Overview
Learn how to clean up your Outlook 2010 mailbox for better performance and to ensure you do not exceed your allocated server space.
Critical Concepts
Keep your mailbox clean by:
- Emptying out your Deleted Items folder
- Using AutoArchive to move messages over 6 months old from your Exchange server mailbox to a mailbox on your local computer.
Note: Archived messages will not be viewable through Outlook Web Access because they are no longer stored on the Exchange server.
Steps to Take
Empty Deleted Items folder
To empty out your Deleted Items folder:
- Right click on the Deleted Items folder
- Click on Empty Folder
To set Outlook 2010 to automatically empty your Deleted Items folder when you exit the program:
- Go to the File menu and click on Options
- Click Advanced and
- Under Outlook start and exit, check the box marked Empty Deleted Items folders when exiting Outlook
- Click OK
Set up AutoArchiving
- In the main Outlook 2010 window, click on the File menu and select Options.
- Go to Advanced, and click on the AutoArchive Settings button.
- Change your settings. We recommend that you:
- Check all checkboxes
- Run AutoArchive every 14 days
- Clean out items older than 6 months
- Move files to a local folder on your computer

- Click OK
- Optional: If you filter your mail into multiple folders, you may want to set different AutoArchive schedules for each mail folder:
- Right click on the email folder
- Select Properties
- Select the AutoArchive tab.
- Select "Archive this folder using these settings."
- After you have made the appropriate changes, click "OK" to save the changes.
- The next time you see the message "Auto Archive Old Items Now?" all of your old messages will be moved to Archived Folders.
Manually run AutoArchive
- Go to the File menu and select Info
- Click on Cleanup Tools
- Click on Mailbox Cleanup
- Click on the Auto Archive button
Accessing the Archived Items folder
- The Archived Folders will not appear until you have successfully archived your old messages for the first time.
