How to archive Emails & retrieve archived emails in Outlook

Today, there is a constant exchange of emails between individuals, companies, etc. which has resulted in a growing volume of emails in our mailboxes. It has become difficult to manage and retrieve many emails every time. Thus, to resolve this problem, the concept of Email Archiving came into existence. Let us see what it is exactly and how an email can be archived in Microsoft Outlook 2021/2019/2016.

What is Email Archiving

Email Archiving is an email management process that manages and files your emails systematically. It permanently stores and secures your data without any data loss. Basically, when you archive an email, it disappears from your inbox without being deleted and is stored in the Archive folder. The emails which you do not want to delete because you may need them in the future can be archived. All the emails in the archive folder can be restored if required so that the important content is not lost. Archiving will move emails off of the network mail server to your local computer.

How to archive Emails in Outlook

To open Microsoft Outlook, click on the Start button and scroll down to Outlook to open it.

Go to your Inbox and open the email you wish to archive. Once your mail is open, you will see the Archive option in the menu bar at the top of your mailbox.

Click on Archive and you will notice that your email has disappeared from the inbox. You will find all such emails in the Archive folder that you can see in the left pane. Click on the archive folder to view them.

You can search for a particular mail that you are looking for in the search box above. You can filter the emails and sort them from the newest or oldest on top as per your requirements. You can also arrange the emails according to date, size, subject, importance, categories, and so on.

It is that simple to archive emails in Outlook and hence can be done in an efficient manner.

Bulk archive email in Outlook

To bulk archive email in Outlook, open File > Info > Tools, and select Clean up old items.

Select Archive this folder and all subfolders, and choose the folder you want to archive.

Next, under Archive items older than, enter a date.

Select Include items with Do not AutoArchive to archive checked option.

Click OK and exit.

Read: How to set up Auto Archive in Outlook

How to retrieve archived emails in Outlook

To access your archived emails in Microsoft Outlook:

1. Open Outlook
2. Select the email ID
3. Click on Archive folder
4. You will see all your archived emails here.

I hope you find this post useful.