall storage and memory usage for whole tablet)

https://i.postimg.cc/HWX1jvLD/Screenshot-20230430-102329-My-Files.jpg
(categories of data storage usage - largest usages are System and Apps)

https://i.postimg.cc/sxdFw7wN/Screenshot-20230430-102342-Settings.jpg
(Apps storage usage, sorted with greatest usage first)

https://i.postimg.cc/4dhk6Bbc/Screenshot-20230430-102811-Settings.jpg
(Outlook memory usage)

Are these figures to be expected? Is it normal for the last screenshot
to show a few hundred MB for the app and 5.8 GB for data, even when
there are very few emails in the Inbox and nothing at all in Drafts,
Sent and Deleted)?

Is there some sort of folder compaction that Outlook can do to regain
the space that was previously occupied with emails with attachments
which have since been deleted?

I established that deleting emails from Deleted Items did regain a small
amount of storage space (a hundred MB or so).

Outlook is set to use a POP3 connection, so all messages will be
transferred to the tablet, unlike an IMAP connection where messages can
remain on the mail server.

On 2023-04-30 12:02, NY wrote:
> My mother has a Samsung Android tablet with 32 GB of internal data
> storage (and no provision for an SD card).
>
> Of this, about 28 GB is used, so leaving only about 4 GB available.
> (first attachment below)
>
> It seems that Outlook (app, not mail domain!) is using about 5.8 GB, the
> vast majority being in the "Data" category, as opposed to "Application"
> category. (fourth attachment)
>
> But even with very few emails showing in Outlook's various email
> folders, and with "Deleted Items" empty, I cannot reduce this figure.
>
> Is there something I'm forgetting to do?
>
> Here are screenshots...
>
> https://i.postimg.cc/kGx0ZGHX/Screenshot-20230430-102751-Device-care.jpg
> (Device Care - overall storage and memory usage for whole tablet)
>
> https://i.postimg.cc/HWX1jvLD/Screenshot-20230430-102329-My-Files.jpg
> (categories of data storage usage - largest usages are System and Apps)
>
> https://i.postimg.cc/sxdFw7wN/Screenshot-20230430-102342-Settings.jpg
> (Apps storage usage, sorted with greatest usage first)
>
> https://i.postimg.cc/4dhk6Bbc/Screenshot-20230430-102811-Settings.jpg
> (Outlook memory usage)
>
> Are these figures to be expected? Is it normal for the last screenshot
> to show a few hundred MB for the app and 5.8 GB for data, even when
> there are very few emails in the Inbox and nothing at all in Drafts,
> Sent and Deleted)?
>
> Is there some sort of folder compaction that Outlook can do to regain
> the space that was previously occupied with emails with attachments
> which have since been deleted?
>
> I established that deleting emails from Deleted Items did regain a small
> amount of storage space (a hundred MB or so).
>
> Outlook is set to use a POP3 connection, so all messages will be
> transferred to the tablet, unlike an IMAP connection where messages can
> remain on the mail server.

Huh. Never use POP3. Change to IMAP.

Yes, folders can be compacted. Deleted mails are not really deleted till
the corresponding folder is compacted. I don't know about outlook, this
depends on the application, then compacting can be automatic or manual.

For example, Thunderbird has a setting that triggers compaction if it
saves an specified number of megabytes.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

Am 30.04.23 um 12:02 schrieb NY:
> Are these figures to be expected? Is it normal for the last screenshot
> to show a few hundred MB for the app and 5.8 GB for data, even when
> there are very few emails in the Inbox and nothing at all in Drafts,
> Sent and Deleted)?

around 5MB
Microsoft's new Outlook Lite app is now available on Android
Outlook Lite is around 5MB in download size, and Microsoft says it “uses
extremely low storage on your phone.” It has been optimized to run
quickly on all Android devices and even ones with just 1GB of RAM.

> Is there some sort of folder compaction that Outlook can do to regain
> the space that was previously occupied with emails with attachments
> which have since been deleted?

How many GB is Outlook app?
Looking at the user data shows that the app takes up a huge amount of
storage space (up to 15 GB)!!

Seems to be known issue.

https://www.google.ch/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjl2aHC1dH-AhURVfEDHbQJDk8QFnoECAwQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fanswers.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Foutlook_com%2Fforum%2Fall%2Foutlook-android-app-takes-up-huge-amount-of%2F0738ca20-1a96-450c-99b2-6697e1fc8600&usg=AOvVaw0d-LgJ3H_RjEiLZzBkqzO1

> I established that deleting emails from Deleted Items did regain a small
> amount of storage space (a hundred MB or so).
>
> Outlook is set to use a POP3 connection, so all messages will be
> transferred to the tablet, unlike an IMAP connection where messages can
> remain on the mail server.

Microsoft Outlook has been available on Android phones and tablets for a
while now, but an optimize version that will work better on lower-end
devices is in development.

The official roadmap for Microsoft 365 states that ‘Outlook Lite for
Android’ is planned to roll out worldwide sometime in July 2022, as
pointed out by ZDNet. The roadmap is light on details (pardon the pun),
with Microsoft only describing it as “an Android app that brings the
main benefits of Outlook in a smaller app size with fast performance for
lightweight devices on any network.”

Microsoft Outlook Lite is already available on the Google Play Store in
a few countries, such as Turkey and Mexico, and the app’s page has more
details about what to expect.

The solution:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.outlooklite&hl=en_US

HTH, Joerg

--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

NY <me@privacy.net> wrote:

> My mother has a Samsung Android tablet with 32 GB of internal data
> storage (and no provision for an SD card).
>
> Of this, about 28 GB is used, so leaving only about 4 GB available.
> (first attachment below)
>
> It seems that Outlook (app, not mail domain!) is using about 5.8 GB, the
> vast majority being in the "Data" category, as opposed to "Application"
> category. (fourth attachment)
>
> But even with very few emails showing in Outlook's various email
> folders, and with "Deleted Items" empty, I cannot reduce this figure.
>
> Is there something I'm forgetting to do?
>
> Here are screenshots...
>
> https://i.postimg.cc/kGx0ZGHX/Screenshot-20230430-102751-Device-care.jpg
> (Device Care - overall storage and memory usage for whole tablet)
>
> https://i.postimg.cc/HWX1jvLD/Screenshot-20230430-102329-My-Files.jpg
> (categories of data storage usage - largest usages are System and Apps)
>
> https://i.postimg.cc/sxdFw7wN/Screenshot-20230430-102342-Settings.jpg
> (Apps storage usage, sorted with greatest usage first)
>
> https://i.postimg.cc/4dhk6Bbc/Screenshot-20230430-102811-Settings.jpg
> (Outlook memory usage)
>
> Are these figures to be expected? Is it normal for the last screenshot
> to show a few hundred MB for the app and 5.8 GB for data, even when
> there are very few emails in the Inbox and nothing at all in Drafts,
> Sent and Deleted)?
>
> Is there some sort of folder compaction that Outlook can do to regain
> the space that was previously occupied with emails with attachments
> which have since been deleted?
>
> I established that deleting emails from Deleted Items did regain a small
> amount of storage space (a hundred MB or so).
>
> Outlook is set to use a POP3 connection, so all messages will be
> transferred to the tablet, unlike an IMAP connection where messages can
> remain on the mail server.

I don't use POP, and instead use IMAP (to non-Microsoft accounts) and
Exchange/ActiveSync to my Microsoft accounts. Might be why my internal
storage consumption for the Outlook app is far lower than yours. For
me, the Outlook app uses the following amounts of internal storage:

App 264 MB
Data 309 MB
Cache 7.45 MB

Total 580 MB

That's megabytes, not gigabytes.

Unlike its desktop cousin, there is no option to compact folders (or
it's not there when not using POP access). For the desktop cousin,
permanently deleting (Shift+Del, or deleting from Trash folder) an item
does not remote its record from the database, but merely flags it as
"deleted". The record remains in the database until it is compacted.
You could manually instigate a compaction in desktop Outlook. I don't
know how the item records are stored on Android, and I don't see a
compaction function.

Did you restart the app? No, I don't mean closing its window which
leaves the app running in the background until the OS decides it needs
the memory for a newly opened app. Android does not terminate processes
like in Windows or Linux. "Exiting" an app in Android closes the
window, but leaves the process loaded in memory. If you don't have a
process manager that can kill processes, you can go into Android
settings, Apps, go to the Outlook app, and click "Force stop". That
will kill the backgrounded process. Then restart the Outlook app, and
check its memory consumption.

Have you yet restarted the phone?

https://pureinfotech.com/reset-outlook-app-not-working-android/

That article mentions how to clear the storage used by the app.
However, I do the clearing in a different order. I clear Cache first,
and then clear Data. I first clear the cached data, and test if the
problem went away. If not, then I clear cache again and then clear
data. I have done that on some apps; however, I don't know if clearing
Data for the Outlook app means you lose the accounts. On Android,
accounts are not stored in the apps, but in the OS. Well, for me back
on Android 8.0 that is how it is. Accounts are defined under Android
settings, General, Accounts. That is why I can delete an app, and
reinstall it, or install a new app, and can select from a list of
accounts already defined in the OS instead of having to enter all the
details from scratch.

I do remember having a problem a couple years ago with the Outlook app,
and the tech rep said to reset the account. The app stopped
synchronizing with the server; that is, I wasn't getting new e-mails.
Resetting is not deleting and recreating the account. A reset does not
do a delete of an account. In the Outlook app, tap on the folder icon
at the top left. Select settings. In the "Mail accounts" section,
select an account. There is a "RESET ACCOUNT" action item. It takes a
couple minutes to do its work. When reset, the mail account is removed
from the sync list (in Android settings, Accounts). Then the account
gets readded to the sync list. After the reset, the account was not
deleted, gets removed from the sync list, gets re-added, linkages
between Android and app are reestablished, and you may have to enter
your password on the next use of the mail app. Then check the storage
consumption.

Joerg Lorenz wrote:

> How many GB is Outlook app?
> Looking at the user data shows that the app takes up a huge amount of
> storage space (up to 15 GB)!!

outlook on windows is a memory hog (200GB of multiply-cached .nst files
anyone?) so why expect it to be any better on android?

Am 01.05.23 um 08:24 schrieb Andy Burns:
> Joerg Lorenz wrote:
>
>> How many GB is Outlook app?
>> Looking at the user data shows that the app takes up a huge amount of
>> storage space (up to 15 GB)!!
>
> outlook on windows is a memory hog (200GB of multiply-cached .nst files
> anyone?) so why expect it to be any better on android?

I would never use Outlook on any platform. In many respects it is the
worst kind of an e-mail-client.

--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)