Archiving your mail with Outlook 2003
Introduction and Purpose
According to the OIT policy and procedure manual, it is the responsibility of the client/user to maintain the size of their own mail file and archive items as needed as the size of their mail file grows. The purpose of this guide is to demonstrate to the client how to verify the size of their mailbox, and how to archive email using the Outlook 2003 client and the Archive and/or Auto Archive features.
To view the size of your current mail file, launch Outlook 2003 and on the left hand side of the window, right click on the icon called ‘Mailbox-User Name’, and choose ‘Properties for Mailbox-User Name’. Click on ‘Folder Size’, and select the ‘Server Data’ tab to view the size of the mail file being stored on the server.
This will show how much space each folder is taking up within your mail file, and may help you decide what documents or folders you need to archive first.
An important note: when creating an archive of your email, you should choose a location that you know is being backed up, such as a network share or other device. OIT is not responsible for data loss from PC crashes where email archives have been stored locally and not maintained.
The easiest way to setup an archive is to do the following:
To create an archive of your entire mailbox:
While in your Outlook client, go to the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Archive’. The following window will appear:
From this window, you can quickly choose which folders to archive from a specific date, and choose where to store the file. An important note: when creating an archive of your email, you should choose a location that you know is being backed up, such as a network share or other device. OIT is not responsible for data loss from PC crashes where email archives have been stored locally and not maintained.
If you click on ‘Mailbox – Username’, you can archive your entire mail file including journal entries, tasks, and calendar appointments. This is the fastest way to archive your email; just click on ‘OK’, and the archive will be created automatically and stored where you choose. From this point, you can then check the size of your mailbox again to see if you need to reduce the size of your mail file further.
Using AutoArchive to automatically back up or delete items
AutoArchive can be used to automatically manage how certain files or folders are dealt with regarding your email. You can set up schedules to take care of the process on a regular basis based on the settings you determine. The default aging periods for folders are:
Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Journal, Drafts: 6 months Sent Items, Deleted Items: 2 months
Outbox: 3 months
Note: Folders you create that contain the same type of items as Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, or Journal are subject to the 6 month aging period.
AutoArchive is turned on by default, and you can change its default settings by doing the following:
1. On the ‘Tools’ menu, click ‘Options’, and then click the ‘Other’ tab. The following window will appear:
2. Click on the ‘AutoArchive’ button. The following window will appear:
for data loss from PC crashes where email archives have been stored locally and not maintained.
3. With ‘Run AutoArchive every n days’ selected, you are telling Outlook how often to run AutoArchive as well as other options that you want. Select the ‘Archive or delete old items’ option and specify a location for the old items to be moved to. By default, if you do not change this location, the files will be moved to your archive.
4. To apply the changes to all folders, click ‘Apply these settings to all folders now’. This will override custom archive settings that you've specified on individual folders. If you change the archive file listed under ‘Move old items to’, it's changed for all folders that use the default AutoArchive settings.
Specify AutoArchive settings for an individual folder
Note: if you have followed the steps above and selected ‘Apply these settings to all folders now’, then all folders will have the same archive dates and
settings. Follow the steps below to have specific settings for a certain folder.
1. On the ‘Go’ menu, click ‘Folder List’, right-click the folder you want to specify settings for, and then click ‘Properties’ on the shortcut menu.
2. Click the ‘AutoArchive’ tab.
3. Specify whether you want to archive this folder and whether to use the default AutoArchive settings or your own settings.
To archive to a file other than the default, specify a different file name in the
‘Move old items to’ box. The next time AutoArchive runs on this folder, Outlook will automatically create the new archive file for items in this folder.
Archive items manually
1. On the ‘File’ menu, click ‘Archive’.
2. Specify whether to archive all folders using their AutoArchive settings or whether to archive an individual folder using the options you specify in this dialog box. To archive to a file other than the default one, specify a different file name in the ‘Archive file’ box. Outlook automatically creates another archive file for items in the selected folder.
An important note: when creating an archive of your email, you should choose a location that you know is being backed up, such as a network share or other device. OIT is not responsible for data loss from PC crashes where email archives have been stored locally and not maintained.
Data file locations
To see where default store and additional data files are kept in different versions of Microsoft Windows, see the "Outlook file locations" topic in the Outlook 2003 help file. By default, the location of your new archive is:
Local hard drive: \Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
Please remember that since this location is not likely being backed up, we do not recommend that you leave your archive file on your PC locally.
Key points to remember:
You can save, copy, and move a data file to another location on your hard disk, to a floppy disk, or to a share on the network. You must have read/write
permissions to open Personal Folders files (.pst) from a network share.
A data file can be accessed by only one user or program at a time.
When attempting to access an archive file located on a CD Rom, you must first copy the file to a local resource such as your hard drive, and then you need to remove the ‘Read Only’ attribute on the local file before you can open it. This is because Outlook needs to be able to write to the file, even just to open it.
Only data files that you create will appear in the ‘Outlook Data Files’ dialog box (‘File’ menu, ‘Data File Management’). Your default data file, ‘Outlook.pst’ does not appear in the list.
To move your archive to a network share, locate the file and drag it to the resource. You can also copy it to a CD Rom or other media if you wish, so you have a hard copy of your data for future access.
