Archive your Emails

If you are Faculty or Staff at Canisius College, your campus email account ("username@canisius.edu") is supplied and managed through a program called Microsoft Exchange. By default, messages other people send to you are collected in your Inbox, while messages you send to others are filed in a Sent Items folder.

Exchange automatically deletes old emails according to the following rules:

Emails located in the "Inbox" and "Sent Items" folders are deleted after 120 days.
Emails located in the "Deleted Mail" folder are deleted after 30 days.

Messages stored within folders created by Faculty and Staff users are not deleted. So to save old emails, periodically move them out of your Inbox and Sent Items folders, into folders you created.

Are you a filer or a piler?

A filer is a person who typically creates folders for specific groups of messages. Examples might be for specific courses ("HIS 108A FA15") or projects ("Library Phase II") or from specific people or organizations ("Snack Food Subcommittee"). Other filers parse messages by dates, such as weeks, months, and years. Filers often remember to save messages they've received, but neglect to similarly archive messages they have sent. If a user wishes to save her or his sent messages, they must transfer those messages to another folder as well.

If you’re a filer, be sure that the received messages in your inbox, and the sent messages in your Sent Items folder are moved to these other folders before they reach 120 days old. Messages in the folders you create outside the Inbox or Sent Items folder will not be automatically deleted by Exchange.

Pilers are people who leave all of their received messages in the Inbox and their sent messages in the Sent Items folder. Pilers need to create at least one folder outside their Inbox and Sent Items folders, in which to store their old messages.

It is important to note that for archiving old messages, you do not want to create folders within the inbox folder. Subfolders or "child folders" within the inbox will be deleted after 120 days, along with any messages stored in them.

Below are instructions for creating folders, deleting unwanted messages, and moving messages you wish to save into other folders.

For Faculty and Staff who use Outlook 2010 or 2011, the "Desktop" versions of Outlook for PC and Mac:

To create a folder:

Right click on the name at the top of your folder list. This will be your Canisius College e-mail address. A menu will pop up.
From the pop up menu select New Folder.
Give your folder a name, for example 2012 Messages.
Click OK.

Preparing your Inbox and Sent Items folders:

Select messages for deletion.
1. To select non-contiguous messages hold down the control key and click on the messages you want to delete.
2. Right click a selected message and select delete from the pop up menu.
3. To select contiguous messages, select the first message you want to delete than hold down the Shift key and select the last message for deletion. You’ll see several messages selected.
4. Right click one of the selected messages and choose delete from the pop up menu.

Tip: If you’re a filer, select only15 or 20 messages at a time then delete them. Continue until your Inbox and sent mail folder contains only those messages you want to keep.

Move the remaining mail from your Inbox or Sent Items folder to your newly created folder(s):

Select the messages you want to move to a specific folder following the instructions above for choosing contiguous or non-contiguous messages.
Move the cursor over one of the selected messages and hold down the left mouse button.
Drag the selected messages to the folder of your choice.

Tip: If you’re a “piler” and are putting all of your message into a single folder (i.e.2012 messages) place your cursor in the pane with all of your messages and hold down the control key and press the letter “a” to select ALL message. Place your cursor on one of the selected messages, hold down the left mouse button and drag the messages to your folder.

For Faculty and Staff who use Outlook Web Application (OWA). This means you get to your email through my.canisius.edu or exchange.canisius.edu

Open the Outlook Web the way you usually do.

Deleting non-contiguous unneeded messages:
1. Click on those messages while holding down the control key. This will select that message.
2. Select 15 or 20 messages as described above.
3. Place your cursor over one of the selected messages and right click.
4. Choose Delete from the pop-up menu. This will delete all of the selected messages. Repeat until your Inbox in free of unneeded messages.
5. To delete contiguous messages, left click on the first message you want to delete, hold down the Shift key and select the last message you want to delete.
6. Place your cursor on any of the selected messages and right click.
7. A pop-up menu will appear and choose delete from the menu. Your messages will be deleted.

Create a new folder as follow:

In the upper left, right click on your account name, for example lastname, firstname.
In the pop-up menu select Create New Folder. You should see that Exchange creates that new folder just below the "Deleted Items" folder.
Name the folder; for example "2012 Messages" or "Department Meetings."

To archive your messages, do not store them in folders within your inbox. Instead, create them as folders separate from your inbox.

Once you created the folder you can now move your messages.

Click on the first message in your Inbox.
Press and hold the control key and press the letter “a” thus selecting messages in your Inbox. You may have to repeat this procedure if you have a lot of message in the Inbox. There is a limitation as to how many messages can be deleted or moved using this version of Outlook.
Place your cursor over any of the selected messages, hold down the left mouse button and drag these files over to the folder of your choice.
If you want to select non-contiguous messages hold done the control key while clicking on the messages you want.
Click on any of the selected and hold the left mouse button down and drag them to the folder of your choice.