If
you decide you want Outlook to archive your data for you, the first
thing you need to do is configure its options. We can access these
options by clicking the File menu, clicking Options, clicking the Other
tab, and clicking the AutoArchive button.
Here’s an overview of the AutoArchive options:
Although these options are pretty self-explanatory, let’s go through
them all. -
-
Run AutoArchive every [] days: If you want AutoArchive to run automatically,
check this box. Then, enter how often in days you want it to run. -
Prompt before AutoArchive runs: If this box is checked, Outlook will let you
know when it’s about to archive your data. If it’s unchecked, the
archiving process will happen in the background. -
Delete expired items: If e-mail has been sent to you with an expiry date, this
option will delete messages whose expiration date has passed. (This does
not apply to other items, like calendar appointments or tasks, which may
have occurred in the past.) -
Archive or delete old items: Check this box to confirm that you want to
archive or delete old items. If this is not checked, the options below
it will be grayed out.
o
Show archive folder in folder list: This will display your archive folder in
the list with your other personal folder files, giving you easy access
to your old data. (The folder will not appear until Outlook AutoArchives.)
o
Clean out items older than [] months: You can choose how old items must be to
be archived using this option. Pick a number between 1 and 99, and then
choose days, weeks, or months from the drop-down menu. (For example, if
you have 6 months selected and AutoArchive runs on June 1, it will
archive all items time-stamped before January 1 of that year.)
o
Move old items to: Choose the location of the archive folder. (By default, the
file will be named archive.pst and it will be placed in the default
Outlook location.)
o
Permanently delete old items: Instead of moving old items to a folder, you can
tell Outlook to permanently delete them. Be careful; if you choose this
option there will be no way to recover what Outlook deletes.
o
Apply these settings to all folders now: Make sure you click this button to
make sure all folders have these archive settings. -
Retention Policy Information: If you are connected to a mail server (like
Microsoft Exchange server), your network administrator may set policies
controlling your data. These can include restricting mailbox size or
restricting AutoArchive use. You can click this button to see what
policies are in place. (If no policies are in place or you’re not on a
network, this option will not be available.) Just
like other dialog boxes, we must click OK twice to save our changes.
Clicking Cancel will discard any changes we’ve made. We
can also set AutoArchive options for each folder by right-clicking that
folder, clicking Properties, and clicking the Archive tab. Here are the
options we will see:
We
have three main choices in this window: -
Do not archive items in this folder: Excludes this folder from any archiving
options that are set. -
Archive items in this folder using the default settings: Tells Outlook to use
the default archiving options for this folder. (You can click Default
Archive Settings to go back to the main AutoArchive window that we just
looked at.) -
Archive this folder using these settings: Set different AutoArchive options
for this folder only.
o
First, tell Outlook how old items must be for them to be archived.
o
Then, tell Outlook where to move the items to. (You can pick your regular
AutoArchive folder or pick a different one.)
o
Or, tell Outlook to permanently delete old items. -
Retention Policy Information: Click this button to see what retention policies
have been set by your network administrator. After
filling out your information, click Apply and OK, or click Cancel. You
can back go into the main AutoArchive options or the folder archive
options at any time and modify these settings.
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