AutoArchiving

Auto-archiving helps to keep your mailbox size under the 100 megabyte limit without discarding mail you may need.
Your Exchange mailbox grows as items are created in the same way that papers pile up on your desk. In the paper-based world, you can occasionally shuffle through your documents and store those that are important but not frequently used. Documents that are less important, such as newspapers and magazines, you can discard based on their age. You can quickly complete the same process in Outlook.
You can manually transfer old items to a storage file by selecting the folder from the Folder List you wish to archive, then clicking File, Archive, or you can have old items automatically transferred by using Auto-Archive. Items are considered old when they reach the age you specify. With Auto-Archive, you can either delete or move old items. UNH Exchange administrators recommend Auto-Archive, as it continually monitors your Exchange mailbox (on the Exchange Server), to move older mail to your archive file. In contrast, using the Export utility to export mail to a Personal Folder does not delete it from your mailbox.

Auto-Archive is a three-step process.

Step 1: Turn on Auto-Archive.

On the Tools menu, click Options.

Click the Other tab, and then click the AutoArchive button.

Specify how often you want to AutoArchive. UNH Exchange administrators recommend that you name the default archive file archive.pst. If you save files to a file server, we recommend that you choose that location. (BSC staff should enter H:\archive.pst)

Step 2: Set AutoArchive properties

Now that you have turned on the AutoArchiving tool, it is time to set the AutoArchive properties for each of the folders that you wish to automatically archive.
Important Note: By default, the basic Outlook folders have AutoArchiving settings already specified once you turn on the AutoArchiving tool. You can change these later if you wish. These folders and their default aging periods are:

• Calendar (6 months)
• Tasks (6 months)
• Journal (6 months)
• Sent Items (2 months)
• Deleted Items (2 months)

Inbox, Notes, Contacts, and Drafts do not have AutoArchive activated automatically.

Once you have set your AutoArchive settings, click OK, OK. If you checked "Prompt before AutoArchive" while setting up AutoArchive, you will be prompted when it is time to AutoArchive. Once archiving begins, messages will appear in the lower right corner of your Outlook window, updating you on AutoArchive's progress.

When you archive, your existing folder structure is maintained in your new archive file. You may choose to archive an individual folder, other than those listed above. (Click here to learn how). If there is a parent folder above the folder you chose to archive, the parent folder is created in the archive file, but items within the parent folder are not archived. In this way, an identical folder structure exists between the archive file and your mailbox. Folders are left in place after being archived, even if they are empty.

Step 3: Retrieving archived items.

You can retrieve items from an archive file either by importing the archive file or by opening the archive file. UNH Exchange administrators recommend that you OPEN the file rather than import it. If you import the archive file, you move all the archived items back into your mailbox, into the folders from which they were archived, increasing the size of your mailbox. You can also choose to import the archived items into a new folder. If you open the archive folder, it is added to your folder list, and you can access all of your archived mail from this folder. You can also manually copy items into appropriate folders in your mailbox if you need them back there. To open your archived mail, click File, Open, Personal Files Folder (.pst), and select the file in which you saved your archived mail.

When you continually archive your Outlook folders to .pst files, you must make sure that it does not exceed 2GB in size. If the size of the file approaches 2GB, click here.

AutoArchiving Individual Folders

Once you activate AutoArchiving, Outlook automatically archives your Calendar, Tasks, Journal, Sent Items, and Deleted Items. Archiving is not available for your Inbox, Notes, Contacts, and Drafts. If you would like to set up AutoArchiving on any other individual folders, highlight the folder you want to AutoArchive, right-click, select Properties.

Click the AutoArchive tab. To have this folder AutoArchive with the default settings you previously created, select Archive this folder using the default settings, then click OK.

Conversely, you can also have this individual folder AutoArchive with different settings than the default. To do so, select Archive this folder using these settings, input your desired location and time frame, then click OK.