Archive a single Outlook 2013 folder tree

[skylark53]

We want to archive certain Outlook folders only.

Earlier this week I set up an autoarchive test on a folder tree. It should have archived everything older than 1 day; I have attached a screenshot of the folder setup. But it did not run.

So what is the problem? Does the main autoarchive feature in Outlook 2013 have to be turned on? A screenshot is attached, showing that it is turned OFF. We need it to remain switched off so that our many other folder trees are neither moved/archived nor deleted.

Is it possible to archive a single folder only? If so, how so I set it up? Thanks for any assistance.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

If Autoarchive is disabled, it won't run - you can run it manually from the File, Cleanup menu. The other option is to enable autoarchive but apply a default of the maximum of 5 years to all folders, then adjust the setting on the folders you want to archived more often.

 

[skylark53]

Thanks, Diane. I feared someone might say as much! The problem with that approach is that there are folders containing items older than 5 years that we ideally want to keep 'live', i.e. containing the whole record back to the start of the relationship. If I turn autoarchive loose, it will vacuum up the oldest messages. Having turned on AA, can one exclude particular folders?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

You can turn archiving off per folder, but it can be slow if you have a lot of folders - right click on each folder and choose Properties, AutoArchive and uncheck the folder. Turn on Global Autoarchiving in File, Options.

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/archive-outlook/using-outlooks-autoarchive-feature/

 

[skylark53]

Gotcha. Enjoy the weekend!

 

[skylark53]

As mentioned above, on 12 March I created a dummy folder tree and populated it with eleven numbered emails. As reported on 14 Mar, autoarchive of this particular folder didn't work, evidently because you have to have autoarchive turned on globally.

Right. So this morning I tried the manual archive method suggested by Diane. All folders, subfolders and emails in this dummy tree were created at ~ 16.30 on Wed 12 Mar, and I told File->Cleanup->Archive to archive everything in the test tree older than 14 Mar.

The setup is attached. (Afraid I cannot upload screenshots of the individual folders, as there are 7 pre- and 7 post-archive pics and only 10 are allowed.) But emails 1, 2, 6, 7 & 8 were archived to Alison's Archive (and deleted) and emails 3, 4, 5, 9, 10 & 11 were not. They remain in my main mailbox.

I can see no pattern and it doesn't make any sense to me. It certainly doesn't work as I expected it to and I cannot turn it loose on my mailbox. Can anyone shed any light? Thanks.