George Fox University | Offices and Services | Institutional Technology | Archiving in Outlook

About Backing up or Deleting Items with Autoarchive
How to Manually Archive
How to AutoArchive

About backing up or deleting items using AutoArchive
Your Microsoft Outlook mailbox grows as you create and receive items. To keep your mailbox manageable, you need another place to store - archive - the old items that are important but not frequently used. You also need a way to automatically move those old items to the archive location and to discard items whose content has expired and is no longer valid. AutoArchive takes care of these processes for you.

Each GFU employee has a total of 50 MB of mailbox space. However, if your box reaches 45 MB, you will receive a warning, and will not be able to send e-mail. At 50 MB, your box will be locked, and you will not be able to send or receive e-mail, until you delete or archive your mail messages. Note: the mail in your public folders does not affect your personal mail box and does not need to be archived!

AutoArchive is on by default and runs automatically at scheduled intervals, clearing out old and expired items from folders. Old items are those that reach the archiving age you specify, and may include such things as the original e-mail you received with the goals for a project you're assigned to. Expired items are mail and meeting items whose content is no longer valid after a certain date, such as a meeting you had four months ago that still appears on your calendar. Although an expiration date is optional, you can define it at the time you create the item or at a later date. When the item expires, it's unavailable and has a strike-out mark through it.

What AutoArchive does with items
AutoArchive can do one or both of the following for items in a folder: Permanently delete expired items; delete or archive old items to an archive file. The archive file is a special type of data file. The first time AutoArchive runs, Outlook creates the archive file automatically in one of the following locations depending on the operating system you're using:

Windows 2000 - C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername \Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Archive.pst
Windows NT - C:\winnt\profiles\yourusername\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Archive.pst
Windows 98 - C:\Windows\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Archive.pst

If you don't see the Local Settings folder, it may be hidden. See Microsoft Windows Help for information about showing hidden folders.

After Outlook archives items for the first time, you can access items in the file directly from Archive Folders in your Outlook Folder List in the same folder structure as the original folders. If you want, you can have separate archive files for individual folders.

There are two sets of AutoArchive settings: global settings and per-folder settings. The global settings - called default settings - determine whether AutoArchive runs at all and what it does by default with the items in any Outlook folder (except Contacts, which is not affected by AutoArchive). The per-folder settings override the default settings so you can AutoArchive individual folders differently. If you don't specify AutoArchive settings for a specific folder, the folder automatically uses the default settings. Default settings and per-folder settings apply to the current mailbox only. If you want, you can also manually archive items.

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Note that settings vary depending on the version of Outlook. It may be necessary to read the "help" instructions on your computer for instructions specific to your program.


To Manually Archive, Open Outlook and do the following:

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• Select File, then Archive
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• Select the folder/s you want to archive (note that you can choose any specific folder, or all folders to archive)
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• Select the date before which you want to archive
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• Select the file you want to store the archived files in (in most cases you will choose the default, but you can create and store the file anywhere you prefer) more information
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• Select OK
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To AutoArchive (to automatically archive on a regular basis), open Outlook and do one of the following:
Process 1:

• Select Tools and then Options
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• Select Other, then AutoArchive
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• Select the various options as mentioned above to suit your needs
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Process 2 (to AutoArchive a specific folder):

• Right click on any folder in your folder list
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• Select Properties
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• Select AutoArchive
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• Choose the available options as mentioned above
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For more informaton, check the "help" menu in your Outlook program.