Flagged Items and AutoArchive

[Thomas M.]

Outlook 2007

I have noticed recently that flagged items seem to cause an issue with the
AutoArchive feature. It seems that when an item is flagged, or had been
flagged and is now marked as completed, that the item will not get archived.
At the bottom of each of my folders that are set to automatically archive
there is a collection of older items. Today, for example, there were about
a dozen messages that should have been archived out of my Inbox, but it
looks like the archiving process stopped when it hit an item that was marked
as completed. I can see why you would not want flagged items to auto
archive, but it seems like completed items should be archived.

Is there something that I am missing here? Other than clearing the flags on
items before they reach archiving age, is there any other way to address
this issue?

--Tom

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

flagging changes the last modified date and archiving uses the last modified
date.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/
Outlook 2007: http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2007/

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[Thomas M.]

That makes sense. I'm going to do some testing and will try to post my
results on Friday.

--Tom

flagging changes the last modified date and archiving uses the last
modified date.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/
Outlook 2007: http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2007/

Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter:
(e-mail address removed)




You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

Outlook 2007

I have noticed recently that flagged items seem to cause an issue with
the AutoArchive feature. It seems that when an item is flagged, or had
been flagged and is now marked as completed, that the item will not get
archived. At the bottom of each of my folders that are set to
automatically archive there is a collection of older items. Today, for
example, there were about a dozen messages that should have been archived
out of my Inbox, but it looks like the archiving process stopped when it
hit an item that was marked as completed. I can see why you would not
want flagged items to auto archive, but it seems like completed items
should be archived.

Is there something that I am missing here? Other than clearing the flags
on items before they reach archiving age, is there any other way to
address this issue?

--Tom

 

[Thomas M.]

Okay, my test results are in. I wanted to prove two things: 1) An item
flagged and an item marked as completed on the same day should archive on
the same day, and 2) An item flagged on the same day as the other test
items, but marked as completed the next day, should archive on a different
day as the other test items. Here's what I did:

Monday
---------
* Setup a Test folder and set the auto-archiving option to 2 days.
* Sent myself 3 test messages.
* Moved the test messages into the Test folder.
* Flagged Test 1.
* Flagged Test 2 and then later marked it as completed.
* Flagged Test 3.

Tuesday
---------
* Marked Test 3 as completed (This should cause it to archive later than the
Test 1 and Test 2 items.

Wednesday
------------
* Checked the Test folder and found that none of the items had been
archived.

Thursday
----------
* Checked the Test folder and found that Test 1 and Test 2 had been archived
as expected.

Friday
-------
* Checked the Test folder and found that Test 3 had been archived as
expected.


Summary
----------
The results were pretty much as expected. Some people may wonder why the
items appear to have archived at the 3-day mark instead of after 2 days,
which was the auto archive setting for the Test folder. My theory is that
at the time the auto archive process ran on the second day after the last
modification, the items where not yet a full 48 hours old so they did not
archive at that time. Instead, they archived at the first opportunity after
hitting the 48-hour mark, which would have been on the third day after the
last modification.

--Tom

That makes sense. I'm going to do some testing and will try to post my
results on Friday.

--Tom

flagging changes the last modified date and archiving uses the last
modified date.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/
Outlook 2007: http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2007/

Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter:
(e-mail address removed)




You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

Outlook 2007

I have noticed recently that flagged items seem to cause an issue with
the AutoArchive feature. It seems that when an item is flagged, or had
been flagged and is now marked as completed, that the item will not get
archived. At the bottom of each of my folders that are set to
automatically archive there is a collection of older items. Today, for
example, there were about a dozen messages that should have been
archived out of my Inbox, but it looks like the archiving process
stopped when it hit an item that was marked as completed. I can see why
you would not want flagged items to auto archive, but it seems like
completed items should be archived.

Is there something that I am missing here? Other than clearing the
flags on items before they reach archiving age, is there any other way
to address this issue?

--Tom

 

[Thomas M.]

Okay, it looks like I am still having issues with auto archiving. While the
test that I did two months ago worked, I just completed a longer term test
that failed. I recorded the following information on a specific item.

Location: Inbox
Subject: Network Topology and Vulnerability Tool
Received: 4/11/09 11:33 PM
Last Updated: 6/12/09 9:54 AM (Marked completed)

For the last two months I have been very careful to not modify that item in
any way. In fact, I have not even clicked on it. The item should have been
auto archived the other day, but it was not. Of course, I could manually
archive items, but I would prefer to figure out the underlying problem and
get it fixed.

To troubleshoot this problem I created a custom view with the Do Not
AutoArchive and the Modified fields. None of the items in my Inbox have the
Do Not AutoArchive flag set, so that isn't the problem. However, I did
notice that the Modified date for about 350 items shows 7/1/09 9:06 AM.
That's odd because the vast majority of those items have not been touched
since they were originally received. I am wondering if something happened
on that date to reset the Last Modified date for all those items.

I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the archiving process and that
there might be something more fundamental that has gone awry. What else
might I be missing here?

--Tom

Okay, my test results are in. I wanted to prove two things: 1) An item
flagged and an item marked as completed on the same day should archive on
the same day, and 2) An item flagged on the same day as the other test
items, but marked as completed the next day, should archive on a different
day as the other test items. Here's what I did:

Monday
---------
* Setup a Test folder and set the auto-archiving option to 2 days.
* Sent myself 3 test messages.
* Moved the test messages into the Test folder.
* Flagged Test 1.
* Flagged Test 2 and then later marked it as completed.
* Flagged Test 3.

Tuesday
---------
* Marked Test 3 as completed (This should cause it to archive later than
the Test 1 and Test 2 items.

Wednesday
------------
* Checked the Test folder and found that none of the items had been
archived.

Thursday
----------
* Checked the Test folder and found that Test 1 and Test 2 had been
archived as expected.

Friday
-------
* Checked the Test folder and found that Test 3 had been archived as
expected.


Summary
----------
The results were pretty much as expected. Some people may wonder why the
items appear to have archived at the 3-day mark instead of after 2 days,
which was the auto archive setting for the Test folder. My theory is that
at the time the auto archive process ran on the second day after the last
modification, the items where not yet a full 48 hours old so they did not
archive at that time. Instead, they archived at the first opportunity
after hitting the 48-hour mark, which would have been on the third day
after the last modification.

--Tom

That makes sense. I'm going to do some testing and will try to post my
results on Friday.

--Tom

flagging changes the last modified date and archiving uses the last
modified date.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/
Outlook 2007: http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2007/

Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter:
(e-mail address removed)




You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Outlook 2007

I have noticed recently that flagged items seem to cause an issue with
the AutoArchive feature. It seems that when an item is flagged, or had
been flagged and is now marked as completed, that the item will not get
archived. At the bottom of each of my folders that are set to
automatically archive there is a collection of older items. Today, for
example, there were about a dozen messages that should have been
archived out of my Inbox, but it looks like the archiving process
stopped when it hit an item that was marked as completed. I can see
why you would not want flagged items to auto archive, but it seems like
completed items should be archived.

Is there something that I am missing here? Other than clearing the
flags on items before they reach archiving age, is there any other way
to address this issue?

--Tom

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

To troubleshoot this problem I created a custom view with the Do Not
AutoArchive and the Modified fields. None of the items in my Inbox have the
Do Not AutoArchive flag set, so that isn't the problem. However, I did
notice that the Modified date for about 350 items shows 7/1/09 9:06 AM.
That's odd because the vast majority of those items have not been touched
since they were originally received. I am wondering if something happened
on that date to reset the Last Modified date for all those items.

Third party add-ins that integrate with Outlook can alter the modified date.
Do you have any?

 

[Thomas M.]

Third party add-ins that integrate with Outlook can alter the modified

date. Do you have any?

No. The only thing that I can think of along those lines is my anti-virus
software, but I believe that it only scans items upon arrival. I did a deep
scan about two weeks ago and that does not appear to have reset the modified
date on any of the email items.

--Tom

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

No. The only thing that I can think of along those lines is my anti-virus
software, but I believe that it only scans items upon arrival. I did a deep
scan about two weeks ago and that does not appear to have reset the modified
date on any of the email items.

What add-ins are listed in Outlook?