How to create an archive mailbox in Office 365

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Summary

This article gives you an overview of the supported options for creating and enabling archive mailbox features in Microsoft Office 365.

More Information

Create an archive mailbox for a cloud-based mailbox

Cloud-based mailboxes are mailboxes that were either created directly in Office 365 or created as the result of directory synchronization. Users connect directly to Exchange Online to access the mailbox data. Administrators can use the Exchange Control Panel to create an archive mailbox for user mailboxes.

Users can use the archive mailbox, also called a personal archive, to store historical messaging data by moving or copying messages from their primary cloud-based mailbox to their archive mailbox. The archived messages reside in the cloud, and users can access it from any computer by using Microsoft Outlook 2010 or Outlook Web App.

To create an archive mailbox, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to the Office 365 portal as an administrator.
  2. Click Admin, and then under Exchange Online, click Manage.
  3. Click Users & Groups, and then click Mailboxes.
  4. Locate and double-click the mailbox that you want to modify.
  5. In the mailbox details window, expand Mailbox Features, select Archive, and then click Enable.
  6. Click Save two times.

Create a mailbox in a hybrid deployment

For organizations that have a hybrid deployment, a limited set of scenarios is supported to create archive mailboxes. These scenarios are as follows:

  • Primary cloud-based mailbox with a cloud-based archive mailbox
  • Primary on-premises mailbox with a cloud-based archive mailbox
  • Primary on-premises mailbox with an on-premises archive mailbox

Organizations that have a hybrid deployment can use the Exchange Management Console on the on-premises coexistence server to manage mailboxes in Exchange Online. Customers who are in a hybrid deployment scenario can use the following steps to configure an archive mailbox for users:

  1. On the on-premises coexistence server, open the Exchange Management Console.
  2. In the consolde tree, expand Recipient Configuration, and then click Mailbox.
  3. Double-click the mailbox for which you want to enable the Archive feature.
  4. Click the Mailbox Features tab, then click Enable Archive.

Note If the Enable Archive option is unavailable, you do not have a client access license (CAL) for enabling this feature. Contact your administrator for assistance.

For steps on how to create an archive mailbox for a cloud-based mailbox, see the steps in the "Create an archive mailbox for a cloud-based mailbox" section of this article.

For steps on how to create an archive mailbox for a user who has an on-premises mailbox, see the following Microsoft website: Enable a Personal Archive for an Existing Mailbox

For more information about how to enable archive mailboxes see the following Microsoft website: https://help.outlook.com/en-us/140/ff628726.aspx?sl=1

Applies To

Microsoft Office 365 for Enterprise