Outlook 2013 - AutoArchive folder settings (permanently delete) not being observed

Question

I have Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 connecting to an Exchange mailbox (running Exchange 2016).

By default I don't archive e-mails. I have a set of folders (contained under the same root folder) that I want to deleted e-mails according to custom ages per folder. I have set these folders up with custom archive properties.

My problem is that when autoarchive runs the archive rules are not observed and no e-mails in scope are deleted.

My settings are as follows:

- Mailbox (default archive settings)
+- Notifications folder (default archive settings)
 +- Subfolder 1 (custom settings - delete anything older than 7 days)
 +- Subfolder 2 (custom settings - delete anything older than 3 months)

Default Autoarchive settings on the mailbox:

In the root of the mailbox I have a folder called Notifications - settings are as follows:

Under Notifications, I have several subfolders, each with their own archive settings, e.g.:

In the example above, when I run AutoArchive, I would expect the subfolder above to no longer have any e-mails in it that are older than 7 days. This is not the case (e-mails from months ago are in there).

Am I interpreting the AutoArchive functionality wrongly? I would appreciate any help.

Thanks.

Update (2019-03-11)

I have been playing around with settings and have made the change below to Default settings on the mailbox.

I then set up Notifications with "Archive items in this folder using the default settings"

The subfolder age settings are then picked up, but in-scope items are moved to the archive file and not permanently deleted, despite this being the setting on the subfolder properties.

At the moment I can live with the items I've asked to be permanently deleted being moved to the archive folder, but it is frustrating that this setting is not being observed - is this a known bug in Outlook 2013?

Answer 1

This seems like it is still a problem in 2022 with Office 365. Thanks for this article. I was attempting to do exactly what you were and running into the same problem. I stumbled across this post after going through pages of links and trying dozens of other "fixes". Your workaround worked for me. Thanks!!!

Answer 2

According this KB, by default AutoArchive feature checks the received date or the last modified date and time, whichever is later.

I think you could try to add the registry “ArchiveIgnoreLastModifiedTime” under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Preferences, restart the machine and then check if it would work. You could do manually archive via “File” – “Cleanup Tools” – “Archive”.