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 customize their archive settings to be more aggressive—for example, setting the archive policy to move items after 1 year, 2 years, or 3 years instead of the default 5 years. Users can only shorten the retention period.

• 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.

• 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.

• Customizing Archiving Settings

  • 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—without needing IT approval. Longer retention periods are not allowed. For email archiving help, refer to our Implementing Email Archiving for Microsoft Outlook KB article.

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.

Microsoft NEW and CLASSIC OUTLOOK on macOS MacOS - Location of the Archived Folder(s)

Whether you are using Microsoft Outlook for Mac Legacy version or the New Version, when you archive folders, the folder will display under Online Archive under your folder structure.

Microsoft Outlook - Online Location of the Archived Folder(s)

When using Microsoft Outlook's web version, located at https://outlook.msstate.edu, the archived folder will display as either Online Archive or In-Place Archive under your folder structure.

New and Classic Microsoft Outlook for Windows

Whether you are using Microsoft Outlook New or Classic version for Windows version, your Archive Folder(s) will display under Online Archive within your Outlook folder structure.