Helpdesk

Background

By default, Outlook will prompt to archive your email messages to a certain location. That location is NOT what we want to use, especially after setting up a personal folder on the M network drive (or other locations you preferred).

We need to reconfigure the default autoarchive settings so when it is done, it will redirect all old mail into your personal folder, instead of the place hidden deep in the system files within Windows, often forgotten as people upgrade or retire their computers.

Steps

1. Within Outlook, go to Tools, Options, the Other tab.
2. Click on AutoArchive button.
3. In the middle section, where it says "Move old items to:", hit Browse, and go to your M drive, then double click on the personal folder you have created, likely to resemble something like outlook_username.pst.
4. Confirm that it is indeed the location you want all old items to be moved to, and other options are to your likings. You can choose to have it run more often (1st option), and what are considered "old items" (clean out items older than...)
5. You can click on Apply these settings to all folders now, unless you know very well what you're using and would like to configure each folder individually (recommended for those who would like to finetune further)
6. OK all those windows and you're done.

Fine-tuning settings for each folder

This section is optional unless you know what you're doing and really need separate archive settings for each folder. Be careful you may also run the risk of mis-configuring something and lose mail. Triple-check before proceeding.

This is useful in situations e.g. if you rarely refer to your sent item folder but need more space for your Inbox: You can set the Sent Item folder to "clean items older than 3 weeks", while using "older than 6 weeks" in Inbox. Items in your Calendar usually won't take up as much space so it can be tuned to use "older than 1 year", etc.

1. Right clicking on each folder under the "Mailbox - your name" tree, clicking Properties and the AutoArchive tab gives you more fine-tuning power.
2. By default, the choice "Archive items in this folder using the default settings" would be chosen. It is the settings we just configured from the previous section.
3. Choose "Archive this folder using these settings:" if you want this folder to differ from the rest. Both retention and location can be changed individually.