After creating, linking, and enforcing a GPO to auto-archive users' email, I am noticing some strange behavior. One user, who archived regularly, is missing all previously archived messages, which were gone after the GPO took effect. The only folders under Archive Folders are Sent and Deleted. All other folders are missing. I am in the process of looking in every nook and cranny of his machine, to be sure Outlook wasn't pointed to a different location for the archive. Nothing is standing out immediately. The user's OST file is roughly 4GB, while his MBStore is under 2GB on the server. The PST file is roughly 1GB, created by the GPO, but only "Sent" and "Deleted" are appearing. The client is Outlook 2007, Exchange is 2003 SBS, and Server is 2003 (for GPO and AD purposes). Any insight would be greatly appreciated! -Dave

Hi, As the article mentioned, when you manage your Outlook 2007 through group policy, maybe you will miss some information if you are using another Archiving solution. Best regards, SerenaPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks for the response Serena! Unfortunately, that is the only backup solution this user has. I have seen it happen on other users' machines where a second "Archive Folders" will be created, due to their original archive residing somewhere other than the default. For these users, when the archive is created, it will only archive sent items, while their original remains intact. I am thinking the user is not being straightforward, as all other users have had additional archives created, or appended to... not deleted. There may have been no archives present at all previously. Unfortunately, this doesn't say much as to why all other archives are only doing sent items, but that is another thread! Thanks again, I'll keep looking into this one.

Just a suggestion and my point of view, don't use the archiving function in outlook, it will save into psts and you won't have any control over it and they will get easily corrupted. And these types of "support case" won't appear Instead save all mails into the mailbox and if necessary add additional disk to the server or use 3rd part archiving solutions if there are any legal requirementsJonas Andersson MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007/2010 | MCITP: EMA 2007/2010 | MCSE/MCSA Blog: http://www.testlabs.se/blog

I did find the unfortunate answer. Forgive me, as I have been on vacation without internet for the past 10 days. I ended up going from machine to machine, propagating the autoarchive settings, from the GPO, to all folders. It took around 20 sec per machine, so it wasn't all that painful. The downside is that, yes, they are using PST files, and I know the hazards of that. Unfortunately, until the upgrade is made from SBS to Enterprise, I only have xx space to work with in exchange. Thanks for the help everyone! -Dave