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Outlook Archiving VS AutoArchiving

Hi all

I hope all is well. What do you generally tell your users when it comes to archiving in Outlook. To do it manually, or do you implement auto-archive for them? For those who auto-archive, do we find it reliable - (haven't done auto in a while - I think it does it by date etc). I know Outlook has limites where you "should" keep less than 10k items in any given folder..... etc.

Let me know what you guys generally do/recommend!

Thanks

LiCompGuy

William Fulks

One thing to consider is that if they manually archive and save that file locally, it could be lost if they change computers or the machines crashes, etc. Also if you're using folder redirection and they save to a network share, it could cause some performance issues if they have this constantly open giant file being accessed over the network.

If you switch to Office 365, you don't have to worry too much about all this.

LICOMPGUY

ASKER

Hey William
We have hosted email with 100GB per box, but Outlook's caching limit is I believe 50GB, not to mention the other limitations of Outlook 10k items per folder etc.
How could Office 365 be a solution - you still have the Outlook client limitation

Thanks

William Fulks

Here's some info on how to do it: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/compliance/enable-archive-mailboxes?view=o365-worldwide

With O365 it's all cloud based, but yes you do still have space limitations that you can pay for.

At some point, people need to start trying to clean up their inbox, but let's face it - most don't or won't. So you have two options - pay for more space or let them archive to a different file share and hope they don't lose those files.

LICOMPGUY

ASKER

Hey Willliam

For one client I put in place a solution which will grab local PST files and back them up to a server, which in turn gets backed up to disk cartridges etc.
Was just trying to get an idea of what people do with archiving. Personally I have not been a fan of auto archiving, but was thinking it was just me - so wanted to see what others are doing.
Thanks!

Jackie Man

For big corporations, they just subscribe for Exchange Online Archiving and let Microsoft 365 manage the online archive.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/exchange-online-archiving-service-description/archive-features

The Auto-archive feature is not reliable from my opinion and there are many factors which stops its running.

https://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/archivenotworking.htm

LICOMPGUY

ASKER

Hey Jackie

Interesting. That is what I found as well with auto-archives. Any idea what it cost for the 365 archive option - just out of curiosity anyway.

Thanks again

Jackie Man

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/compare-office-365-plans

Office 365 E3 - $20 per user per month which include Exchange Online and unlimited Online Archive

You need to look into MS Outlook requirements and check whether your client has the appropriate licence before switching to online archive.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/outlook-license-requirements-for-exchange-features-46b6b7c5-c3ca-43e5-8424-1e2807917c99?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

Lisa Hendrickson "CallThatGirl"

I manually move all mail out of the mailbox either by year or topic. PST locally should be in a backup. This is much easier than using autoarchive, I don't support autoarchive anymore because it's messy as all get out.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

LICOMPGUY

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