how to save old emails outside of outlook

[Jan]

My Exchange server keeps telling me I'm running close to my limit on
messages in Outlook. I don't want to lose the messages, but I do want to
get them off the Exchange server and on to my hard drive. How do I do that?

 

[VanguardLH]

My Exchange server keeps telling me I'm running close to my limit on
messages in Outlook. I don't want to lose the messages, but I do want to
get them off the Exchange server and on to my hard drive. How do I do that?

Probably an easy and automatic means would be to use the auto-archiving
feature in Outlook. You didn't bother to mention WHICH version of
Outlook that you have. The following navigation is for OL2003.

Tools -> Options -> Other tab -> AutoArchive button

This is the global setting for automatic archiving. If a folder doesn't
have its own private archive settings configured then these global
settings are used. Also, even if you configure private archive settings
in the properties of a folder, those don't say when archiving is
performed. The global settings determine when archiving is ran
(globally or privately).

I would suggest setting archiving to run every day. Just because an
item exceeds the archive duration (how long an item exists before it
become eligible for archiving) does not mean that item gets immediately
archived. When the item gets older than the archiving retention ("clean
out items older than") it simply becomes eligible for archiving. It
won't actually get archived until the next archive job is ran. That's
why I say to set it to 1 days. Then, at most, an item that becomes
eligible for archiving won't stick around for more than a day. If you
set the auto-archive to 1 year then something that expires today won't
get moved into the archive file until another year from now.

In the global settings for archiving, you can set how old items become
as to when they become eligible for archiving. For example, I set the
global expiration interval to 5 years. I don't need anything in my
active or current message store that is over 5 years old. If I need to
look it up, I can find it in the archive PST file. The default archive
PST file is named archive.pst but you can put it in any path you specify
and by any name. That way, after a few years, you could change this
archive filename to something else to start a new archive. For example,
if I wanted to keep stuff around for 20 years but only want 5 years
worth of stuff in the current message store, every 5 years I would
change the archive PST filename to something else. The prior archive
PST would still be around (from 10-15 years) and this new archive would
hold the next wave of archived items (5-10 years). This is a manual
method of keeping archives in 5-year bunches so those .pst files don't
get too big.

To see the contents of an archive, you have to load it into Outlook
(since that application understands the structure of the .pst file). In
Outlook, use the File -> Open -> Outlook data file menu. Select one of
your archive PST files. You'll see a new tree listed in the folders
panel for that archived message store. Whether you leave the archive
loaded in Outlook or not depends on whether you need immediate access to
the archived items. I usually keep the last archive (the one currently
being used by auto-archive) loaded in Outlook. There have been times
when I needed to see a really old e-mail.

If you want a folder to use a different archive setting than for the
global archive settings, right-click on a folder, select Properties, and
go under the AutoArchive tab. For example, and assuming you are NOT
keeping anything older than 5 years, the global archive settings might
be set to permanently delete items that are over 5 years old -- but do
you really need items that are 5 years old sitting in your Deleted Items
or Junk folders? Of course not, so change the private archive settings
on just those folders. I configured my Deleted Items folder to archive
(with action of permanently delete) after 1 month and the Junk folder to
archive (permanently delete) after 1 week.

Archiving puts items into a .pst file. That's a local file. After you
have setup the global archive settings and perhaps some private archive
settings on a few folders, you can manually start an archive job. Use
the File -> Archive menu and select "Archive all folders according to
their AutoArchive settings".

Warning: Archiving works against the *Modified* datestamp of an item,
not the Received date or any other type of date. If you set archiving
to move or delete items that are over 5 years old and you have an item
sitting in a folder that is 10 years old but you "touch" it (open it,
preview it, move into a different folder) then the Modified datestamp
just changed. Then when the archive job runs, it will see that really
item has a Modified datestamp of today so that would-have-been old item
is now a recent item (less than the archive retention interval) and it
won't get moved or deleted. For example, users have moved a bunch of
really old e-mails from one folder into another folder, they were
received 10 years ago, but archive isn't moving them into an archive PST
file or deleting them. They ask why are are told to look at the
MODIFIED datestamp on the items the user thought should've been
archived. Think about it: if you edit, touch, move, or otherwise do
something on an item then it isn't old anymore. You just did something
with it.

So if you're thinking of using AutoArchive to move old items into a
local archive PST file remember not to touch those old items so they
really will get moved into that archive PST file. If you do touch the
items you intended to move or you want to move some out before they
expire and get archived, remember that you can load the archive PST file
in Outlook. Since it's sitting right there for you to look at and
manipulate how you want, you can drag items from your current message
store into the archive store. However, you need to get Outlook to
create the archive.pst file for you so it has proper internal structure
so it can then be loaded into Outlook and used as another message store
you can use inside of Outlook. You could set the global archive
expiration so far out that nothing gets archived, run the archive job,
Outlook creates the specified archive PST file, and then you load it
into Outlook. Then move stuff around between your local message store
and the archive message store however you want.

 

[JanG]

Thanks for the response. I've noted several people have problems retrieving
archived emails, and I don't necessarily want a .pst file. What I'm look for
is a way to simply move the messages, or save them, to a folder on m hard
drive.

 

[VanguardLH]

I've noted several people have problems retrieving
archived emails,

I've never had a problem loading a secondary (archive) PST file in
Outlook. In fact, it's recommended over using import/export.

and I don't necessarily want a .pst file.

So instead you want some other type of file that you'll still be loading
in Outlook.

What I'm look for is a way to simply move the messages, or save them,
to a folder on m hard drive.

Drag an item outside of Outlook, like to your desktop or into a folder
in Windows Explorer. You'll get a .msg file. It's an encoded file that
Outlook knows how to read (or you can use 3rd party software that
understands the structure of MSG files). You won't be getting .txt
files. Instead of PST file where you can manage all your old e-mails,
you'll end up with tons of MSG files that you'll have to organize
yourself.

Whether creating a .pst or .msg file, you'll still need Outlook or some
3rd party viewer to load those files so you can read them. They are not
plain text files. For example, you could create a .pst file for all
your old messages or a separate .msg file for each of them and then use
Outlook to load them later or use some 3rd party software, like PST
Viewer ($70) or MSG Viewer ($25) from www.encryptomatic.com.

Another scheme is to get an emulated PDF printer. There are lots of
these. I use Bullzip PDF Printer but there is PDFcreator, CutePDF,
PDFxchange Lite, and many others. You "print" to the emulated printer
to output a .pdf file. Any application that has a Print function can
"print" to the emulated printer. So you could "print" each e-mail to
save it into a PDF file. Of course, what gets put into the PDF file is
what the application's Print puts there. In the case with Outlook, all
you get are the simple headers (From, Sent date, To, Subject, and
Categories). You don't get all the original SMTP headers to see from
just where an e-mail was sourced.

Of course, once you put old items into a .pst file, copy them out to a
..msg file, or print them to a .pdf file, you'll have to delete the
original from your Exchange mailbox to reduce its size.

I take it when you contacted your Exchange admin that they refused to
enlarge your mailbox. Or have you even asked them?

 

[VanguardLH]

I've never had a problem loading a secondary (archive) PST file in
Outlook. In fact, it's recommended over using import/export.


So instead you want some other type of file that you'll still be loading
in Outlook.


Drag an item outside of Outlook, like to your desktop or into a folder
in Windows Explorer. You'll get a .msg file. It's an encoded file that
Outlook knows how to read (or you can use 3rd party software that
understands the structure of MSG files). You won't be getting .txt
files. Instead of PST file where you can manage all your old e-mails,
you'll end up with tons of MSG files that you'll have to organize
yourself.

Whether creating a .pst or .msg file, you'll still need Outlook or some
3rd party viewer to load those files so you can read them. They are not
plain text files. For example, you could create a .pst file for all
your old messages or a separate .msg file for each of them and then use
Outlook to load them later or use some 3rd party software, like PST
Viewer ($70) or MSG Viewer ($25) from www.encryptomatic.com.

Another scheme is to get an emulated PDF printer. There are lots of
these. I use Bullzip PDF Printer but there is PDFcreator, CutePDF,
PDFxchange Lite, and many others. You "print" to the emulated printer
to output a .pdf file. Any application that has a Print function can
"print" to the emulated printer. So you could "print" each e-mail to
save it into a PDF file. Of course, what gets put into the PDF file is
what the application's Print puts there. In the case with Outlook, all
you get are the simple headers (From, Sent date, To, Subject, and
Categories). You don't get all the original SMTP headers to see from
just where an e-mail was sourced.

Of course, once you put old items into a .pst file, copy them out to a
.msg file, or print them to a .pdf file, you'll have to delete the
original from your Exchange mailbox to reduce its size.

I take it when you contacted your Exchange admin that they refused to
enlarge your mailbox. Or have you even asked them?

Have you checked that the Previewer feature is enabled and that all
previewers have been enabled?

File -> Options -> Trust Center -> Trust Center Settings...
Attachment Handling

Did you mix versions of Office on the same computer? That is, you might
be using OL2010 but are you still using an older version of other Office
components? Check in Add/Remove Programs applet that there are no older
versions of Office installed.

You could also try to do a repair of Office.

Apparently a DCOM misconfiguration can cause the problem (but I doubt it
would be only only one viewer app yet you didn't say it was just this
one or all attachment filetypes you're having a problem with).

- Run the Component Services applet (dcomcnfg.exe).
- Select the Component Services -> Computers -> My Computers node.
- Right-click on that node and look at Properties.
- Go to the Default Properties tab.
- Check the following settings:
Default Authentication Level = Connect (not None)
Default Impersonation Level = Identify
- Turn protected mode back on in the Office components.

http://lifehacker.com/5707063/disab...ffice-2010-to-easily-open-outlook-attachments