About Online Email Archive

Microsoft Exchange Online Archiving provides advanced email management through the Archive Mailbox feature. This helps keep your primary mailbox organized and within storage limits without deleting important information.

Key Points:

• Automatic Archiving Policy

  • Faculty, Staff, and Students - Messages, calendar appointments, notes, and tasks that are older than 5 years are automatically moved to the Online Archive.

  • Retirees - Messages, calendar appointments, notes, and tasks that are older than 1 year are automatically moved to the Online Archive.

  • This process is automatic and cannot be turned off.

  • The Online Archive mailbox cannot be deleted. However, individual folders or messages within the Archive can be deleted.

  • Users can adjust their archive settings to automatically move items after a period shorter than the default 5 years—such as 3 years or 2 years. Longer retention periods are not allowed. For email archiving help, refer to the ITS Working with Microsoft Outlook Archiving knowledge base article.

• What to Expect

  • The folder structure is preserved - items will appear in the Online Archive in the same folders they were moved from.

  • You can use the “All Mailboxes” search option in Outlook to find older messages or click directly into the Online Archive to browse them.

  • The Online Archive is not the same as the default “Archive” folder you may see in Outlook. The “Archive” folder is just another folder within your main mailbox, while the Online Archive appears as a separate mailbox alongside your other folders in Outlook.

  • While the email archive folder(s) is visible on mobile devices, you cannot make changes to the folders on mobile devices.  For further information, refer to the Microsoft Outlook knowledge base article.

• Archiving vs. Deleting

  • Archiving moves older items (emails, calendar entries, tasks, notes) to a separate mailbox called the Online Archive (also referred to as the In-Place Archive). Archived content remains fully accessible and searchable.

  • Deleting from your primary mailbox or Online Archive permanently removes items from your account.

• Storage Benefits

  • The Online Archive is stored separately from your primary Outlook mailbox.

  • This helps conserve space while keeping older content available when needed.