When a folder in Microsoft Office Outlook is archived manually or by using the AutoArchive feature, messages that have a received date or a sent date that is older than the archive date of the folder are unexpectedly not archived.
When you archive messages in a folder manually or by using the
AutoArchive process, Outlook determines the age of
the messages by using one of the following, whichever is later:
Sent date and time
Received date and time
Modified date and time
Messages that are not archived as expected usually have a
modified date that is later than the received date or the sent
date.
You cannot change the methodology Outlook uses to archive messages. To work around this issue, manually archive the messages that were not archived by Outlook because their modified date is later than the date that you specified for archiving. To determine when the last modification was made to a message, follow these steps:
On the View menu, point to Current View, and then click Customize Current View.
Note In Microsoft
Office Outlook 2003, point to Arrange By on the View menu, point to Current
View, and then click Customize Current View.
Click Fields, and then click
All Mail fields in the Select available fields from box.
Under Available
Fields, click Modified, and then click Add to put the Modified field in the
Show these fields in this order box.
Click Move Up or Move Down to position
the Modified field.
Click OK, and then click OK again.
The modified date and time for each message now appears in the Messages view which should explain why certain messages were not archived as expected.
You can either manually move older items (based on their received date) into your archive .pst file. Or you can use a more automated method to move the older items. To use a more automated method, follow these steps:
On the File menu, point to Open and then click Outlook Data File.
Select the .pst file that you use for archiving, and then click OK.
Note At this point,
this .pst file is the active selection in Outlook.
In the
Outlook bar or in the Navigation pane, move back, and then select the folder from which
you want to archive older messages. For example, select the Inbox folder in
Exchange mailbox or your default delivery .pst file.
On the Tools menu,
point to Find, and
then click Advanced Find.
In Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, point to Instant Search, and then click Advanced Find.
In the Advanced Find dialog box, click the Advanced
tab.
On the Advanced tab, click the Field menu, point to Date/Time
fields, and then click Received.
Click the Condition list, and then select
on or before.
In the Value box, enter the desired date, such as
10/1/2008.
Click Add to List, and then click Find Now.
Examine the list
of messages that were found to make sure that they are the messages that you want to archive. If
you want to archive all the found messages, follow these steps:
On the Edit
menu, click Select All.
On the Edit menu, click Move to Folder.
In the Move Items dialog
box, locate and then select the destination folder in the .pst file that you use for
archiving.
Make sure that you are using the correct destination .pst file and folder, and then click OK.
If you want to archive a subset of the found messages:
Manually select the messages that you want to archive. You can press CTRL as you select messages to maintain previously selected items.
On the Edit menu, click Move to Folder.
In the Move Items dialog
box, locate and then select the destination folder in the .pst file that you use for
archiving.
Make sure that you are using the correct destination .pst file and folder, and then click OK.
After the messages are moved to the destination folder of the .pst file that you use for archiving they will no longer appear in the Advanced Find dialog box.
The following actions change the modified date and time of
the message:
Forwarding
Replying
Replying to All
Editing and Saving
Moving or Copying
Copying or moving the message to another message folder does
not always change the modification date and time. If the destination folder is
a personal folders (.pst) file, the modification date and time does not change.
If the destination folder is a Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox or an offline
folders (.ost) file, the modification date and time does change.
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