Automatically Delete Old Messages from Archive

Question

My Outlook is connected to a corporate Exchange server with a 400MB mailbox limit. I get a large number of log & error emails from our site -- enough to reach this limit every two to three days.

These logs are often used for diagnosing issues, so I need to keep them for at least a few months. Since the mailbox limit is reached so often, I end up Auto-Archiving the log files every few days. After several years of this, my archive folder is now several hundred gigabytes.

I would like to set up an automated system where the log emails are archived regularly, then deleted from the archive after a set amount of time. Is this possible using Outlook's built-in mailbox rules or auto-archive settings?

Answer 1

1) I would create a local PST that you move your logs in to. This way, your logs don't interfere with your regular e-mail. You don't need to auto archive policy if you have an e-mail rule that already moves it for you.

2) If you must use email for log retention, you can right click on the folder where your logs are and set up a retention policy. Retention policy IMO should be to delete anything older than xx days.

This all depends on whether the Exchange Admin has configured a global policy to disallow the retention policy.

More info about retention policy as of 4 Apr 16.

Answer 2

I ended up following this answer and creating a search folder for messages that are older than 2 months and in the log folders.

I can periodically right-click the search folder and click Delete All to clean out the logs.