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Email Retention & Archives

DePaul maintains several different email retention policies depending on mailbox type. Please review the information below for a full explanation of the various retention policies. The Technology Support Center can answer any questions that you may have.

Primary Email Accounts

Email Retention Policy

  • ​Messages will move to the online archive 18 months from the original send/receive date.
  • Messages will be retained in the online archive indefinitely and will never be automatically deleted; however, the online archive is limited to a maximum of 50GB in size.
  • Exceptions: Items in 'Deleted Items', 'RSS Feeds', and 'Sync Issues' folders will be deleted after 90 days.

Accessing Your Archive

  • Your online archive is located in the navigation pane beneath your inbox, in most versions of the Microsoft Outlook Application as well as the online Outlook Web Application (OWA.) Note: Your online archive is not available in Outlook 2016 for Mac.

  • Your available archive space is shown in the bottom-left corner of the Outlook client when you are viewing a folder within the archive.

  • Only the owner of a mailbox has access to the archive, not users with delegate access.


Resource Accounts

Retention Policy Options

​Owners of resource accounts may choose from three email archive and retention policies.
  • 90-Day Retention Policy (Default)
  • 18-Month Archive and Retention Policy
  • Indefinite Archive and Retention Policy

​ ​90-Day ​18-Month ​Indefinite
Primary Mailbox Retention​ 90 days, then delete​ 90 days, then move to archive​ 90 days, then move to archive​
Archive Mailbox Retention​ no archive​ ​18 months, then delete never deleted automatically, but limited to 50GB size​
Exceptions​ ​N/A these folders have a 90-day retention limit: Deleted Items, RSS Feeds, & Sync Issues​ ​these folders have a 90-day retention limit: Deleted Items, RSS Feeds, & Sync Issues​
 The default 90-day policy will be applied to your account automatically. Owners may request a change in policy using the Email Retention Policy Change Request Form.

Accessing a Resource Account Archive

  • ​Resource accounts for which you are the owner will appear automatically in Outlook.  Only the owner of a mailbox has access to the archive, not users with delegate access.
  • Your online archive is located in the Outlook navigation pane beneath your inbox, alongside your primary inbox archive.
  • Your resource account's online archive is accessible from the Outlook desktop app  for Windows.  It is not available in Outlook 2016 for Mac or the Outlook Web App.
  • For resource accounts with either the 90-Day or 18-Month retention policies, each message will list an expiration date.  The expiration date can be found, depending on your version of Outlook, either in the email header or at the foot of the email.  The expiration date indicates the date when the message will be deleted from the primary mailbox (for 90-Day retention) or from the archive (for 18-Month retention).
  • For resource accounts with Indefinite retention policies, your available archive space is shown in the bottom-left corner of the Outlook client when you are viewing a folder within the archive.​



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