Outlook archives mail, but on its own terms

Outlook tracks three date fields for each message to determine its age: the Sent date, the Received date and the Modified date. Whichever of these fields is most recent will be used as the official message date. Forwarding, replying to, editing, saving, moving or copying a message will change its Modified date and therefore have it treated as a more recent message.

On top of this, copying or moving a message does not always change its Modified field. If the message is being copied to a .PST file, the Modified field is not changed. However, copying to an Exchange mailbox or an .OST file will change the Modified field.

You can bring up the Modified date column in any folder view to see when the message was last modified, and sort by this field t...

Digg This!     StumbleUpon     Del.icio.us

RELATED CONTENT Exchange Server Administration Tips Remove Exchange 2003 objects from AD to install Exchange 2010 Don'ts for optimal Exchange 2007 mailbox server efficiency Is your Exchange 2007 hub transport server healthy? Avoid Outlook 2007 performance issues during repairs Developing an Exchange 2007 server role DR plan How DSAccess service improves Exchange Server 2007 reliability An introduction to the Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer tool Monitor Exchange 2007 with disk- and RPC-related counters DPM 2007 replica inconsistencies in Exchange databases Track Exchange 2007 mailbox server health using database counters .OST Files Pros and cons of Outlook 2007's storage engine redesign Avoid Outlook 2007 performance issues during repairs Group policy settings for Outlook 2007 in cached mode How a bare-metal restore affects Microsoft Outlook 2007 performance Troubleshooting why some Microsoft Outlook 2007 email disappears Does Exchange cached mode work with all versions of Microsoft Outlook? Performance problems with Microsoft Outlook 2007 .PST and .OST files How to perform Exchange Server data recovery from .OST files 'Exchange is in recovery mode' errors All about .OST files

RELATED GLOSSARY TERMS Terms from Whatis.com − the technology online dictionary offline folder file  (SearchExchange.com) OST file  (SearchExchange.com)

RELATED RESOURCES 2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary

o get a realistic view of the most-to-least recently modified messages. This can help debug problems if Auto-Archive does not seem to be working correctly. If there are third-party Outlook plug-ins that are causing the Modified date to change, for instance, this is one way to find out.

Note that it is also possible to manually override the archive date for a folder or a whole mailbox. In Outlook, select File | Archive; select "Archive this folder and all subfolders"; choose the folders to archive (you can archive everything by selecting the Personal Folders object); set the archive date, then click OK.

Do you have a useful Exchange tip to share? Submit it to our monthly tip contest and you could win a prize and a spot in our Hall of Fame.

Rate this Tip To rate tips, you must be a member of SearchExchange.com. Register now to start rating these tips. Log in if you are already a member. Submit a Tip DISCLAIMER: Our Tips Exchange is a forum for you to share technical advice and expertise with your peers and to learn from other enterprise IT professionals. TechTarget provides the infrastructure to facilitate this sharing of information. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or validity of the material submitted. You agree that your use of the Ask The Expert services and your reliance on any questions, answers, information or other materials received through this Web site is at your own risk.