Bypass 500 folder limit in Outlook

Question

In our company we use Outlook 2016. Our service department has got the problem that it comes to the 500 folder limit. We sort our emails by customer/project. So is there a way how to bypass/get around this problem? Some plugins or tweaks I could install?

Solution

If using Office 365, then according to its Roadmap Outlook has improved synchronization of folders by removing the 500 folder limit for shared mailboxes.

Otherwise, here are some reported workarounds:

• The thread Method to deal with "too many folders" in Outlook has this user report:

  Simply unchecking 'Cached Mode' and 'Download Shared Folders' then relaunching Outlook did not work. I needed to remove the Profile from the PC entirely [Control Panel-> Mail-> Profiles] and then recreate another Profile. When launching Outlook needed to add the account without selecting 'Cached Mode'.

  This has resolved the issue without needing to edit the server registry or allow other Users to have more than 500 folders.

• The Microsoft article Exchange Store Limits offers the register update of creating in the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem, a new value named MaxObjsPerMapiSession, and in it create a DWORD (32-bit) named objtFolderView that is set to a value higher than 500.

• Another option is to grant access to individual folders within the mailbox instead of to the entire mailbox. You can grant access to folders with the PowerShell cmdlet of Add-MailboxFolderPermission.

(Future Outlook updates may disable some of the above workarounds.)

Comments

[Steve Fan]

Although there are workaround/configuration to extend the limit, it's not recommended to do so, as it may cause performance issue in Outlook. See: support.microsoft.com/en-sg/help/2768656/…

[Dominic Jonas]

We are currently implementing a new ERP System were we won't need outlook for this case anymore. So it's just a temporary solution 🤓