See the links below to jump to the appropriate portion of this document for your next steps. 

• Basic Steps to Archiving / Moving Email
  • Create the "receiving" folder
  • Search for messages by date
  • Move messages
• Advanced - if you need an immediate impact
  • Find the largest folders
  • Find the largest emails
• Best Practices to avoid running out of space

What's the purpose of this document? 

The purpose is to help you move email from one email account to another.  While this may be done for any number of reasons, such as moving departmental email into a shared mailbox before retirement, this document focuses on archiving email between a primary mailbox and a secondary archive mailbox.  

The first step is having access to both the "sending" mailbox and the "receiving" mailbox.  If you don't have access to a "receiving" mailbox, email SCS Computing staff (scs-computing@illinois.edu) and we will talk with you about what you are needing to do. 

Why move email to an archive mailbox? 

University of Illinois inboxes are limited to 100 GB. There is no way to increase the size of a mailbox, either. But if you are approaching that limit, you'll need to take action because if you hit that limit, and you can't send or receive emails.  

If an email account is TRULY at or very near capacity, see the Advanced instructions below for being able to make an immediate impact by moving the largest emails first.  If you do that, please come back to the "Basic Steps" section to complete the migration of all mail in the desired time frame.  

Archiving options

Outlook for Windows does have the ability to archive email to a local (again, on your computer) file that can be viewed and searched much like a mailbox, but only on the computer where the archive file resides.  Windows archive files (called PST files) cannot be shared between computers. 

However, if you use either Outlook for the web or Outlook (both "Classic" and "new") for Mac, your options are much more limited. 

• Outlook for the Web has no archiving ability at all.
• Outlook for Mac can export email to an archive, but that archive cannot be searched - it can ONLY be used to re-import the mail and other items back into a mailbox. That's not particularly helpful.

So if you use Outlook on the web or Outlook (new or classic) on a Mac and are running out of space, what can you do?

For now, the only workable solution that SCS Computing has found is to manually move messages to a secondary (archive) mailbox. In our experience, archiving emails based on their "received" (or "sent") date is the most straightforward (and easy to remember) way to archive messages. 

The best way to do this is using Outlook on the Web,(https://outlook.office.com) as this moves messages directly on the mail server. IMPORTANT NOTE:  The moving of mail between accounts can be done on any computer (Mac, Windows, or Linux) and using any browser (Edge, Chrome, Firefox, etc.). 

Why not do this in my Outlook client?  There's a long technical explanation, but the short version is that there is a lag between what you see in Outlook (whether on Mac or Windows) and what's on the server. The lag is minimal when just reading and replying to email.  But when you're moving large amounts of email between accounts, this lag makes every action take longer, and if too many moves are done at the same time, can even cause mailbox corruption in the worst case.  If you really want to use the Outlook client, then you should move ONE bunch of mail at a time, and wait an hour or so for that move to complete before moving another group of emails.

The Basic Steps to archiving / moving email

1. Go to https://outlook.office.com to log into Outlook on the Web
2. If you have not already done so, add the secondary (archive) mailbox to your Outlook on the Web account. 
   • See Open and use a shared mailbox in Outlook - scroll down to the section titled "Add the shared mailbox so it displays under your primary mailbox"
3. Create the appropriate folder in the archive / secondary mailbox
4. Search for messages
5. Move the messages to the archive mailbox

Create the receiving folder

In the archive mailbox, create a folder with the same name, and in the same location, as the "sending" folder in the mailbox. So, if you're moving messages from a folder called "Project 1" that exists under the "Inbox" folder, then in the archive mailbox, create a folder called "Project 1" under the Inbox.  

Having this already done when moving messages makes that process easier.  It also makes finding archived messages much easier, as the folder structure of the archive mailbox matches the primary mailbox. 

 

Searching for messages by date

1. Open the search filter box: In your mailbox, point your cursor at the right end of the "Search" box, and a small gray box with 3 lines will appear.  
   
   
   
   
2. Click on the gray box and a drop-down window with a number of options for filtering your email will appear:
   
   
    
3. Pick a start and end date by clicking on the first "Select a date" field (and repeating for the end date):
   
   
    
   
   • Initially, the calendar drop-down will show the current month and year, with individual dates in a calendar format.  
   • To change month, you can either:
     • Click on the up (previous month) or down (next month) buttons
     • Click on the month and year text (orange circle), and it will change to show just the current year, with the months listed.  Click on a month to go to the calendar format for that month. 
   • To pick a different year: 
     1. Click on the "month and year" text twice, it will change to show a number of years. 
     2. Click on the year that you want, then on the month, then select the specific date. 
          
4. Search.  When you're finished, click on the blue Search box. 
   
   
5. Expand or limit the search:  You can click on the folder name to the right of the search bar to either limit the search to the current folder or expand the search to all folders. 
   
   
    
   • NOTE: If you thought you limited the search to the current folder but items appear from all folders, it may mean that no matching items were found in the current folder.  If this happens, you may see a message like this (except it won't be circled in red!): 
     
     

Moving messages

Once you have your search done, you'll need to move the messages to the secondary mailbox.   

1. Select the messages to move.   Click on the square next to "All" to select all messages.
   
   
    
   • NOTE:  If there are many messages, Clicking on the "Select all" box all will only select the amount loaded into memory.  If you scroll down, you'll find that the messages or conversations stop being selected at a certain point.  DO NOT SELECT ADDITIONAL MESSAGES or CONVERSATIONS - if you do, the move takes MUCH longer.  You'll just need to repeat this step multiple times to move all of the messages that meet your criteria. 
      
2. Select the receiving folder.  Right-click on any selected message to bring up a menu. 
   1. Select Move from the context menu. 
   2. At the bottom of the menu, you'll see the list of additional mailboxes that have been added to your Outlook.  Click on the archive mailbox. 
      • NOTE: The "Search In" box will change from "Search for a folder" (this indicates that the folders listed are in YOUR mailbox) to "Search in [archive mailbox name]".  
      • If you're in a folder other than a main top-level folder, AND you've made a corresponding folder in the archive mailbox, then the folder you want should appear at the top.  If not, you can select Move to a different folder...
   3. Click on the folder where you want the items to move. 

Depending on how many messages you're moving, and how large they are, the move process can take anywhere from 1-2 seconds to 30 minutes to complete.  

Repeat the process as needed for each folder that you wish to archive.

Advanced - If you need an immediate impact on space

Sometimes, a mailbox has just hit a "milestone" of storage (at 99 GB, you can no longer send email, and at 100 GB, you can no longer send or receive email), and immediate remediation is necessary.  

As in the example above, the larger goal for this exercise is to move ALL email from a particular time period to an archive folder.  But we can make a faster difference by targeting the LARGEST email within that time frame first. 

Target the largest emails - basic steps

1. Figure out which folder(s) contain the most items
2. Create the receiving folder(s)
3. Find the largest items in the largest folders
4. Move individual emails that fall within the time period of email to be moved
   • For instance, if you will be moving ALL email from 1/1/2015 through 12/31/2019, then we'll look for the largest emails from 2015-2019 to move first

What folder(s) have the most storage? 

1. Log into Outlook on the web (https://outlook.office.com)
   • NOTE:  If you are doing this for a mailbox other than your own, you'll need to open that mailbox in a separate window for this step - see Open and use a shared mailbox in Outlook, and scroll down to "Open the shared mailbox in a separate browser window" for instructions.
2. Click on the "Settings" gear icon in the upper right corner
3. Select Account, then Storage
   
   
   
   
4. A list of folders will appear, sorted by size.  Junk Email and Deleted Items are always at the top.  The third folder listed will be the largest in terms of storage, so that's where you should start. 
5. Take a screenshot (Windows or Mac) of the list and paste it into a Word document or a graphics program so you can reference it.
6. You can then close the settings window by clicking on the "X" in the upper right corner

Create the receiving folder

In the archive mailbox, create a folder with the same name, and in the same location, as the "sending" folder in the mailbox. So, if you're moving messages from a folder called "Project 1" that exists under the "Inbox" folder, then in the archive mailbox, create a folder called "Project 1" under the Inbox.  

Having this already done when moving messages makes that process easier.  It also makes finding archived messages much easier, as the folder structure of the archive mailbox matches the primary mailbox. 

Filter for attachments and Sort email by size

1. If you have not already done so, add the secondary (archive) mailbox to your Outlook on the Web account. 
   • See Open and use a shared mailbox in Outlook - scroll down to the section titled "Add the shared mailbox so it displays under your primary mailbox"
2. Go to the biggest folder (remember, this is the 3rd folder in the list, after "Deleted Items" and "Junk Email") in the primary mailbox's folder list
3. Filter for attachments. Click on the "Filter" button, and select Has files - Attachments are what take up the most space in emails
4. Arrange by size, largest on top: Next to the "Filter" icon, you'll see how the email is currently sorted (red circle, below). This will likely read "By Date" - click on this and select By Size
5. Click on By Size again to select the ordering.  In the "Sort order" section, select Largest on top
   1. You should now see that the emails are arranged in groups, based on size.  
      
      

Move individual emails to the archive folder

• Click on the Select icon to the left of "Filter". This will display check boxes that you can click to select individual messages to be moved.
• Look down the list of emails and find emails that fit the time frame that you want to archive. 
  • Example: If you're archiving messages older than 5 years and the current year is 2025, then only select messages from today's date in 2020 and before. 
  • Start with the messages in the "Enormous" and the "Very Large" categories.  Moving just a few messages of this size can make an immediate difference!  
• Select the receiving folder.  Right-click on any selected message to bring up a menu. 
  1. Select Move from the context menu. 
  2. At the bottom of the menu, you'll see the list of additional mailboxes that have been added to your Outlook.  Click on the archive mailbox. 
     • NOTE: The "Search In" box will change from "Search for a folder" (this indicates that the folders listed are in YOUR mailbox) to "Search in [archive mailbox name]".  
     • If you're in a folder other than a main top-level folder, AND you've made a corresponding folder in the archive mailbox, then the folder you want should appear at the top.  If not, you can select Move to a different folder...
  3. Click on the folder where you want the items to move. 

 

How to avoid running out of space in the future?

The answer is surprisingly simple:  Stop sending attachments, as attachments are what take up space in an email account.  Rather than sending attachments, do this instead:

• Upload the file to be shared to a cloud storage service such as Google Drive or Box or OneDrive (or create a shared folder)
• Create a link to the shared file or folder
• Send the link in your email

In addition to saving space in your mailbox, sending links to files or folders has a secondary benefit: control.  You can control who has access to the files you share, and what kind of access they have. Nearly all online storage services allow you to specify who has access, or to create a link that will make the file available to anyone with the link. You can also decide if someone can edit the file, download the file, or merely view the file.  And you can also remove access to the shared file at any time.  Once an attachment is sent by email, you lose all control over what the recipient does with the file.  

If you need help creating a shared folder (or something like a Box "Team" folder), contact SCS Computing staff at scs-computing@illinois.edu and we'll be happy to discuss your needs with you.