Archive older items automatically

Email can fill your Outlook Inbox quickly – new messages, replies, and forwards. Before you know it, you could have thousands of messages. Keep your Outlook inbox and its folders under control by moving older items you want to keep to an archive. Use AutoArchive to do this automatically.

You can change how often AutoArchive runs, where it stores archived items, and how long Outlook keeps items before archiving them.

1. Click File > Options > Advanced.

2. Under AutoArchive, click AutoArchive Settings.

3. Click the Run AutoArchive every n days box and specify how often to run AutoArchive.

4. Choose any other options you want, such as having Outlook delete old items instead of archiving them.

   Tip: Archive and AutoArchive might not be available if your mail profile connects to an Exchange Server. It's also possible that your organization has a mail retention policy that overrides AutoArchive. Check with your system administrator for more information.

For more information about AutoArchive settings, see AutoArchive settings explained.

Change the AutoArchive settings for an individual folder

1. In the Navigation Pane's folder list, right-click the folder you want to change, and click Properties.

2. On the AutoArchive tab, choose the options you want.