Email Retention and Archive Policies are efficiency processes to manage the lifecycle of email messages based on organizational compliance requirements. This article explains what email archive and retention mean as well as how to create exceptions for these processes.


Key Points:

  • Email messages are moved from your mailbox to your online archive when they reach 2 years old
  • Email messages are permanently deleted when they reach 7 years old
  • Users can create exceptions to these settings for messages they have a business need to retain.


Archive vs Retention

Archive - Microsoft creates an Archive folder for each mailbox and automatically moves messages older than two years out of the Inbox into the Archive folder. This is done to keep mailbox access fast and ensure processing and indexing is focused on relevant messages and content.

Retention - Email messages or calendar items older than seven years are removed from Inboxes and Archive folders. This is done to conform with compliance and retention policies as well as ensure Connor Group is not backing up and maintaining unnecessary data.


Email Archiving

Email Archiving provides users with an additional mailbox known as an "archive mailbox," to complement their primary mailbox. The archiving process automatically moves messages older than 2 years out of the Inbox and into the Archive folder, reducing clutter and latency of your mailbox access. These messages are not gone, just moved to the Archive folder. Archived messages are still browsable, indexed and searchable from Outlook's Search Bar:


Email Retention

Email Retention is an automatic process that systematically removes content older than 7 years from your mailbox. Over time, email mailboxes end up storing vast amounts of old, outdated, and unnecessary information. Setting a removal age helps minimize this while ensuring legal and compliance needs are met.


Changing Archive or Retention Defaults

While email is not designed as a document repository, exceptions can be set and managed for specific folders or messages an individual might need to hold. For example, a supervisor might want to save correspondence regarding position descriptions and reviews in a subfolder in their Inbox and hold them forever for historical comparisons. 


Setting custom retention settings for messages: 

Changing the retention setting for a Mailbox folder or message can be done by right-clicking on the object, Assign Policy, then Never Move or Delete

Any new messages saved to this folder will inherit the retention policy and won't be moved or deleted after the 7 year period.


Setting custom archive settings for messages:

Archive settings can be easily changed by right-clicking the target folder or message, Assign Policy, then Never Archive

Any new messages placed into a folder marked Never Archive will inherit the Archive Policy setting and won't be moved to Archive even if older than two years.