AutoArchive Now — 7 Ways to Save Space & Boost Performance

AutoArchive Now — Streamline Your Email (Instant Setup Guide)

Date: February 6, 2026

What it does

AutoArchive Now automatically moves older emails from your active mailbox into a separate archive location on a schedule you set, reducing inbox clutter, improving client performance, and keeping searchable records without manual effort.

Benefits

• Space: Frees mailbox storage and reduces sync time.
• Performance: Faster search and client responsiveness.
• Retention: Keeps historical messages accessible in an organized archive.
• Compliance: Easier to meet simple retention policies.
• Automation: Eliminates manual cleanup chores.

Quick setup (Outlook — typical)

1. Open Outlook > File > Options > Advanced.
2. Under “AutoArchive”, click AutoArchive Settings.
3. Set Run AutoArchive every X days (default 14).
4. Choose Clean out items older than and set age (e.g., 6 months).
5. Select Move old items to: and pick or create an .pst archive file.
6. Optionally enable Permanently delete old items for automatic purging.
7. Click OK and apply folder-level overrides by right-clicking any folder > Properties > AutoArchive.

Quick setup (Gmail via Google Takeout / labels + filters — workaround)

1. Create an “Archive” label in Gmail.
2. Create filters that match age or criteria (Gmail filters can’t match age directly; use search operators like “before:YYYY/MM/DD”).
3. Run a search (e.g., before:2025/08/01) > Select all > Apply label “Archive” > Remove Inbox.
4. For automated periodic exports, use Google Takeout or a third-party backup tool to export/archive messages on a schedule.

Best practices

• Keep a separate archive file per year for easier retrieval.
• Test restore from archive before relying on it.
• Combine archiving with retention/backup policies to prevent data loss.
• Exclude critical folders (e.g., legal or HR) or use longer retention for them.
• Monitor archive size and rebuild/compact PST files periodically.

Troubleshooting

• If archived items aren’t searchable, add the archive PST to Outlook’s indexed locations (Control Panel > Indexing Options).
• Corrupt PST: run ScanPST.exe to repair.
• Gmail labels not moving: ensure selection includes all pages (click “Select all conversations that match this search”).

If you want, I can produce step-by-step screenshots for Outlook or a yearly archive naming scheme.