Forum Discussion
Help with Outlook email Archive
Hello folks,
I am new here. I need some guidance. I was helped by a wonderful MS agent to help me archive my old email with a policy. But for some reason it has not worked and wiped out all my older emails than 3 years. They were very important ones to me and memories of my dad as well as legal documents and email trails. I am really stressed and cant find a solution. Any group expert here who can please help me!! I will really appreciate it. Please someone can help me?
Good job brother
Start by telling us where your account is hosted and exactly what you configured previously. If you are using Exchange/Exchange Online and configured a retention policy with a delete action, you have a limited amount of time before items are irreversibly lost. And you might need help from your admin/IT support staff.
If you are using a non-Exchange mailbox or some online provider, your best option is to contact their support and ask for assistance.
Thank you for your reply.
I am using Exchange and MS 365 Business Standard. I did not have a policy at all previously. My mailbox was coming to capacity and the MS support person suggested that I archive the files older than 3 years. He help set up the policy and after a few weeks when i tried to look for the older files I could not find them. Then i reached out again to the helpdesk with Microsoft and the new support person said that all those files would have been deleted as the retention policy only stated archive files only up to 2020.
I do not have an IT admin etc as its only 1 user license I have. Hope this helps.
Details matter. Do you remember (or can you check) how the policy was configured? If we are talking about an Exchange retention policy with the "Move to archive" action, those old messages should still be around, just moved to a different "container", the Online archive. Depending on the Outlook version you are using however, the Online archive might not be exposed, so best check via the webmail/OWA. Here are instructions on how to access the Online archive on various versions of Outlook: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/manage-email-storage-with-online-archive-mailboxes-1cae7d17-7813-4fe8-8ca2-9a5494e9a721#ID0EFD=Outlook_Web_Access_(OWA)
If the policy was configured with a "delete" action instead, those messages are likely gone now that few weeks have passed. Just in case, you can check the "Recover deleted items" container. Basically access Deleted items and look for the "Recover items deleted from this folder" link therein. Detailed instructions for example here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/recover-and-restore-deleted-items-in-outlook-49e81f3c-c8f4-4426-a0b9-c0fd751d48ce#PickTab=Web
