Troubleshoot backing up and deleting using AutoArchive

Your archive file may have been moved, renamed, or deleted.

• If the file has been moved, search your hard drive for it. An archive file, by default, has the extension .pst. If your file is missing, try searching for it without an extension in case it has no extension or a different extension. Once you find it, move the file back to its original location.
• If the file has been renamed, right-click the file in Microsoft Windows Explorer, click Rename on the shortcut menu, and then type the original name of the file.
• If the file has been deleted, check your Recycle Bin to see if it is still there. If it is not there, click the File menu in Microsoft Outlook, and then click Archive. Or, click the Tools menu, click Options, click the Other tab, and then click AutoArchive. Specify the options you want. This will create another archive file; however, it will not contain any previously archived items.

The setting to display Archive Folders may have been turned off. However, you can turn it back on.

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Other tab.
2. Click AutoArchive.
3. Select the Show archive folder in folder list check box.

   The folder won't display in the Folder List until the next time AutoArchive runs.

You may have turned it on for an individual folder but turned off the global AutoArchive setting. To turn on the global setting, on the Tools menu, click Options, click the Other tab, and then click AutoArchive. Make sure the Run AutoArchive every x days check box is selected and that you have specified the number of days.

Microsoft Outlook can only archive files when they are stored in Outlook folders, not in file folders on your hard disk. If the files are attached to an e-mail message or other Outlook item, Outlook will archive the files.

If the Run AutoArchive every x days check box is not available in the AutoArchive dialog box, the system administrator may have disabled it so that retention policies can be enforced.

When AutoArchive is on, the default settings apply to all folders. You can specify different archive settings for each folder individually.

When you archive, the original items are moved to the archive file, but the original folders are left in place even if they are empty. To remove the empty folder, right-click the folder, and then click Delete folder name on the shortcut menu.

One of the following conditions may apply:

• You are trying to archive to a file on a server that has run out of disk space. Contact your server administrator.
• You are archiving to a file on your hard disk, and you have run out of disk space. Delete old files to free disk space.
• You have exceeded the file size limitation set by your administrator. Contact your system administrator.

When you archive items in a Calendar folder, recurring items are not archived if any occurrences are scheduled after the archive date. Old occurrences of a recurring item in a Calendar folder are needed to keep track of future occurrences.

When you select a folder to AutoArchive, if the folder contains items that you have modified, the items are archived according to the dates on which they were modified, not according to the date the items were created.

Moving an item using Outlook Web Access or while online with Microsoft Exchange Server changes the modification date. The modification date for items moved between folders when offline or using Cached Exchange Mode is not changed.

If you do not share messages and items with people who use Microsoft Outlook on computers that run in other languages, you can run Outlook in either Unicode or non-Unicode mode for an e-mail account on Microsoft Exchange Server. A disadvantage of running in non-Unicode mode is that the Offline Folder file (.ost) used for the profile will be created in the format that does not offer greater storage capacity for items and folders. Therefore, if the size limit of the Offline Folder file is a concern for you, then you should run Outlook in Unicode mode. To switch to Unicode mode, contact your administrator.

If you work in a multinational organization or share messages and items with people who use Outlook on systems that run in other languages, Outlook should run in Unicode mode using an Exchange server e-mail account. This will also ensure that Unicode-capable .pst files that have the capability to store multilingual Unicode data are used for the profile. To switch to Unicode mode, contact your administrator.

When Outlook runs in non-Unicode mode on the Exchange server, the code page-based system is used for character mapping. In a code page-based system, a character entered in one language may not map to the same character in another language; therefore, if Outlook runs in non-Unicode mode on the Exchange server, you are likely to see incorrect characters, including question marks. Additional information on scripts and code pages is available in Outlook Help.

For example, consider two people— one is running the English version of the Microsoft Windows XP operating system with the Latin code page and the second person is running the Japanese version of the Microsoft Windows XP operating system with the Japanese code page. The second person creates a meeting request in the Japanese version of Outlook 2002 and sends it to first person. When the person using the English version of Outlook 2002 opens the meeting request, the code points of the Japanese code page are mapped to unexpected or nonexistent characters in the Latin script, and the resulting text is unintelligible. Therefore, in multilingual environments, it is recommended that Outlook run in Unicode mode on the Exchange server.

Note  The format of the body of Outlook items has been Unicode since Outlook 2000, and the body can be read irrespective of the language in which the item was created. However, Outlook data— such as the To and Subject lines of messages, or the ContactName and BusinessTelephoneNumber properties of contact items— will be limited to characters defined by your code page if Outlook runs in non-Unicode using an Exchange server e-mail account.