XCLN: No Means of Disabling Default Folders from Offline Use (170816)

SUMMARY

By default, the following four folders are marked as being available both online and offline. To view this, point to a folder and right-click to display the selections, click Properties, and then click the Synchronization tab:

Sent items
Deleted items
Inbox
Outbox

To synchronize an offline folder (OST file), on the Tools menu of the Exchange or Outlook client, click Synchronize, and then select All Folders. All information in these default folders is synchronized as well as any additional private or public folders that have also been marked for offline use. These four default folders are always marked as being available both online and offline and cannot be marked for online use only. This is by product design.

MORE INFORMATION

To prevent information from all four default folders from being synchronized, select the one folder you wish to synchronize and on the Tools menu of the Exchange or Outlook client, click Synchronize, and then click This Folder.

The time it takes to synchronize all folders can be improved by minimizing the amount of information kept in these default folders.

Some general tips for optimizing synchronization times while using offline folders:

Encourage all users to send links to large documents instead of sending the whole document as attachments.
Place restrictions on the sizes of messages that may be sent through the Exchange Messaging system (this can be done through the Exchange Administrator program). Restrictions can be set on individual mailboxes or for all messages flowing through a specific connector.
Perform a full synchronization and download the offline address book while connected to a LAN whenever possible. This is especially important after creating a new OST file because of the amount of information that typically must be replicated initially. Because synchronization only transfers new information, if a majority of the information can be replicated while connected over a LAN, remote synchronization time will be greatly shortened.
Consider moving large forms from the Organizational Forms Library to a Personal Folder (PST) or a public folder. Organizational forms are replicated to offline folder files as well and can be large. When you synchronize a folder Outlook checks to see if that folder contains items that use an Organizational Form. If so, the form is synchronized. There is no user option to modify this behavior.
Keep information in the Sent Items folder to a minimum by regularly archiving or deleting information from the Sent Items folder. Microsoft Outlook's Autoarchive feature can make this process easy. If necessary, disable the option: on the Tools menu, click Options, and then on the Send tab, in the Sent Items Folder, select the Save A Copy Of The Item option.
Keep information in the Deleted Items folder to a minimum by: on the Tools menu, click Option, and then on the General tab, select the Empty the deleted items folder upon exiting option.
Use a server-based Inbox Assistant rule to automatically move any large messages or messages with attachments to a private folder not marked for synchronization. A reply template can simultaneously be sent stating "a large message has been moved to the Attachment folder" so that it is apparent to the user that a large message was moved with a rule.

See the following Knowledge Base articles for additional information about OST files and synchronization:

162544 XCLN: Troubleshooting Remote Function of Exchange and Schedule+

163589 XCLN: Restoring from an OST after Deleting the Mailbox

161889 XCLN: OST and PST Quick Reference