Overview
This article will assist you with archiving in Outlook.
Procedures
Setting up an Archive Folder:
1. Open Outlook.
2. Click the “File” tab located in the upper left corner of the Outlook screen.
3. Click the “Tools” Icon, and then choose “Clean Up Old Items…” from the drop-down menu.
Note: For older versions of Outlook, Clean Up Old Items… may just be called Archive.
[Clean Up Old Items… was selected from the Tools drop-down menu.]
You should now see a small pop-up box appear on your screen titled “Archive”. In this box you can select which folders you wanted to archive.
NOTE: If the folder you wish to archive has sub-folders, make sure to check “Archive this folder and all subfolders:” that enables you to archive both the folder and its sub-folders.
1. Choose Archive this folder and all subfolders:
2. Select a folder you want to archive.
3. Choose a date from “Archive items older than:” drop down arrow. NOTE: Once you select this date, any emails in this folder that you received prior to this date will get stored in the Archive.
4. Click Browse… we suggest creating a folder in your network (U:) drive, and save your archive file there. An example name for this folder can be “Outlook Archive Folder”.
5. Click OK.
[Archive this folder and all subfolders was selected on Inbox for emails older than Tuesday, 1/28/2020.]
6. Click OK.
On the homepage of Outlook, near the bottom right of the screen you should see this:
[Outlook displaying a processing bar when archiving]
When this bar disappears your archive folder will be complete and you should see the new folder on the left side of the screen. This folder by default is called “Archives”.
[Newly created archive appearing on Outlook's main page]
Change the name of the archive file:
1. You can change the name of this folder by right-clicking on it, and selecting “Data Files Properties” in the drop-down menu.
2. In the Archive’s properties dialog box, click the “Advanced” button.
[Advanced button being selected in archive properties]
3. Type the new name for your archive folder.
[Example Name was typed in for the archive's new name.]
4. Click OK and you should then see the new name of your archive folder.
Double Check your Archive folder:
It is a good idea to review the emails in an archive folder to make sure the emails you archived are there.
1. Click once on the archive folder on the left to open and check to see that all the folders and emails are in the new archive folder, and not in the original folder.
Manually moving emails into your archive folder(s):
There are times you may want to move emails one by one or move several emails in a row or in a random order into an archive folder.
One by One:
1. Locate the email you would like to move to an archive folder and then click and drag this email to that archive folder.
NOTE: If the emails you want to move are not in these tabs, you can select several emails by holding down the “Shift” key, and selecting ranges of emails you wish to move.
You do not have to open these tabs, but right-click on them, slide down to “Move” and then select “Other Folder…”
[Other folder was selected in the move drop-down menu.]
2. Now select a folder in your new archive to move these emails to.
[Drafts was selected in the move items popup window.]
3. Click OK.
You may see a pop-up box appear on your screen showing the time/duration it will take for the emails to transfer folders. Once the transfer of the emails is complete, repeat this process until all the emails you wished to archive are now in your archive folder.
Consecutive order:
1. Click once on the first email at the start of your date range.
2. Then, hold the shift key and scroll down to the email list and click once on the last email in your date range.
You should now see all the emails in between those two emails highlighted.
3. Let go of the Shift key and then click hold and drag the group of emails to the archive folder.
You should then see a popup on your screen indicating the transfer of emails.
4. Once the popup informs you that the transfer has been completed, double-check the archive folder to ensure the transfer was successful.
Random order:
1. Click once on the first email.
2. Then, hold the Ctrl key down and randomly click emails.
You will see all emails you chose at random highlighted.
3. Let go of the Ctrl key and then click hold and drag one of the emails and the group of emails will move.
4. Drag to the archive folder.
5. Once the popup informs you that the transfer has been completed, double-check the archive folder to ensure the transfer was successful.
Closing an Archive Folder:
1. To close an archive folder, just right click on the archive folder, and choose “Close “(Name of Archive)”” from the drop-down menu.
2. That archive folder is removed from the list only and can be added back at any time.
[Close "Example Name" was selected in the popup menu after right-clicking on Example Name.]
Adding an Archive Folder:
1. Click the file tab located in the top-left corner of the Outlook screen.
2. Click the “Account Settings” button, and click “Account Setting…” from the drop-down menu.
3. In the Account Settings dialog box, select the “Data Files” tab.
4. Click the “Add” button.
[Add option being selected in the data files tab.]
5. Locate and select the archive file that you want to open and then click OK.
This archive file appears in the Data Files list.
6. Click Close.
The archive file is located to the far left of the Outlook screen.
References/Links
Exchange Quota Warning - Clean up
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