Archiving old information is an important bit of computer housekeeping that can help your Outlook run faster and more stable as well as help backup valuable legacy information against data loss, destruction or theft.
Archiving In Outlook
The archiving process in Outlook for Office 365 is very similar to the previous 2019, 2024, and Office 365 versions. Most of the menus have visually changed, however, the functionality remains the same.
Start by opening Outlook Classic and navigating to File > Tools > Clean Up Old Items
Make sure the Personal Folder you want to archive is selected. Highlight the top of the folder list by clicking on it once.
If you prefer to just Archive a single folder, such as your Sent Items or Inbox, simply click and highlight those individually instead of the top of the folder list.
Notice that Outlook says “Items”, and not “Emails”. This is because both email folders AND special folder data will be included in the archive, such as Contacts and Calendar items.
Next, choose a date before which all emails will be archived. All Items older than the date chosen will be removed from your current Personal Folder and saved into a newly created archive folder.
(In the example below, any items older than 1/1/2026 will be moved to this new archive pst file created.)
By default, Outlook will choose the current date minus exactly three months. To choose another date, click the drop down arrow to open Outlook’s date picker.
To navigate in time to select another month, use the date picker’s left- or right-pointing arrow. You can also manually type in a date in the field.
Finally, Outlook lets you choose WHERE to save the archive (PST file), and what to call it. Outlook Classic will, by default, select the save location as:
C:\Users\[user profile]\Documents\Outlook Files\Archive.pst
This is the same default location where Outlook will store its personal folder data upon install. If you’d like to save the archive file to another location, click Browse and navigate to a local OR network location of your choice.
We also recommend renaming the default Archive.pst to something more cohesive to the date of the items stored in the file. To change the default Archive.pst file name, simply type a new name in the File name field. (In the example below, we’ve named to file ArchiveJan202026.pst which, at a quick glance, tells us that this file contains data from that date range)
After clicking “OK” on the Archive Window, Outlook will begin the archive process. An Archive Folder will appear in the Personal Folders List and start to populate with the items you’ve chosen to Archive. When completed, you can Close and Re-open this archive.
Right click on the Archive Folder and choose “Close Archives”
To reopen this, or any other Archive Folders, navigate to File > Open & Export > Open Outlook Data File
You can then navigate to the location where your Archive(s) are saved. Select a file to open and click “OPEN”. The chosen Archive folder will display back in the Personal Folders list and provide access to those older, archived items.
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