Scenario
You wish to remove older emails from your mailbox automatically using Exchange and Outlook features.
Resolution
For all organizations already using archiving, this can be an efficient, hands-free way to cut down on the total number of items in Exchange and the disk space their email occupies, which enhances performance and stability.
Set up an auto archiving policy in Outlook
To set up an auto-archiving policy that deletes older emails automatically in Outlook:
- Open Outlook, right-click on the folder and select Properties.
For example, the below screenshot displays the Inbox folder selected.
Select the AutoArchive tab and select Archive this folder using this settings.
In Clean out items older than, enter 180 days, or whatever the desired amount of days/months/years may be.
Select the Permanently delete old items option.
Select OK to save the changes and close the window.
Set up an auto archiving policy in Exchange
To set up an auto-archiving policy that deletes older emails automatically in Exchange:
- Open the From the left-hand side tree, select recipients, then select mailboxes
- Double-click the mailbox you want to add the retention policy to. Edit User Mailbox window is displayed.
- Select mailbox features.
- From the Retention policy drop-down list, select the retention policy you want to apply to this mailbox.
For more information, see how you can create a new or edit an existing retention policy. - Click Save to save the changes made.
Create a new or edit retention existing policy in Exchange Admin center
- Go to the Exchange admin center.
- From the left-hand side tree, select compliance management, then select retention policies.
- As required, click on (Add) to create a new retention policy or (Edit) to edit the selected retention policy.
The retention policy window is displayed.
- In Name, enter a name for your retention policy. - Click (Add) to associate the appropriate Retention Policy Tags with it.
As required, select the number of days an email can be held for. For example, if you set this to 365 days then any emails more than 365 days old will be deleted.
- Click Save to save the changes made.