- Question regarding Outlook's archiving capabilities (or lack of them)

[Forsky]

Maybe I'll have better luck here. :-(

My Outlook is slow as hell to load. But I also have years worth of emails in
my Inbox (and various inbox sub-folders). Therefore, I elected to begin
archiving monthly -- to various PST files that would be identified by
account name, year and month.

The goal is to improve Outlook performance (which right now is poor as
heck).

The first folder I tried to archive, archived. But then I noticed a new
"Archived Folder" folder within Outlook. I went to see what was there, and
as you would figure, it's all my archived stuff.

So I tried archiving another folder (I have one for each account). Same
thing. It worked, but the emails simply moved to a NEW unidentified
"Archived Folder" folder within Outlook.

With 7 accounts (thus 7 folders) to archive monthly, you can imagine how my
Outlook menu is going to look soon if it keeps adding new folders each time
I create a new PST file.

But that's not the only reason I dislike what's happening. First, it implies
that Outlook is STILL loading the same amount of emails when it boots up.
They're just in another folder. And my whole reason for archiving is that I
don't want it loading anything older than 2 months ago, under any
circumstance. I don't want Outlook to even know anything has been archived.
As far as it knows, I installed it 2 months ago. This is why I'm archiving.

Now, people in the other Outlook forum tried telling me that although all
the emails are still there and still viewable, they don't hinder Outlook's
performance. Well, I beg to differ. Thousands of emails and attachments
obviously DO affect performance, if the 30 seconds it now takes to load are
any indication.

Suggestions? Opinions? What about this process am I failing to understand?

Thanks.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

You can right-click on the Archive folder, and choose Close to avoid seeing
it again.

You can set all folders to archive to the same .pst file.

 

[Guest]

I was curious do you have a tool that automatically names your archived files by month/year, etc? I am in the same boat, and have been looking for a tool to do that.

 

[Forsky]

I was going to do it manually, but due to the lack of clear answers to my
often repeated questions, I am about to switch programs. A friend of mine
highly recommends Lotus Notes. I will be looking into that in the days
ahead.

I was a lifetime Outlook user but this archiving stuff is just giving me a
humongous headache.

I was curious do you have a tool that automatically names your archived

files by month/year, etc? I am in the same boat, and have been looking for
a tool to do that.

 

[SgtRich]

I was going to do it manually, but due to the lack of clear answers to my
often repeated questions, I am about to switch programs.

The answers that you were given were very clear. You just cannot comprehend
the differences between CLOSE & DELETE.

As far as your switching programs, it is probably just as well. Outlook is
probably too complex for your needs and ability, anyway.
--
<<<SgtRich>>>

Email Client: Microsoft Outlook 2003
News Client (Text): Forté Agent 2.0 www.forteinc.com
News Client (Binaries): News Rover 9.2 www.newsrover.com

 

[Forsky]

The answers that you were given were very clear. You just cannot comprehend
the differences between CLOSE & DELETE.

As far as your switching programs, it is probably just as well. Outlook is
probably too complex for your needs and ability, anyway.

Yeah, the program isn't capable of saving to multiple PSTs, and just stuffs
it all in one endlessly increasing ball of bytes.

Such a program is WAY too complex for me to use. It couldn't possibly be
lacking in features.

At least 3 people have asked me if I had a utility to identify my monthly
folders, because OUTLOOK CAN'T DO IT.

Imagine that, identifying your PSTs by month and year, instead of
"archive.pst".

Does your condescendence get you hurt much IRL? I can't imagine that it
doesn't.

Anyhow, your arrogance not withstanding, the whole discussion is moot, as I
will begin searching for a program that can actually auto-archive to
SEPARATE FILES and name them accordingly.

You have fun with that 17-gig archive.pst file

 

[Brian Tillman]

Imagine that, identifying your PSTs by month and year, instead of
"archive.pst".

And Outlook will do that if you elect to name your archive files that way.
It's completely under your control.