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Outlook emails hold business-critical data which needs a safety net from data loss. Microsoft (Office) 365 offers some native archival options to protect them. In this blog, we examine one such native way to archive Outlook emails using the Office 365 archive policy.
There are two ways to configure Office 365 archive mailboxes: using the graphical interface at the Office 365 Admin Center or by using Microsoft PowerShell. Additionally, PowerShell allows us to enable archive mailboxes for all users in the organization. Note: You need to have the Mail Recipients role in Exchange Online to configure Archive mailboxes. Need to configure retention policies instead? Read Part 2: How to setup Office 365 Retention Policy.
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Native Microsoft Backup: How To Archive Outlook Emails Using Office 365 Archive Policy?
- Method 1: Enable Microsoft 365 Archive Mailbox via the Compliance Center
- Method 2: Enable Microsoft 365 Archive Mailbox using PowerShell
- Method 3: Backup Outlook Emails With Point-in-time Recovery
- 3rd Party Backup – Exchange Online Backup.
Method 1: Enable Microsoft 365 Archive Mailbox Via The Compliance Center
Watch the video here or follow the step-wise instructions below
Step 1: Open the Office 365 Compliance Center
Step 2: On the left navigation menu select Information Governance
Step 3: Then click on the Archive tab
Step 4: Select the user on the table and click Enable archive on the control panel above the table. On the right side you can see the capacity and current usage of the mailbox of the selected user.
Step 5: Click “Enable” to archive the mailbox for the selected user
Step 6: You can confirm that Archive Mailbox is enabled
Step 7: If the status is still Disabled then just click Refresh
Step 8: Click Disable archive if you need to stop using the archive mailbox for the selected user
Method 2: Enable Microsoft (Office) 365 Archive Mailbox Using Microsoft PowerShell
Step 1: Open the Start menu and type “powershell” to find the Windows PowerShell application and then select it to run
Step 2: Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell using the PowerShell Commandlet (cmdlet)
Connect-ExchangeOnlineThe Exchange Online module will load and the Sign-in window will open
Step 3: Type your user name (email) and password
Step 4: Once it is connected to your Office 365 tenant, you will see a new command line
Step 5: Insert the cmdlet to enable archiving the mailbox for the selected user
Where is the user’s display name
Enable-Mailbox -Identity -Archive
Step 6: To enable archive mailboxes for all users run the following cmdlet
Get-Mailbox -Filter {ArchiveGuid -Eq "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" -AND RecipientTypeDetails -Eq "UserMailbox"} | Enable-Mailbox -Archive
Step 7: To disable archive mailbox for a single user run the cmdlet
Where is the user’s display name
Disable-Mailbox -Identity -Archive
For example:
Disable-Mailbox -Identity "Nada Al Sehli" -Archive
Step 8: To disable archive mailboxes for all users run the cmdlet
Get-Mailbox -Filter {ArchiveGuid -Ne "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" -AND RecipientTypeDetails -Eq "UserMailbox"} | Disable-Mailbox -Archive
Method 3: Backup Outlook Emails With Point-in-Time Recovery
Prefer an easier way? Simply backup your Exchange using CloudAlly Microsoft 365 Backup. It backs up all Microsoft 365 Exchange emails, calendars, contacts, and tasks in minutes. And our Outlook compatible .pst export means that your Office 365 data is still available even if MS Azure is temporarily unavailable.
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