My Outlook 365 emails older than 24 months are not showing up in folders

Question

My Outlook 365 emails older than 24 months are not showing up in folders

Scott Loehrer 0

I am trying to find older emails and nothing older than 24 months is showing up. I would like all emails to stay in their folders

Scott Loehrer 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T18:33:08.46+00:00

I am using a Mac. I am using New Outlook on my computer, but the older emails also do not show up online outlook
Scott Loehrer 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T20:24:20.0266667+00:00

I did find the in place archive folder. It has older emails, but not the ones that I am looking for. I am looking for roughly 3 years ago and none of those are there. I am the organizations 365 administrator. Can you guide me through checking on a retention policy? I assume not since I am able to find emails that are 10 years old, but not 3 years old.
Ryan-N 15,010 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-28T20:35:51.0133333+00:00

Hi Scott,

To check whether any Retention Policy is currently being applied, please follow these steps:

Step 1: Access Microsoft Purview at purview.microsoft.com.

Step 2: Locate and select Data Lifecycle Management.

Step 3: Under Policies, select Retention Policies.

Step 4: Review the retention policies that are currently applied.

For example, as shown in the image below:

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to resolve this.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.
Scott Loehrer 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T20:53:45.3233333+00:00

I don't see the policies option
Scott Loehrer 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T20:56:43.8666667+00:00

I think I found it

1 answer

Your answer

Scott Loehrer 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T18:33:08.46+00:00

I am using a Mac. I am using New Outlook on my computer, but the older emails also do not show up online outlook
Scott Loehrer 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T20:24:20.0266667+00:00

I did find the in place archive folder. It has older emails, but not the ones that I am looking for. I am looking for roughly 3 years ago and none of those are there. I am the organizations 365 administrator. Can you guide me through checking on a retention policy? I assume not since I am able to find emails that are 10 years old, but not 3 years old.
Ryan-N 15,010 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-28T20:35:51.0133333+00:00

Hi Scott,

To check whether any Retention Policy is currently being applied, please follow these steps:

Step 1: Access Microsoft Purview at purview.microsoft.com.

Step 2: Locate and select Data Lifecycle Management.

Step 3: Under Policies, select Retention Policies.

Step 4: Review the retention policies that are currently applied.

For example, as shown in the image below:

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to resolve this.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.
Scott Loehrer 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T20:53:45.3233333+00:00

I don't see the policies option
Scott Loehrer 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T20:56:43.8666667+00:00

I think I found it

Answer 1

Ryan-N 15,010 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Scott,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Thank you for sharing the information.

Based on your description, I understand that even when checking in Outlook on the web, you still cannot find emails older than 24 months.

Since the issue also occurs in Outlook on the web, there is a high possibility that the emails have been affected on the server side due to a retention policy or other settings configured by your tenant administrator.

Please help me verify the following:

Check the In-Place Archive mailbox

If your organization has enabled In-Place Archive (Online Archive), you should see a mailbox with a name similar to "In-Place Archive - [Your Name]" or "Online Archive - [Your Name]".

Please open the Archive mailbox and check whether emails older than 24 months are available there.

Contact your tenant administrator

Please contact your organization's Microsoft 365 administrator (or IT department) to confirm whether the tenant is using a Retention Policy with a retention period of 2 years.

In some cases, this policy may automatically archive or delete emails that exceed the configured retention period.

If you have any updates or additional information regarding this issue, please feel free to share them with me. Based on the information you provide, I will be able to assist you further.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Scott Loehrer 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T20:58:00.8333333+00:00

Found it
Scott Loehrer 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T20:59:40.32+00:00
Ryan-N 15,010 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-28T22:06:22.5933333+00:00

Hi Scott,

Thank you for sharing this information.

I can see that there are currently several policies being applied.

However, to determine exactly which policy is being applied to your account and to avoid a situation where these policies may continue to affect your mailbox in the future, I recommend creating a support ticket with Microsoft Technical Support. They can perform a more in-depth investigation to identify which policies are currently applied to your mailbox and provide appropriate guidance or configuration changes to help prevent emails from being affected or inadvertently removed in the future.

To create a support ticket with Microsoft Technical Support, you can refer to the following documentation:

Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn

I hope this information is helpful

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.
NAWROCKI, DEDRA DESIREE 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T22:13:20.8266667+00:00
Check for an "Online Archive": For many business accounts, IT administrators set up retention policies that automatically move emails older than 1 or 2 years into a separate folder called Online Archive or In-Place Archive. Look for this as a separate mailbox in your left-hand folder pane.

Clear the Folder Cache: Sometimes the local sync gets stuck. You can force Outlook to re-download the folder's contents.

Right-click (or Control-click) the folder where emails are missing.

Select Properties.

Click Empty Cache. Outlook will re-sync that folder with the server.

Check Outlook on the Web

To figure out if this is an issue with your computer's settings or if the emails were actually moved/deleted, log in to Outlook on the Web.

If your older emails are not there, they may have been permanently archived, deleted, or affected by a company-wide retention policy. In this case, you will likely need to reach out to your IT department.

My Outlook 365 emails older than 24 months are not showing up in folders

1 answer

Check Outlook on the Web

Your answer