How to enable Office 365 email archiving

Email is the primary communication channel in most organizations, and teams rely on it for reference, audits, compliance, and legal needs. But with limited mailbox space and the growing volume of communication, users eventually have to delete old emails, sometimes missing them when they’re needed most.

This is where email archiving comes in handy. The Microsoft 365 email archive feature (previously Office 365 email archive) creates a secondary, accessible mailbox without using primary mailbox space, providing users with additional storage for their old emails that would otherwise be discarded. By default, Microsoft 365 email archiving is disabled and must be manually enabled. User mailboxes licensed with an Exchange Online Plan 1 provides 50GB of archive storage, while Plan 2 and Exchange Online Archiving subscriptions offer unlimited storage via auto-expanding archiving.

This article explains how to enable Microsoft 365 email archiving for mailboxes, manage archives effectively, and streamline the process using the Exchange admin center (EAC), PowerShell, and M365 Manager Plus, a dedicated Microsoft 365 administration tool.

Method 1: How to enable Exchange Online archiving using the Exchange Admin Center

Prerequisites

You need the Exchange Administrator role for the account you use to sign in to the EAC.

Steps

1. Log in to the EAC and navigate to Recipients > Mailboxes.
2. Select the user mailbox for which you want to enable Exchange Online archiving for.
3. Navigate to Others and click Manage mailbox archive.
4. Toggle Mailbox archive status to Enabled and provide a name for your Exchange Online archive mailbox.

Limitation to consider

This method requires enabling archiving one mailbox at a time. You have to repeat this process individually for every user if you are using the standard interface, which can be time-consuming for large organizations. To enable Exchange Online archiving for multiple users at once, use PowerShell or M365 Manager Plus' Enable Archive management task.

Method 2: How to enable archive mailbox in Microsoft 365 using Exchange Online PowerShell (Enable-Mailbox)

Prerequisites

Before using Exchange Online PowerShell, please verify that:

1. The Exchange Administrator role is applied to the account you use to sign in to Exchange Online PowerShell.
2. You are connected to the Exchange Online PowerShell module.
   1. To check if the Exchange Online PowerShell module is installed, use this script:
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                                              Get-Module -ListAvailable ExchangeOnlineManagement
                                          

   2. If it does not return a value, you will have to install the module. To install the Exchange Online PowerShell module, run this script:
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                                              Install-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement -Scope CurrentUser
                                          

   3. To connect to Exchange Online PowerShell, run this script:
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                                              Connect-ExchangeOnline
                                          

Using Enable-Mailbox to enable Exchange Online archive in Microsoft 365

Use this syntax to enable Exchange Online archiving for a single mailbox:

Enable-Mailbox -Identity "user@domain.com" -Archive
                            

To bulk-enable Microsoft 365 email archiving for all users without an archive mailbox, combine Enable-Mailbox with Get-Mailbox, as shown below:

Get-Mailbox -Filter {ArchiveStatus -Eq "None"} -ResultSize Unlimited |
Enable-Mailbox -Archive
                            

Using the new Get-EXOMailbox cmdlet per Microsoft's recommendation

Microsoft recommends using Get-EXOMailbox instead of Get-Mailbox in Exchange Online. The EXO cmdlets are optimized for the cloud service, offer better throttling management, and will continue to be updated, whereas the older cmdlets are maintained mainly for backward compatibility.

Use this syntax to retrieve the users without an Exchange Online archive mailbox and enable Exchange Online archiving for them:

Get-EXOMailbox -Filter "ArchiveStatus -eq 'None'" -Properties ArchiveStatus |
Select-Object DisplayName, UserPrincipalName, ArchiveStatus
Get-EXOMailbox -Filter "ArchiveStatus -eq 'None'" |
ForEach-Object { Enable-Mailbox -Identity $_.UserPrincipalName -Archive }
                            

Supported parameters

The following table lists key parameters commonly used with the Get-Mailbox, Get-EXOMailbox, and Enable-Mailbox cmdlets when enabling or managing Microsoft 365 email archiving. These parameters help you retrieve mailbox details, validate archive status, and automate archive mailbox enablement across your Exchange Online environment.

Method 3: How to enable archive mailbox using M365 Manager Plus

1. Log in to M365 Manager Plus and navigate to Management > Mailbox Management and select Enable / Disable Mailbox Archive.
2. Select the Enable radio button and assign an Archive Name.
3. Enter the display names of the mailboxes you want to configure Exchange Online archiving for and click Find, or upload a CSV with the display names using CSV Import and click Import CSV.
4. After finalizing the list of mailboxes you want to configure Exchange Online archiving for, click Apply.

Note: You can use the Archive Mailboxes Size report in M365 Manager Plus to check the current Exchange Online archive status and size of your mailboxes.

Manage your Exchange Online archive mailboxes and more

M365 Manager Plus helps you view, monitor, and control Microsoft 365 email archive settings across your Exchange Online environment. The mailbox management capabilities in M365 Manager Plus help you view, monitor, and control archive mailboxes across your Microsoft 365 environment.

Important tips

Frequently asked questions