Over time you will likely want to move some of your Outlook items to a separate location because you no longer need them, but don’t want to delete them. For example, perhaps you want to keep a copy of all of the messages in your Sent Items folder so you can refer to them later if needed, but you don’t want them to stay in Sent Items. In these situations you can use Outlook’s AutoArchive feature to move out those old items.

The Outlook AutoArchive feature archives data automatically according to settings you configure for each folder or all your folders. You might want to archive every day if you receive new data that you don’t want to take the chance of losing overnight. Or you might want to set AutoArchive to run once a week.

To set up a folder to automatically archive using the default AutoArchive settings, follow these steps:

1)   Right-click a folder in the folder list and choose Properties, then click the AutoArchive tab.

2)   Select Archive Items In This Folder Using The Default Settings - (see screenshot below)

3)   Click OK

4)   Repeat these steps for each folder you want to archive.

By default, Outlook starts AutoArchive every 14 days and archives your data in the selected folder to the Archive.pst personal folders file.

You can also specify custom AutoArchive settings for a folder. Open the properties for the folder, click the AutoArchive tab, and choose the Archive This Folder Using These Settings option. Then, specify settings on the AutoArchive tab as desired for the folder.