Outlook 2003 AutoArchive not working properly

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mr B
  • Start date Start date
M

Mr B

Ever since I upgraded to OL2003 from OLXP, AutoArchive for all folders
seems to be seriously broken, in that most folders seem to be
completely unprocessed when it runs.
If I run autoarchive on a *selected* folder, it does process many
messages, but it still leaves a fair number of 'old' msgs unmoved.

Also when AA for all folders runs, the status bar shows it
'processing' the folders far too quickly for it to be actually working
properly.

I've upgraded my PST files to be Unicode and followed all the advice
in http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/archivenotworking.htm but it still
doesn't work.
The only msgs that I can positively identify as being excluded by AA
for a reason are msgs that have reminders attached to them - which I
guess is fair enough, but still not mentioned in
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=830119.
Others seem to be excluded for no reason at all - the Modified date is
well before the 'clean out items older than' setting for that folder.

Any ideas?
 
Archiving works based on the modified date. I you have accessed an older
message recently, its modified date changes to the date that you accessed
it. Check your views to include the modified date and you can see this for
yourself.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, Mr B asked:

| Ever since I upgraded to OL2003 from OLXP, AutoArchive for all folders
| seems to be seriously broken, in that most folders seem to be
| completely unprocessed when it runs.
| If I run autoarchive on a *selected* folder, it does process many
| messages, but it still leaves a fair number of 'old' msgs unmoved.
|
| Also when AA for all folders runs, the status bar shows it
| 'processing' the folders far too quickly for it to be actually working
| properly.
|
| I've upgraded my PST files to be Unicode and followed all the advice
| in http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/archivenotworking.htm but it still
| doesn't work.
| The only msgs that I can positively identify as being excluded by AA
| for a reason are msgs that have reminders attached to them - which I
| guess is fair enough, but still not mentioned in
| http://support.microsoft.com/?id=830119.
| Others seem to be excluded for no reason at all - the Modified date is
| well before the 'clean out items older than' setting for that folder.
|
| Any ideas?
 
Tx for the reply.
Yes I mentioned the modified date before:
| Others seem to be excluded for no reason at all - the Modified date is
| well before the 'clean out items older than' setting for that folder.
Click to expand...

In case the above was unclear, the modified date of the un-archived
msgs is older than the current date minus 'older than' AA setting - in
other words they should have been archived! ;-)

Anyway I did as you suggested and add the Modified field to the View.
Then it all started to become rather strange ...
All the older messages displayed 'None' in this column - although if I
used File > Properties on an older msg, it showed the correct Modified
date. Weird!
So I ran scanpst again (I do it every few months) on the Personal
folder and it found a load of errors. After running Outlook again the
older msgs' Modified dates were now displayed in the View column - and
now AA correctly archives the folders!
So many tx for the tip!


Aside - you said that the modified date changes after it is accessed -
which struck me as being strange i.e. how does reading a msg modify
it?
So I tested this by opening & closing a msg and the modified date did
not change - as I would have expected. If I edited the msg then it did
change.

Archiving works based on the modified date. I you have accessed an older
message recently, its modified date changes to the date that you accessed
it. Check your views to include the modified date and you can see this for
yourself.

--?
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, Mr B asked:

| Ever since I upgraded to OL2003 from OLXP, AutoArchive for all folders
| seems to be seriously broken, in that most folders seem to be
| completely unprocessed when it runs.
| If I run autoarchive on a *selected* folder, it does process many
| messages, but it still leaves a fair number of 'old' msgs unmoved.
|
| Also when AA for all folders runs, the status bar shows it
| 'processing' the folders far too quickly for it to be actually working
| properly.
|
| I've upgraded my PST files to be Unicode and followed all the advice
| in http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/archivenotworking.htm but it still
| doesn't work.
| The only msgs that I can positively identify as being excluded by AA
| for a reason are msgs that have reminders attached to them - which I
| guess is fair enough, but still not mentioned in
| http://support.microsoft.com/?id=830119.
| Others seem to be excluded for no reason at all - the Modified date is
| well before the 'clean out items older than' setting for that folder.
|
| Any ideas?
Click to expand...
 
Back
Top