Outlook 2002 does not move files when manually archiving

[rundy]

I have an upsetting and frustrating problem. Outlook 2002 (on Win SP-
Home) does not move files when I do a manual archive. I've read
numerous articles I found by googling and have followed the
instructions, but I don't get any of the files moved from my
current .pst file to the new one.

I was successful in creating the proper new archive (.pst) file, by
doing a manual archive as follows: File | Archive and on the resulting
dialog selected the "Archive this folder and all subfolders" option,
then I selected my highest level active/current folder which contains
ALL of my Outlook information, I indicated the archive date (Archive
all items older than: Wed 1/1/2003, I also checked the 'Include items
with "Do Not AutoArchive" checked' option and in the Archive File: I
entered the proper path and a "new.pst" and then clicked OK. It hummed
and whirred for a while and created a new Archive file with exactly
the same structure as my current active outlook.pst file, but NONE of
the files were moved. The new.pst file is totally empty although the
folder structure is perfectly correct. I re-ran the same command a
second time and no joy. It will NOT move any of the files I am trying
to archive. What the #$%^*&^% good is an archive function if it does
not actually move the files (messages) I am trying to archive?

I have in the past AutoArchived files (messages) from my Sent Items
folder, so that works.

I suspect I could select files form the ouitlook.pst and drag (move)
them to the proper folder in the new.pst, but i have hundreds of
Folders in both pst's and I also want to move files by their age, in
three stages (older than 2003, only 2003 and 2004, only 2005 and
2006.) So, click and drag will take me many hours and will be error
prone.

Can anyone tell me what I have to do to get the Arcihve function to
actually move the files I have identified to be archived
(specifically, all files older than 1/1 2003 from each and every
folder in my current outlook.pst.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Regards,

rundy

 

[Roady [MVP]]

AutoArchive works on the modified date of an item. What is this set to?
See http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/archivedoesntwork.htm

 

[rundy]

AutoArchive works on the modified date of an item. What is this set to?
Seehttp://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/archivedoesntwork.htm

I'm not trying to AUTOARCHIVE, I'm trying to Manually Archive (the
procedure I've followed is in the second paragraph of the orignal
post) and it does not move the designated files. Any Ideas?

 

[F.H. Muffman]

I have an upsetting and frustrating problem. Outlook 2002 (on Win

I'm not trying to AUTOARCHIVE, I'm trying to Manually Archive (the
procedure I've followed is in the second paragraph of the orignal
post) and it does not move the designated files. Any Ideas?

Whether you manually start the process or it fires automatically, it's the
same thing. The *process* is what decides if a message should be moved or
not, and the process, as Roady said, works against the Modified Date.

 

[rundy]

Whether you manually start the process or it fires automatically, it's the
same thing. The *process* is what decides if a message should be moved or
not, and the process, as Roady said, works against the Modified Date.

FH,

I have done some other searching and reading and have figured out how
to determine the "modified date" for messages. It appears that the
oldest date for files (messages) I have is 7/9/06 even though the
messages were received in 1999 0r 2000. Apparently there was was a
system wide effect that took place on 7/9/06 that changed the modified
date on all of my Outlook messages older than that to 7/9/06. I found
an article at http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/archivenotworking.htm
which said events that can change the Modified Data are:
* reply
* reply to all
* forward
* move to another folder
* editing
* saving
* importing
I have tried hard to remember what was going on back then and I fear
that is when I made my switch for using Outlook Express to using
Outlook 2002 and the event that would have been triggered would have
been a major IMPORT of all of my old messages from OE to OL2002. So,
now that I have found that out I will have to develop an alternative
strategy for archiving all of my messages. If I use an archive date of
7/10/2006 I fear the resulting archive file will be too big for
Outlook to be able to open and look at it.

Thanks for your help so far. I think through these many iterations,
I'm getting closer to a reasonable conclusion.

Regards,

rundy

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Sorry for misspelling the URL in my original reply. But you've found it
anyway ;-)



-----

 

[rundy]

Sorry for misspelling the URL in my original reply. But you've found it
anyway ;-)

For anyone reading this thread, I have to say I found a solution that
is perfect for my needs. As Roady had indicated earlier, OUTLOOK
archives based on Modified message dates, NOT received dates (I know,
we should have a choice!!!), When I finally figured out how to make
Outlook 2002 display Modified dates for all of the the messages
(files) in an Outlook folder, (View | Current View | Define Views and
then in the click the Modify button, then the Fields button, and from
the "Select available fields from:" drop down, select Date/Time
Fields, and then move Modified from the Available listing box to the
Show box (there is an "Add" button or simply click and drag.) that
will permit you to view the Modified date for each message in the
given folder. When I did this I discovered the source of my problems.
Specifically, I realized that when I switched from Outlook Express,
Outlook Imported all of my old OE messages, and in the process each
message that was imported was given a modified date that was the day I
did the switch. (It is all now quite clear, in retrospect.)

Well, in the process of trying to find out about Modified dates, I ran
across an some information (after Googling for quite some time) that
pointed me to a utility named ArchiveAssistant for Outlook (available
from http://www.cardiffsoft.com/). This very inexpensive utility reads
the Outlook files and permits you to change the Modify dates to the
Received date, or any other date you choose. It (ArchiveAssistant) has
been a godsend to me and well worth the Twenty bucks. Had I had this
utility a few weeks ago I could have saved myself dozens of hours and
untold frustration with this issue. Now that I can change the Modified
dates to the Received dates, I can now proceed with my plans for
archiving by time blocks as outlined in my initial post.

I hope providing this additional information is useful to those who
read this thread and that it provides some additional information for
those giving others guidance and advise.

Thanks to all who have helped me.

rundy