Enable Online Archive in Office 365

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In this guide, you will learn how to enable the online archive feature for Office 365 users. The online archive in Office 365, also known as In-Place Archive, is a feature that provides additional storage space to store older or less frequently accessed emails.

You basically get more email storage at no additional cost, plus it’s very easy to use.

Contents

What is an Online Archive Mailbox

An Online Archive mailbox in Office 365 is additional storage space that allows users to retain emails and documents for a longer period of time. The Online Archive is a separate mailbox from the user’s primary mailbox but is linked to the user’s primary mailbox. It appears in the user’s Outlook as an additional folder or mailbox, often labeled as “In-Place Archive”.

Users can manually move emails to the archive mailbox or use automated rules to move emails from their primary mailbox to the archive. In addition to the extra storage space this can be useful for legal and compliance reasons when certain emails need to be retained.

Requirements

  • Subscription plan:
    • To use the online archive feature you need to have a subscription plan that supports it. Not all Office 365 plans include Online Archive by default. It’s typically available with business plans like Microsoft 365 E3, E5, or Office 365 E3, E5, and some enterprise plans. To view a complete list of supported plans, see the Microsoft 365 business plan comparison.
  • Permissions:
    • You will need access to the Exchange Admin Center to enable the archive mailbox for users. For example, if you have the global administrator role or the Exchange organization management role you will be able to enable the archive feature.
  • Storage limits:
    • The archive mailbox has storage limits separate from your main mailbox. Depending on which subscription plan you have the archive mailbox can have 50 or 100GB additional storage space.

Steps to enable Online Archive in Office 365

In this example, I’m going to enable the online archive mailbox for the user robert allen.

Step 1. Sign into Exchange Online Admin Center.

Step 2. Open the user mailbox in Exchange Admin Center

Step 3. Click the “Others” tab

exchange online mailbox

Step 4. Click on “Manage mailbox archive”

mailbox archive

Step 5. Click the Mailbox archive status button to change it to enabled. Optionally give the archive mailbox a label.

enable mailbox archive

Step 6. To access the archive mailbox, open outlook and look for a folder called In-Place Archive. You can expand it and use it like any normal outlook folder.

in place archive in outlook

Enable Online Archive using PowerShell

Step 1. Connect to Exchange Online. 

Connect-ExchangeOnline


powershell exchange online

Step 2. To enable the archive mailbox for a single user, use the command below. Replace <user mailbox> with the users UPN. 

Enable-Mailbox -Identity <user mailbox> -Archive


powershell enable archive mailbox

Get Archive Mailbox Status for All Users

With PowerShell you can easily get the archive status for all user mailboxes. Connect to exchange online and run the below command. 

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited -RecipientTypeDetails UserMailbox | Select-Object DisplayName, ArchiveStatus
get archive mailbox status powershell

Check Archive Mailbox Status using Exchange Admin Center

In the exchange admin center click on mailboxes and you can see the archive status for each mailbox.

archive mailbox status exchange center

How to Access Archive Mailbox in Outlook

Note: The archive mailbox first needs to be enabled on the main account for the archive mailbox to show up.

To access the archive mailbox, open outlook and look for a folder called In-Place Archive. You can expand it and use it like any normal outlook folder.

in place archive

Benefits of using Online Archive in Office 365

  • Additional Mailbox Storage
    • The primary benefit to using online archive mailboxes is that it provides users with additional storage space. Microsoft subscription plans have limits on the size of user’s mailboxes and when these are reached it can impact mail flow. With the online archive mailbox, you can provide your users with additional storage space and prevent interruptions to mail flow.
  • Eliminate PST (Personal Storage Table)
    • PST files can be a major pain in large organizations. They are stored locally on a user’s computer, has size limits and often get corrupted. PST files are often used to archive old emails or when online storage space is limited. With the additional storage space provided by the exchange online archive, you can potentially eliminate the need for PST files.
  • Compliance
    • Some compliance requirements require that all emails be kept for a certain period of time. You can enable compliance policies that will automatically retain or archive emails according to your needs.
  • Better User Experience
    • By moving older or less frequently accessed emails to the archive mailbox, your primary mailbox will be less cluttered and easier to use. This will make it easier to focus on more important emails and can also speed up the performance of outlook.
  • Cost Savings
    • When your primary mailbox reaches its storage capacity you could pay more for additional storage. The other option is to enable the exchange online archive mailbox and move old messages to the archive folder. This can save your organization a lot of money because if you purchase additional storage, it’s a recurring cost.

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