Old messages left after running autoarchive

[RichUE]

Autoarchive runs every 14 days and moves items to the archive that are older
than 6 months. If I check the Archive folders, this seems to be the case as
there are no items newer than 6 months. Howver, there is one particular
folder (there may be others) that still contains items older than 6 months. I
clicked the "Apply these settings to all folders now" button in Tools,
Options, Other, AutoArchive, and sure enough the settings have been applied
to this particular folder.
I don't understand why I can still see items older than 6 months in it.

 

[DL]

Perhaps the modified dates are less than 6 months old?

 

[neo]

Auto archive won't move items under the following conditions....

1) An item has been marked for do not archive (e.g. highlight an item in
your Inbox and then select ALT + ENTER. Checkbox is at the bottom of the
dialog box)

2) If the sent, received, or last modified date is within your time frame,
the item doesn't archive

3) A blank/null date for sent, received, or last modified is treated as
1/1/4501 and will never be eligible for archiving

 

[RichUE]

I checked the 'oldest' message. It was received 9 months ago but was modified
5 months ago. I added the Modified date to the folder view and found tha a
load of emails were modified on the same date 5 months ago.
Does opening a message change its modified date? If not, how does a message
get modified? Replying to it? Forwarding it? Received messages aren't
editable like documents.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

I checked the 'oldest' message. It was received 9 months ago but was modified
5 months ago. I added the Modified date to the folder view and found tha a
load of emails were modified on the same date 5 months ago.
Does opening a message change its modified date? If not, how does a message
get modified? Replying to it? Forwarding it?

Yes to both. From Microsoft's Knowledgebase:

The following actions will change the message's modified date/time:


a.. Forwarding
b.. Replying
c.. Replying to All
d.. Editing and Saving
e.. Moving or Copying
Copying or moving the message to another message folder does not always change
the modification date/time; if the destination folder is a Personal Folders
file (.pst), the modification date/time does not change. If the destination
folder is an Exchange Server Mailbox or an Offline Folders file (.ost), the
modification date/time does change.

Received messages aren't editable like documents.

Well, yes they are.