How To Archive In Outlook 365, 2019, 2016, 2013 & 2010?

The archive feature in Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2007 is among the most useful tools to save your emails in a format you can easily refer to later. But managing email archives can be time-consuming, so Outlook 365 now has a built-in archiving feature.

Using any email provider services consists of a mailbox limit even if you add your account in Outlook when your Outlook mailbox fills up, you cannot receive new emails without removing unwanted emails.

Microsoft Outlook is designed to prevent all unwanted emails (which must be part of conversation history) and keep all inflow emails in the inbox without any restriction.

This Article Consist Of:

Here in this article, I will walk you through “How-To Archive in Outlook 365, 2019, 2016, 2013 & 2010” from scratch.

What does archive mean in Outlook?

Most of users are unaware of “What does archive do in Outlook“, before diving in understand the whole about the archive in Outlook, let’s first go through some basics.

Archiving results in moving unwanted email messages, which may be the element of conversation, to a separate accessible folder on your personal computer. The process of archiving emails regularly helps free space in your mailbox.

Microsoft Outlook allows users to automatically/manually archive folders using specific criteria, using Outlook’s Auto Archive feature, and permanently delete old emails when they hit a specified period.

Here are a few spaces in the Outlook application where Outlook archive icons and folders are available, but if you are a beginner, you have no idea! further, in this article, we will cover the entire tutorial that explains how to archive emails in Outlook.

Steps to Auto archive email in Outlook 365 – 2010

The Outlook Auto Archive feature is designed to move old emails to a designated archive folder automatically or to delete old items without archiving.

How to archive email in Outlook?

Archiving e-mails in Outlook is a wonderful way to keep your Inbox less cluttered and help you to find the messages you need. You can archive messages in two ways: by moving them to another folder or by using the Delete and Keep features. This guide will show you how to archive e-mails in Outlook.

Auto Archive Settings

This is also an effective way to ensure that you can find important e-mails later. To configure your e-mail to automatically archive your e-mails, follow these steps.

Lunch Microsoft Outlook
Click “File Tab” >> Select “Info” from the left-hand portion of the screen.
Select “Options” >> Hit “Advanced Tab” from the left >> Click Auto Archive setting.

The auto archive setting dialog box appears it requires few manual adjustments which result in the outcome

You must select the checkbox “Run Auto Archive every N Day“, which enables all desired options to select or deselect, (until all options are greyed out), by default 2 weeks for auto-archive is given, you can change it according to your requirement.

Finally, Click Ok to run, it will trigger auto-archive in Outlook, as soon as the archive process is completed, the Archives folder will appear in your Outlook automatically, provided you select the option Show archive folder in the folder list.

In case the Microsoft Exchange account Archive Folder is available by default in the navigation section.

Outlook Auto Archive settings and options [Explanation]

Run Auto Archive every N Day: Adjusting Archiving activity on auto mode depends upon the inputs and how often you want Auto Archive to run. Select a specific period to run the archive process automatically. You can select the time depending on the flow of emails received in your inbox.
Prompt before Auto Archive runs: Outlook is designed to run the archive automatically but still if you want final confirmation before the tire touches the road. You can cancel auto-archiving by clicking No in the prompt.

Delete expired items (e-mail folders only). Selecting this option deletes all expired messages from your email folders.

Archive or delete old items. This option allows you to configure your own auto-archive settings. If unchecked, Outlook will use the default Auto Archive settings.
Show the archive folder in the folder list. This option creates an archive folder separately.
Clean out items older than. You can Specify the time after which your Outlook automatically archives items. You can select one day to 60 months maximum.
Move old items to. By default, Outlook archive files and save them to a specific location C:\Users\<user_name>\Documents\Outlook Files\archive.pst, instead of deleting them (selecting this radio button clears the selection of Permanently delete items). You can change the location by clicking on the browse button.
Permanently delete items. This option is selected to delete old items permanently as soon as they reach the end of the aging period.

Outlook Manual Archive [Step by Step method]

Archiving emails in Outlook manually is another great option that runs a different path: You can control all archiving actions manually. The manual process always keeps all dice in your control, you can decide which items you need to archive and which you don’t.

Open Outlook
Click File Tab >> Info >> Tools >> Clean up old items

In the archive dialog box, two options are “Archive all folders according to their auto-archive setting” and the “Archive this folder and all subfolders” option, Select the second option, then select the folder you need to archive.
Or In case you like to archive the entire email address (root folder), you can directly select the email address.

Archive items older than, select the date which indicates Outlook to archive items older than the specified date.
You can checkbox Include items with ‘Do not Auto Archive’ Checked: If you want to archive items that are excluded from auto-archiving.
Click the Browse button to select the location or leave it as it is, the location is already selected by default.
Click Ok and the system starts archiving the items below the specified date and transfers them to the archive folder.

Note: You can repeat the process manually for different folders and considering different dates as per your requirement, all the archive items will be stored in a single archive folder until you create a new one for it.

How to Set up a One-Click Archive?

Apart from the above method, in case you immediately want to archive a specific email message from any of your folders, select the email message, and click Archive from the home.

The email immediately shifted the archive folder, in case you don’t have an archive folder created, Outlook asks you to create one or choose an existing one.

How to find the archive file Stored?

Where can I find the archive folder in Outlook? This question everybody asking, there are a couple of ways to find the archive .pst file in Outlook.

Select the Archive folder from the navigation section, right-click the Archive folder, and then click Open File Location. This will immediately open the folder where you’re archived .pst file is stored.

Another option to find a saved file location is:

Click File Tab >> Account Settings >> Account Settings.
In the Account Settings dialog, Click on the Data Files tab.
You see all email address data files and among all that archive .pst file is also available.
Select the archive file and click on Open File Location.
That will also take you to the location.

Outlook 2019 – 2010

Vista, Windows 7, 8, and 10 C:\Users\<user name>\Documents\Outlook Files\archive.pst
Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\archive.pst

How to archive a folder in Outlook?

After activation of auto-archive in Outlook, there must be a specific folder you don’t need to archive or need to modify the inputs.

Select the folder and Right-click on the folder
Click Properties from the list >> Properties dialog box appears
Select the Auto Archive tab
Select the radio button Do not archive items in this folder in case you don’t want to include this folder entirely from archiving.

Another option allows you to customize your own default setting while archiving.

Select the time (in months, weeks & days) for cleaning out items older, after which items should be moved to the archive.
You can select whether you, like to change the location or use the default location. whether to use the default archive folder.
Permanently delete old items without archiving them.
Click Ok to Execute.

Difference Between Archive and Delete

Most of the users (including me) are unable to differentiate between archive and delete, the question is should you delete or archive email?

Outlook Archive vs Delete

There is no such enormous difference between Outlook archive and delete.

One of the major differences is archives are designed to move email messages older than a specific time age. In case of deletion, the user is required to select the individual email message and send it to delete the message.

In some large organizations, the email provider is designed to remove all emails available in the delete folder (often after 30 days), however, you’ll want to empty your Deleted Items folder from time to time to save space and stay organized.

In the archive, the email stays for an extended period, until it was customized to delete the older email message from the archive folder.

One of the drawbacks of the archive is that it doesn’t shrink the size of your mailbox. Any email you see in either the trash or archive folder can be moved back to your inbox folder.

Unknown Facts about Outlook Archive

For most account types, Microsoft Outlook keeps all emails, contacts, appointments, tasks, and notes in a .pst file called the Outlook Data File. PST is the only file type that can be archived. As soon as an old item is moved from the main .pst file into an archive.pst file, it is displayed in the Outlook Archive folder and is no longer available in the original folder.
Archiving is different from exporting. Exporting copies of the original items to the export file, but does not remove them from the current folder, nor from the main .pst file.
An archive file is different from an Outlook backup. If you want to back up your archived items, you will have to make a copy of your archive.pst file and store it in a safe location.
Contacts are never auto-archived in any Outlook version. However, you can archive the Contacts folder manually.
If you have an Outlook Exchange account with an online archive mailbox, archiving in Outlook is disabled.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How long do archived emails stay in Outlook?

Technically archive keeps your email in the archive folder until you customized it to remove or delete it, just like you keep unwanted email messages in your inbox.

Does Outlook Archive Count Towards Quota?

The straightforward reply to this question is Yes!

Final Words

In conclusion, archiving messages will help maintain your message history. When a message is saved in Outlook, it is removed from the inbox and the message list but can still be found in your sent items folder.

How To Archive in Outlook 365, 2019, 2016, 2013 & 2010?