HOW-TO: Archive emails in Microsoft Outlook 2011 for Mac
There are multiple methods that you can backup and archive your Outlook 2011 emails for Mac.
Method 1:
If you are receiving messages that your inbox is reaching or past capacity while using Outlook 2011 for Mac, then the first thing you should do is create an archive folder. Luckily, the process is fairly simple and should take no time at all.
Step 1:
First thing you have to do is enable “On My Computer” folders. To do this, go to the preferences section in the outlook menu bar:
Then click on “General”
Then uncheck “Hide On My Computer folders”
Step 2:
Now on the navigation window on the left, you should see an inbox called “On My Computer”. Right click on it and choose “New Folder” , then name it ” Archive”
Step 3:
Now that you have an archive folder in place on your machine, highlight all the emails that you would like to archive, right click and choose “Move” -> “Archive (On My Computer)”
Method 2:
Archive email folders as .mbox files. This allows you to easily restore complete folders in the future.
1) Select the folder that you want to archive.
>> NOTE: Outlook does NOT allow the selection of multiple folders, so archiving one folder at a time is necessary.
2) Drag the selected folder to the Desktop or a folder in the Finder (your archive destination).
3) Wait for and verify that all your folders copy successfully to the destination location as .mbox archives on the folder destination.
>> NOTE: Large folders will take a long time to copy and there will be no progress indicator. Very large folders will appear to stall both Outlook and the Finder. Be patient. It will work. Also be sure to copy the top-most folder and any sub-folders because just copying the top folder will not copy any of the sub-folders.
>>> IMPORTANT: Outlook will truncate the copying of any folder larger than 2.15GB. If you’re folder is larger than 2.15GB, then you must split it in half to ensure you don’t miss any messages
Method 3:
Also archive email as individual emails (this provides for easier searching and quick access to single messages).
1) Choose an email folder in Outlook that you want to archive. You can only perform this action with one folder at a time.
2) Select all of the emails in that folder by clicking on one email then pressing the Command-A keys, or choose Select All from the Edit menu.
3) Click and hold on the selected messages then drag-and-drop (copy) to the folder you created on the server.
>> IMPORTANT: The previous two methods (Method 2 and Method 3) will NOT delete items from Outlook; they will save a copy of the selected emails to the network/server directory you chose. The final step — once you’re confident the copies are complete — is to delete the archived folders from Outlook. Right-click on the folder you wish to remove and select ‘Delete’.
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