How to Find Old Emails in Microsoft 365: Easy Guide

Microsoft 365 services are widely used for personal and business purposes. Microsoft Outlook is one of the widely used services for effortless communication. The purpose of using these is to keep the mailbox organized and easily retrieve emails when needed. There are a large number of emails that come daily, so keeping them organized is an important task. Sometimes you do not find the old emails you are looking for. Microsoft 365 provides tools and features that help users to manage and search their emails efficiently. It comes with basic to advanced tools like eDiscovery which ensure that users can access their old emails. There can be several reasons such as accidental deletion of email, improper synchronization, and archive settings. This article will guide you through how to find old emails in Microsoft 365 along with the important considerations.

Table of Content

1. Find Old Emails Using Outlook Desktop App
2. Locate Old Emails Using OWA
3. Access Archived Emails in Microsoft 365
4. Important Points to Consider
5. Conclusion
6. FAQs

Find Old Emails Using Outlook Desktop App

Microsoft provides a feature called “Search Folders” which users can create to find their old emails easily. Users can select a specific timeframe for which they want to create a search folder. Follow the steps to create:

1. Open the Outlook desktop app and navigate to the “Folders tab”.
2. Select “Old Mail” from the organizing section using the “New Search Folder” window.
3. Specify the timeframe for your search which ranges from older than three months to a custom date range.
4. Click “OK” to create a search folder for your old emails according to your selected timeframe.
5. You can see the “Search Folder” in the “Navigation Pane”.

Locate Old Emails Using the OWA

This method will show how you can find your old emails in the Outlook web application. Below are the steps:

1. Go to https://outlook.live.com.
2. Sign in using your credentials. Click on the folder option, you will see a list of folders.
3. Go to the folder named with your email address, now you will see subfolders
4. Now you can find old emails using a specific folder named with inbox items names.

Check the deleted items folder in case you did not find the required emails. After a certain time, Microsoft removes the items from the deleted items folder. So, if the required emails are present you can restore them easily. Using this method you can easily find your old emails in Microsoft 365.

Access Archived Emails in Microsoft 365

Follow these easy steps to access and retrieve your archived emails.

1. Sign in using your credentials.
2. Go to the folder section under this and click on the archived folder to see the archived emails. You can also search for specific archived emails.
3. You can easily retrieve them to your inbox by simply selecting and dragging them.

Also Read: Microsoft 365 Tenant Restrictions: A Complete Guide

Important Points to Consider

1. Cache Exchange Mode- It is an Outlook setting that determines the period of emails for which they can be stored in local storage. Outlook desktop uses local storage for storing emails using the Exchange admin center services. You can follow the below steps to make the changes:

• Open the Outlook desktop application. Select the account you want to configure, if there are multiple accounts. Click on Change from the above menu.
• Using default, the users can store emails for one year, after they are deleted. Change the setting to “All” and click on “Next”. After successful configuration users can store their emails after the default one-year time period.

   2. Set Retention Policies- Administrators should set retention policies for email archiving and deletion. Steps to set retention policies:

• Access the Exchange Admin Center, go to the Compliance tab, and click on the retention policies.
• You can edit the existing policy or add a new one. By default, there is only one MRM policy

Conclusion

This article covers the methods to find old emails in Microsoft 365 along with important considerations. We have seen steps for both Outlook desktop and web applications. These approaches also have several drawbacks such as limited time recovery and others. To overcome all these drawbacks, we recommend using the above professional software. These methods will ensure that you can effectively manage and retrieve your old emails.

Also Read: How to Delegate Access in Outlook 365?

FAQs

1. Does Microsoft 365 delete old emails?

Outlook has an inbuilt AutoArchive feature that moves old emails to an archive folder by default and can also delete them after a certain period.

2. Does Microsoft 365 track emails older than 90 days?

You cannot keep track of emails after 90 days. You can also do an eDiscovery/Content search, but it will show emails that are currently available in the given mailbox.

3. Can I automate the archiving process in Outlook 365?

Yes, you can automate the archiving process by using the below steps:

• Open your Outlook Desktop or Web app.
• Navigate to File, then click > Options, and choose Advanced.
• Set preferences to run AutoArchive and where to store archived emails using the “AutoArchive” section

4. How often should I archive my emails in Outlook 365?

It totally depends on your email volume. Regular archiving helps you in various ways such as keeping your mailbox manageable and making it easy to find the old emails. You can archive your emails accordingly like monthly, quarterly, or annually.

5. Does Microsoft Outlook save old emails?

Microsoft Outlook is set to download emails for the past 1 year by default. You can export your emails using Outlook desktop or web app. Open your Outlook app, choose “Account settings” > Account Name and Sync settings, and move the slider to all.