Outlook Archiving Not Working

Question

I am having some difficulty archiving out of Microsoft Exchange. I am looking to archive any email older than January 1, 2021. When I go to archive, the bar across the bottom of the screen appears to be working, only it disappears after a few seconds without any emails being moved to the archives.

One answer here suggests I check the modified date to ensure that the emails haven't been updated at a more recent date, but they have not. Instead, they just remain in a near full inbox, without being moved to a separate .PST file that I am looking for.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi @Will Taylor ,

According to your description, sounds like you are using Outlook Manually Archive feature but it could not work fine, right?

If yes, in order to conduct further research about your issue, please try the suggestions below and see if the issue could be resolved:

1. What's the version of your Outlook? (File > Office Account > About Outlook). To make sure that the functions of Outlook itself are working properly, please make sure you have fully repaired and upgraded your Outlook to the latest version.
2. Are you using online Exchange mode along with your email account in Outlook? As I know, issues like yours might indeed occur if you have not cached the emails locally which you would like to archive. So, before archive operations, please make sure you have checked the “Use Cached Exchange Mode” option and download all email for the past via File > Info > Account settings > Account Settings > Double click your email account, and then restart your Outlook and wait for the sync to the end.
   
3. Corrupted target archive file might cause Outlook archive issues. If possible, it is suggested for you to create and use new .pst file here instead of using existed data files.
4. There could be some add-ins in your Outlook client that cause this issue, so it is suggested to start your Outlook in safe mode (Press Win + R, type “outlook /safe”, press Enter.) and see if the issue continues.
5. By the way, antivirus software usually affects Outlook client and may cause some conflicts. Please try to turn off your antivirus software to check if the issue will be gone.

Hope this can be helpful.

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Answer 2

Thank you for your help JeffYang.

Excellent advice. Your point 2 had this working for me.

Apologies it has taken me a while to get back to you.