Fortunately, Microsoft 365 includes a built-in solution to help you manage this: the “online archive” feature. With this feature, you get an additional 50GB of archive storage with a Microsoft 365 Business Standard license and a massive 100GB for Business Premium users. The best part? It’s completely free and included in your subscription. By utilising this feature, you can keep your primary mailbox uncluttered while maintaining access to older emails that might be needed for reference or compliance purposes.

Enabling and using Microsoft 365’s free archive mailbox is straightforward but must first be set up by your IT team (speak to our support staff is needing assistance with Archive enabling). Once enabled, an “Online Archive” or “In-Place Archive” mailbox will appear in the left-hand navigation pane of your Outlook app or Outlook Online, making it easy to organise and access archived emails.

Let’s take a look at how you can take advantage of this feature to enable auto-archiving in both Outlook Classic, and Outlook Online, and manage your emails effectively.

Setting Up Auto Archiving in Microsoft 365 (Outlook Classic)

After your IT administrator enables the archive option, follow these steps to configure auto-archiving in the classic desktop version of Outlook:

Before selecting your folder(s) and retention period (1 or 5 years), consider the size of your mailbox and also consider the size of your Archive allowance, and whether it can accommodate the extra storage as your mailbox grows – look to balance the data as efficiently as possible.

1. Locate and confirm availability of your Online (In-Place) Archive Mailbox
   • Open Outlook on your desktop.
   • In the left-hand navigation pane, you should now see an additional folder called “Online Archive.” This is your extended mailbox storage.
2. Enable Auto Archiving for Folders
   • Right-click the folder you wish to archive (e.g., Inbox, Sent Items).
   • Select Properties from the context menu.
   • Select the Policy tab from the top
   • If Archiving is available, the Online Archive section will appear at the bottom of the popup
   • Under the ‘Move Items to the Archive when older than‘ dropdown, select either 1 or 5 years.
   • Click Apply and close the popup

Your emails will now be moved automatically to the Online Archive folder/mailbox as per your selected policy – this occurs once per 7 days, so can take up to 7 days for the new retention policies to be applied to the mailbox. If needing to make some space sooner you can manually move emails from your main mailbox to the archive mailbox, or speak to your IT team about manually starting the process.

Setting Up Auto Archiving in Microsoft 365 (Outlook Online)

For users who prefer working in the web-based Outlook Online, the steps are very similar to Outlook (Classic), with single click confirmation:

Before selecting your folder(s) and retention period (1 or 5 years), consider the size of your mailbox and also consider the size of your Archive allowance, and whether it can accommodate the extra storage as your mailbox grows – look to balance the data as efficiently as possible.

1. Locate and confirm availability of your Online (In-Place) Archive Mailbox
   • Log in to Outlook Online via your web browser.
   • In the left-hand navigation pane, scroll down until you see “Online Archive” or In-Place Archive This will be nested under your primary mailbox.
2. Enable Auto Archiving for Folders
   • Right-click the folder you wish to archive (e.g., Inbox, Sent Items).
   • Select Assign Policy from the context menu.
   • Under the Archive Policy section, select either 1 or 5 years
   • Navigate away from the menus – settings are applied immediately.

Your emails will now be moved automatically to the Online Archive folder/mailbox as per your selected policy – this occurs once per 7 days, so can take up to 7 days for the new retention policies to be applied to the mailbox. If needing to make some space sooner you can manually move emails from your main mailbox to the archive mailbox, or speak to your IT team about manually starting the process.

Key Benefits of Archiving Your Emails

• Improved Performance: By keeping your primary mailbox smaller, your Outlook app runs faster, especially when searching for recent emails.
• Compliance and Organisation: Archiving allows you to retain older emails for legal or business purposes without cluttering your active mailbox.
• Cloud Security: Storing emails in the “Online Archive” ensures they remain safe and accessible, even if your device is lost or damaged.

By taking advantage of Microsoft 365’s free archiving tools, you can eliminate mailbox clutter, improve email performance, and meet retention requirements with ease. For further assistance or questions about Microsoft 365, feel free to contact your IT support team or reach out to us at ITCS Global for expert advice.