How to Automatically Archive Emails in Microsoft Outlook 2010

In our one of the last blog post, we discussed about the manual way to archive emails/files/folders in MS-Outlook. And we found that it's a good medium to create a backup of old emails or if you are facing some errors/disturbance (send/receive errors) due to the large size of Outlook PST File.

Introduction to AutoArchive in MS Outlook

Auto Archiving in Outlook gives authentication to users so they can transfer the old emails, contacts, appointments, tasks and others Outlook's relevant items directly into the archive folder without again and again switching to the manual way (Normal Archiving). The most important benefit of auto archive features is that it really makes Outlook archiving faster and move the emails from mailbox to other locations on the hard drive of your computer.

Auto archive in Microsoft Outlook is divided into two steps:

By default the auto archive feature in Outlook 2010 is always turned off. If you are looking to work with this feature, first enable it and select the individual folder on which you want to apply auto archive feature.

Remember, it's an enhanced level of the archiving feature in Microsoft Outlook but auto archive PST in Outlook 2010 will be created in the same location as the normal archiving process create it.

Introduction to AutoArchive in MS Outlook

After brief comprehension about What is Auto-Archive in Outlook? The next question is How to make Outlook Auto Archive?

See, now the further explanation is divided into two parts. (As we have been discussed earlier)

Going with the first section, users should aware that How to turn on or enable the Auto Archiving in Outlook?

To turn on the auto archive feature in Outlook 2010, follow the given set of instructions:

Click on the File menu and go the Option button and again make a click on it.

Auto Archive: Step1

Due to the click on Option button, another small screen will appear which shows several options. Select the Advanced option from these.

Auto Archive: Step2

By clicking on the Advanced option, you can see the AutoArchive settings button under the AutoArchive section.

Auto Archive: Step3

Open the AutoArchive settings and choose the dialog box for various settings like days, auto archive outlook folders, etc and make a click on Ok.

Auto Archive: Step4

But, sometimes users want to apply auto archive function for specific an Outlook folders and this task there is a different set of steps:

Auto-Archive Folder or File in Microsoft Outlook:

Go and select the folder/file and click on Properties by making a right click on it.

Auto Archive particular folder & files: Step1

In the Properties windows, click on AutoArchive tab.

Auto Archive particular folder & files: Step2

Now, select the Archive folder using these settings dialog box and apply settings on it.

Auto Archive particular folder & files: Step3

After applying the required settings, finally click on Apply.

Auto Archive particular folder & files: Step4

Note: You can also use the default settings for the selected folder by choosing the Archive items in this folder using the default settings dialog box (even you can make changes in the default settings from here)