How to Archive Microsoft Outlook Items Based on the Year to Save Time and Prevent Email Corruption

n order to ease the task of locating old email messages it is recommended that a new archive file be created at the beginning of each year for storing messages received in that year. In addition to making it easier to find messages, creating a new archive file each year will help ensure that your archived messages do not become corrupted, and will help keep Outlook (and Microsoft Exchange if you use it) running at top performance. This document outlines the steps to create a new archive file for the new year and configure Outlook to use it. We will use Outlook 2007 in our examples, but other versions should be similar, although there may be slight variations in the menus.

Please note that depending on your Outlook archive settings you may have some messages from the end of the previous year stored in your new annual folder. For instance, if Outlook is set to archive messages older than three months, and auto-archive runs in February, you will have messages from November and December in your new folder.

Here are the steps required to create a new archive file for the new year.

1. Confirm the location of your current archive file, if it exists.
2. Open Microsoft Outlook
3. Click on TOOLS on the toolbar at the top of the Outlook window
4. Select OPTIONS from the popup menu.
5. Select the OTHER tab at the top of the options screen.
6. Click the AUTOARCHIVE button near the center of the window.
7. Make a note of the location listed near the center of the AutoArchive screen for "Move old items to". You may need to click into the field and use your arrow or END keys to see the full file path. It may be best to save to a network drive, to enable consistent data backup if your PC is not backed up regularly.
8. While you are here you may want to review your other autoarchive settings, such as how often it runs, how long to keep messages prior to being archived, if it should run automatically or if you want to do it manually (automatic is strongly recommended), etc.
9. Click the BROWSE button. The Find Personal Folders window should open.
10. Enter a meaningful name for the archive file such as "TMiller 2011 Archive" (use your own username), and click the OK button.
11. Click the OK button two more times to return you to the main Outlook window.
12. Now we must manually run autoarchive to actually create the file. Click FILE on the main toolbar.
13. Select ARCHIVE on the drop down menu.
14. Confirm that the Archive File location points to the file you just created.
15. Click the OK button to run AutoArchive. This will create your new archive file.
16. Now we must open the archive file to access your old messages easily from Outlook.
17. Click FILE on the main toolbar.
18. Click OPEN on the drop-down menu.
19. Select OUTLOOK DATA FILE.
20. Browse to the location that you recorded in step five and select your new archive file.
21. Click the OK button.
22. You should now see "ARCHIVE FOLDERS" in your Outlook navigation pane.
23. You may repeat steps 15 through 19 for any additional archive files that you would like to open.

Once you begin archiving your outlook messages in annual folders you will find that old messages are easier to locate, your Outlook file will open faster, and you will have fewer problems with corrupted Outlook files.

Ted Miller, President
AVIK Technologies, Inc.

We manage technology, so you can manage your business!

Ted believes that most organizations, regardless of size, have the same basic information technology requirements. Regardless of whether an organization has five employees or five thousand, they have the critical needs of security, Internet connectivity, file (data) storage and protection, printing, email, backup, system reliability, etc. The difference in IT needs between small and large organizations is primarily one of scale. The need is the same, the size and cost of the solution may not be.