Autoarchive doesn't work

[Gary Burton]

I have Outlook 2002, and it is up to date. I have my "Deleted Items" folder set up for autoarchive every 4 months, but I have items in that folder almost a year old.

Here is what I have: If I right-click on my "Deleted Items" folder, select "Properties", and select the "AutoArchive" tab; I see the following:
* Archive folders using these settings:
Clean out items older than 4 months.
* Move items to:
C:\Documents and Settings\Gary Burton\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\archive.pst

I confirmed that the folder exists, and I confirmed that I have selected "Run AutoArchive every 7 days" in my options.

Other info:
I don't seem to be having this problems with my other Outlook folders.
From the Outlook help file, I found the following: "When you select a folder to AutoArchive, if the folder contains items that you have moved from another location, or that you have modified, the items are archived according to the dates on which these actions occurred, not according to the date created." However, that doesn't explain it in my case.
Manual archive seems to work properly based upon a date that I select, but I want to use the automated function if possible.

What could be causing this problem?

I also have a related question. I displayed the "Do not archive" field in a separate column thinking that it may have been inadvertently set for the older messages. It doesn't seem to be the cause of my problem, but I don't understand it well enough to be sure. For most entries (including the oldest ones) there is nothing in that field. An empty box appears for a small number of them (unfinished messages not sent, and some others). When I click on the empty box, nothing happens. What is the significance of this field?

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello [MVP - Outlook]]

I would double check the modified dates on the items that aren't moving,
just in case...open an item, click File | Properties, and you'll see the
dates there.

The Do Not AutoArchive field may appear empty in a list view but if you
click there you should be able to switch the field to a "Yes" value (which
will usually appear as a checked box). You can also find this checkbox on
the Properties dialog box, and if you check the box there it should
definitely appear checked in the DNAA column in the list view. If the DNAA
setting is enabled for an item, that item will not be AutoArchived unless
your AA settings specifically state that DNAA items should be archived
anyway.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please
reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***


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[Gary Burton]

Please see responses below:

I would double check the modified dates on the items that aren't moving,
just in case...open an item, click File | Properties, and you'll see the
dates there.

Whenever I open one of those old messages and select properties, the date of modifcation becomes updated to the very minute I opened the message even though I have done nothing to modify the message. Therefore, I can't tell what the modified date was before I openned the message. Is there a way to get around that?

The Do Not AutoArchive field may appear empty in a list view but if you
click there you should be able to switch the field to a "Yes" value (which
will usually appear as a checked box). You can also find this checkbox on
the Properties dialog box, and if you check the box there it should
definitely appear checked in the DNAA column in the list view. If the DNAA
setting is enabled for an item, that item will not be AutoArchived unless
your AA settings specifically state that DNAA items should be archived
anyway.

Clicking in the field does nothing, whether there is a box there or not. No checkmarks -- no nothing. Usually there is no box. The only thing I can identify that causes a box to appear is when I begin to send a message, but change my mind and delete it without sending.

I do see the checkbox when I open properties, and it has not been checked in any of the old messagages I have looked at so far. I don't know how to specify that DNAA items should be archived anyway, but that doesn't seem to be relevent.

I'm still interested in your ideas. Got any more?

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello [MVP - Outlook]]

In

Please see responses below:



Whenever I open one of those old messages and select properties,
the date of modifcation becomes updated to the very minute I opened
the message even though I have done nothing to modify the message.
Therefore, I can't tell what the modified date was before I openned
the message. Is there a way to get around that?

Another method is to add the Modified field as a column in a list view of
the folder...then you should be able to see the modified date of the item
without opening it. It's odd that the modified date is changing when you
open the message, though -- I just tried the same thing with a message in my
Inbox that was sent, received and originally opened on June 24, and the
modified date was also June 24...and it didn't change. Maybe there's
something about your setup that's different than mine (and I wouldn't begin
to know how to troubleshoot that...there could be so many possibilities.
Perhaps someone else will see this and solve the mystery.)

Clicking in the field does nothing, whether there is a box there
or not. No checkmarks -- no nothing. Usually there is no box. The
only thing I can identify that causes a box to appear is when I begin
to send a message, but change my mind and delete it without sending.

I do see the checkbox when I open properties, and it has not been
checked in any of the old messagages I have looked at so far. I
don't know how to specify that DNAA items should be archived anyway,
but that doesn't seem to be relevent.

I looked around at the various AutoArchive dialogs and actually the only
place you could specify that DNAA items should be archived anyway is by
doing a manual archive using the Archive command on the File menu. (And of
course, if you were to archive items by manually dragging them from one
message store to another, the DNAA items you selected would be moved.) The
key here is "Do Not AUTO Archive", so items marked as such would never be
moved automatically.

If you are not seeing checkboxes in that field in a list view, the items in
question are very likely not marked DNAA, as your own research has
suggested...I'm not sure why this happens but it's actually pretty common
for some items in a folder that have never been marked with a certain
property are just marked as "null" rather than the default value of
"yes/true" or "no/false" or whatever. The only other ways I know of to set
the DNAA on these items would be to do it through the properties dialog for
the item or to drag items from the "DNAA = null" group to the "DNAA = True
(or Yes)" group if you have set a view to group by DNAA status.

I'm still interested in your ideas. Got any more?

That's all I have for now, on this subject anyway Hopefully some of
what I've posted today will be helpful to you, though.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please
reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***

 

[Gary Burton]

Strange things are still happening.

When I showed the modified date as you suggested, I discovered that my
stuborn older items would still not archive. However when I attempted to
archive them, I discovered that the modified date changed to the time of the
archive attempt.

I seem to have made some progress in that most files are archived as
expected. That was probably always true, but I hat a fairly large number of
stuborn items that would not archive. I finally just deleted them, and am
hoping that I don't run into this again.

I think I'll give up now, but I really appreciate your efforts to help
me. You are very unselfish.

 

[Gary Burton]

I learned something else, just in case you have an input:

Lots of things change that "modified" date that shouldn't. I mentioned
that archiving changes it for some messages (the stuborn ones). Viewing the
message in the preview pane also changes it. Every time I click on an old
message, the "modified" date changes to today's date even though I am doing
nothing to modify it.

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello [MVP - Outlook]]

That's very bizarre indeed...I have no idea why you are running into that
problem. There are a few things that change the modified date by design,
such as moving a message to another folder, or replying to or forwarding a
message. But simply opening it or clicking on it should not change the
date.

If this behavior is not happening with newer items, hopefully it's just a
glitch with the older "stubborn" ones. I noticed after I upgraded to
Outlook 2003 and copied messages from my old Outlook 97-2002 format .PST
file to the new Unicode format .PST file used by OL2003, there were a bunch
of messages that wouldn't archive no matter what I did. I can't remember
now whether the modified date was changing constantly as you describe or
whether the items just refused to archive even though the modified date was
in the proper range (I think the latter scenario applied in my case)...but
it was annoying, and after awhile I just gave up and deleted them myself.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Messages sent to my e-mail address will NOT be answered -- please
reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***


In

 

[Gary Burton]

Looks like I'll have to do the same. Thanks again!