Archiving in Microsoft Outlook

August 2025 | Nextworks

Overwhelmed by your Inbox? Archiving emails in Microsoft Outlook offers several benefits.

Here are a few reasons to archive email:

• Free Up Mailbox Space: Archiving moves emails from your primary mailbox to a separate storage location (online archive or local file), reducing clutter and helping stay within mailbox size limits.


• Improve Performance: A smaller mailbox enhances Outlook's speed and responsiveness, especially for large Inboxes that slow down syncing or searching.


• Organize Emails: Archiving keeps your Inbox tidy by putting aside older or less important emails, making it easier to focus on current messages while retaining access to past ones.


• Compliance and Retention: For businesses, archiving ensures compliance with legal or organizational retention policies, storing emails securely in the cloud (Online Archive) or locally for future reference or audits.

Here are four ways to archive email in Microsoft Outlook.

Habitual Archiving – Daily Housecleaning

The simplest method to keeping a tidy Inbox is to delete, move, or archive email daily.

Outlook Desktop

Select one or more emails in your Inbox (or another folder).

Click the Archive button on the ribbon, or press the Backspace key (in the Reading Pane, not a separate window).

Outlook on the Web

Log in to Outlook.com or your Microsoft 365 account.

Select emails and click the Archive button below the search bar, or right-click and select Archive.

Outlook Mobile

In your Inbox (or other folder), swipe emails to the right to archive or left to delete. (You can change swipe options in Settings > Swipe Options if you'd like.)

Notes:

• Archived emails appear in your Archive folder, accessible in the folder list.
• The Archive folder is a default system folder for Microsoft email accounts and cannot be renamed, moved, or deleted.

Bulk Archiving – Spring Housecleaning

Manual bulk archiving moves emails to a local Outlook Data File (.PST) on your computer in bulk, which reduces mailbox size by removing emails from the server.

Outlook (Classic) Desktop

Go to File > Info > Tools > Clean up old items

Select Archive this folder and all subfolders and choose the folder to archive (e.g., Inbox, Sent Items).

Set a date under Archive items older than to specify which emails to archive.

Choose a location to save the .pst file (default is Documents\Outlook Files).

Optionally, check Include items with "Do not AutoArchive" checked to override exclusions.

Click OK to create the .pst file and move emails.

Notes:

• Archived .PST files are stored locally and can be opened in Outlook anytime via "File > Open & Export > Open Outlook Data File".
• The .PST file limit is 50 GB. Exceeding this may cause performance issues.
• This method is not supported in New Outlook or when Online Archive (see below) is enabled.
• .PST files are not accessible in Outlook Web or Mobile and are vulnerable to data loss without backup!

AutoArchive – Get a Roomba

This method of archiving automatically moves old emails to an archive file based on predefined settings.

Outlook (Classic) Desktop

Right click a mail folder (such as your Inbox) and select Properties. Go to the AutoArchive tab.

Enable AutoArchive and set the frequency (e.g., every 14 days).

Specify the archive file location and settings, such as deleting expired items or moving items older than a set period (e.g., 6 months).

Notes:

• AutoArchiving contains the same .PST file considerations as Bulk Archiving.

Online Archive for Microsoft 365 – Professional Housecleaning

This is a cloud-based archiving feature for Microsoft 365 users, also called In-Place Archive, that stores emails in a separate online mailbox.

Online Archiving automatically archives any email two years or older by default, however this can be adjusted.

The archive appears in Outlook as a separate folder under your account (e.g., "Online Archive – yourname@domain.com").

Your Microsoft 365 administrator will need to set this service up for you. There may be an additional license cost.

Notes:

• You can also manually drag and drop emails to the Online Archive folder.
• You can access archived emails directly in Outlook or Outlook on the web without needing to open a separate file.

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