Our facility must sometimes 'clean' a system when data that's not supposed to be in the open, ends up in the open and on a system. The usual avenue for this data finding it's way onto a system is email and we must purge the targeted email in conducting the 'cleaning' of the system. This also means rebuilding the email database to ensure the deleted emails CAN'T be recovered.
Under Outlook 2011 Mac, this was performed simply by holding the option key during launch and rebuilding the mail database. Outlook 2016 has removed this feature and the official support from Microsoft is that Outlook will determine when a database needs rebuilt and users shouldn't do this anyway. Well, we still need to do this when cleaning a system.
Luckily someone made a post on how to do this on a SQLite database which Outlook 2016 uses. Post Here: http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/2016/04/25/outlook-2016-sqlite-database-commands/ I tried making this a little easier for our field technicians and wrapped it into an AppleScript App. Feel free to use, it seems to be working for us.
FOLLOWUP EDIT: I've added a link on a comment below on GitHub for a cleaner display of text.
##################################################################
# Prepare for cleaning/rebuilding User's Outlook 2016 database
# By: Christopher Miller Dated: 2016-12-01, LastMod: 2016-12-06
# For: ITSD-ISS of JHU-APL
# Taken From: http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/2016/04/25/outlook-2016-sqlite-database-commands/
##################################################################
####################################
# Issue warning before closing Outlook Application
####################################
tell application "Finder"
activate
display dialog "This app will be modifying the Outlook 2016 database files and could damage data. Please ensure a backup is ready BEFORE proceeding. Hit -OK- to continue or -Cancel- to quit" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button {"Cancel"} with title "WARNING" with icon stop
end tell
####################################
# Check if open and if so, Close the Outlook Application
####################################
tell application "System Events"
repeat until ("Microsoft Outlook" is not in name of processes) is true
tell application "Microsoft Outlook" to quit
end repeat
end tell
#########################################
# Query the Technician to choose a user account to manipulate
#########################################
set FileThere to "false"
repeat until FileThere is "true"
tell application "System Events"
activate
do shell script "/bin/ls /Users | egrep -i -v Shared"
get paragraphs of result
choose from list (result) with prompt "Select the User Account you would like to clean" with title "CHOOSE USER"
if the result is not false then
set UserAcct to item 1 of the result
else if the result is false then
return
end if
###################################
# Check if the database files exists for the User Accont
###################################
tell application "Finder"
if exists "/Users/" & UserAcct & "/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data/Outlook.sqlite" as POSIX file then
set FileThere to "true"
else
tell application "Finder"
activate
display dialog "Sorry, but an Outlook SQLite database file wasn't found for the account " & UserAcct & ", would you like to try again?" buttons {"Cancel", "Try Again"} default button {"Try Again"} with title "ERROR" with icon 2
end tell
end if
end tell
end tell
end repeat
##########################################
# Find the Size of the Database Files BEFORE doing a vacuuming
##########################################
tell application "System Events"
set PreSizeMain to do shell script "/bin/ls -ho /Users/" & UserAcct & ""/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data/Outlook.sqlite" | awk {'print $4'}"
set PreSizeWal to do shell script "/bin/ls -ho /Users/" & UserAcct & ""/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data/Outlook.sqlite-wal" | awk {'print $4'}"
end tell
##################################
# Vacuum the database files for the chosen account
##################################
try
do shell script "/usr/bin/sqlite3 /Users/" & UserAcct & ""/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data/Outlook.sqlite" vacuum;"
#do shell script "/usr/bin/sqlite3 /Users/"& UserAcct &""/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data/Outlook.sqlite-shm" vacuum;"
do shell script "/usr/bin/sqlite3 /Users/" & UserAcct & ""/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data/Outlook.sqlite-wal" vacuum;"
end try
##########################################
# Find the Size of the Database Files AFTER doing a vacuuming
##########################################
tell application "System Events"
set PostSizeMain to do shell script "/bin/ls -ho /Users/" & UserAcct & ""/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data/Outlook.sqlite" | awk {'print $4'}"
set PostSizeWal to do shell script "/bin/ls -ho /Users/" & UserAcct & ""/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data/Outlook.sqlite-wal" | awk {'print $4'}"
end tell
#####################################
# Tell Technician we're done and relay before/after sizes
#####################################
tell application "Finder"
activate
display dialog "Vacuuming of Outlook 2016 database completed,
Please Launch and verify Mail is okay!
Main Size was: " & PreSizeMain & " and is now: " & PostSizeMain & "
Wal Size was: " & PreSizeWal & " and is now: " & PostSizeWal & "" with title "DONE" with icon 1 giving up after 60
end tell
return
