M365 Archive limits

[Velvis]

A client's archive mailbox is pushing 100gb. Is there a way to increase this?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Which specific license do they have? Either way, a license that has archiving, just enable auto archiving..it's done on the server side.
M365 Business Premium for example, will auto archiving by default another 100 gigs, and if you enable "auto expanding"..it'll go up to 1.5 TB. For a brief period they were advertising as "unlimited archiving"...but they kinda capped that. It's "online archiving" only...doesn't stay offline in Outlook.

 

[HCHTech]

It's "online archiving" only...doesn't stay offline in Outlook.

When you do this, how are these archives accessed? Can they be searched? I know at one time there was an 'online archive' folder in Outlook that only pulled down content when you directed it to, but I don't have anyone doing this now - we've been doing offline auto-archiving to a PST for our pack-rat clients.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

When you do this, how are these archives accessed? Can they be searched? I know at one time there was an 'online archive' folder in Outlook that only pulled down content when you directed it to, but I don't have anyone doing this now - we've been doing offline auto-archiving to a PST for our pack-rat clients.

Still shows up in Outlook, it's just....you can only view the contents while online,search, etc. You can still drag/drop email around 'tween it and the primary inbox folders. So, if you're offline (not connected to the internet)...you can't use it. Never had that be an issue.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yeah, one of my SOPs is to enable archiving. Sadly the tenant config switch to automatically enable archiving doesn't seem to work...

But the standard Exchange Online Plan 1 mailbox is 50gb with a 50gb archive, and by default it moves mail older than 2 years for you. It never deletes it though, so users still have to manage the archive unless you set a policy to do that.

When you upgrade to Exchange Online Plan 2, you get a 100gb mailbox, and a 100gb archive, that will grow assuming you punch into powershell on the tenant and enable auto-expanding archiving. It limits at 1.5tb.

The primary issue with the above is the archive will only grow once a month, so if it's growing too fast you can still run out.

There is no way on M365 to get a mailbox larger than 100gb. That's it... no more. That's a TON of mail though, and if you think you need a mailbox that big the problem isn't the mailbox, the problem is the process.

Users will see their archive as another mailbox, very similar to how a shared mailbox appears in Outlook.

 

[HCHTech]

Ok, so here's a dumb question: Can you manage just the archive folder by exporting out old mail to a PST as a manual task? It looks to me like this isn't really a solution for the "keep it forever" folks I deal with. Admittedly, we have coddled them by doing the offline archiving. I have a whole list of these people. Once a year or so, I make a new archive file and rename the old one as "2019 archives". Then next year I make a new one and rename the existing one as "2020 archives". Some folks have these annual PST files back to 2012 - and when I try to get rid of them, they absolutely forbid it! I guarantee that the total size of these old PSTs are >100GB for at least the worst hoarders of the lot.

One of these guys told me he is finally retiring next year - I can't wait.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@HCHTech Yes, when you do the export to file process, there's a point where you select the folders to export. The Online Archive - email address item is in the list as its own mailbox.

As for the rest, sell them a cloud based archival solution with unlimited duration and plug it in. Exporting PST files is a waste of time. That being said, if they're insane enough to pay you well for that time go for it! I'm all for sucking $$ out of the stupid, just after I present them the sane option.

Here's where you will run into trouble...

Outlook has a 50gb limit. Let that sink in... OUTLOOK HAS A FIFTY GIGABYTE LIMIT.

Every single exchange attached mailbox on a given account is shoved into the same OST file, and as such the local Outlook can only store 50GB total before it pukes. At which point you're deleting OST files and setting the account to keep less local mail to keep things spinning.

If you attempt a mailbox export, Outlook won't export all things, just the downloaded things. So exporting anything more than 50GB gets EXTREMELY difficult as you work through each sub folder one at a time.

I cannot emphasis enough how important it is to break this keep it forever habit. The only thing to be done with email beyond 7 years is the dust bin. MS sets that as the default for many reasons. I can make a solid argument for 5 years. But some clients I have nuking stuff at 18 months, because otherwise things just won't work as they insist on emailing large pictures around everywhere.

So if they really want to keep it forever... Sell them a Synology with HUGE DRIVES and let it suck everything up and set it to never delete. When they run out of space, sell them a bigger one.

If they don't want to buy the magic box, DropSuite + Mailarchive does infinite retention and storage. MSRP $4/mailbox/month.

 

[Velvis]

Which specific license do they have? Either way, a license that has archiving, just enable auto archiving..it's done on the server side.
M365 Business Premium for example, will auto archiving by default another 100 gigs, and if you enable "auto expanding"..it'll go up to 1.5 TB. For a brief period they were advertising as "unlimited archiving"...but they kinda capped that. It's "online archiving" only...doesn't stay offline in Outlook.

Can the auto archiving be turned on from within m365 administration or does it require the powershell command stuff?

 

[Sky-Knight]

Can the auto archiving be turned on from within m365 administration or does it require the powershell command stuff?

Automatically Expanding Archiving can only be enabled via powershell. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/m...e-autoexpanding-archiving?view=o365-worldwide

It's a one line command once you're logged into the tenant

Set-OrganizationConfig -AutoExpandingArchive

You can also enable the expanding archiving for an individual user with this

Enable-Mailbox <user mailbox> -AutoExpandingArchive

Now... I get paranoid so when I flip the organization config switch I do this right afterward:

Get-Mailbox | Enable-Mailbox -AutoExpandingArchive

That command just grabs all mailboxes and pushes the individual switch. New mailboxes get the default from the organization config.

Now after you do this you need to actually enable the archives, which can be done via the EAC.

Enable archive mailboxes for Microsoft 365

Learn how to enable or disable archive mailboxes to support your organization's message retention, eDiscovery, and hold requirements.

learn.microsoft.com

You can also use powershell, the provided script to turn everyone on that isn't already on is very helpful

Get-Mailbox -Filter {ArchiveGuid -Eq "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" -AND RecipientTypeDetails -Eq "UserMailbox"} | Enable-Mailbox -Archive

 

[HCHTech]

I'm all for sucking $$ out of the stupid, just after I present them the sane option.

Hahaha. I never put it that way out loud, but I'm with you there.

Every single exchange attached mailbox on a given account is shoved into the same OST file, and as such the local Outlook can only store 50GB total before it pukes.

Well, apparently Outlook is just fine with one <50GB exchange account and 11 attached PSTs - that's the way my worst offender has been working for years. And it gets worse - he doesn't even use folders! Once he "deals with" an email, he deletes it, so all of those archive PSTs only have data in the sent items and deleted items folders. I shake my head every time I make out the invoice for spending time on his email.

He was doing "inbox zero" long before that term was invented, I half-envy him looking at my own inbox (es) - haha. Every time I have the "this is crazy you have to find another way" conversation, his argument is "it works". All he has to do is search for the email he wants. I just sigh and make another file. He's the business owner, so I do what he wants, warn him appropriately and keep making out those invoices.

As for the other email hoarders in my client list, they are usually the ones with actual problems, lots of folders, don't really understand how it all works, they just refuse to deal with it. I had one last year that got a corrupted archive PST that was about 20GB in size - they decided not to pay for the recovery attempt and just abandoned that file. I thought that would cure them, but they just started over with the same bad practices. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Online archives are not cached locally, zero impact on the OST in Outlook.

 

[Velvis]

Automatically Expanding Archiving can only be enabled via powershell. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/m...e-autoexpanding-archiving?view=o365-worldwide

It's a one line command once you're logged into the tenant

Set-OrganizationConfig -AutoExpandingArchive

You can also enable the expanding archiving for an individual user with this

Enable-Mailbox <user mailbox> -AutoExpandingArchive

Now... I get paranoid so when I flip the organization config switch I do this right afterward:

Get-Mailbox | Enable-Mailbox -AutoExpandingArchive

That command just grabs all mailboxes and pushes the individual switch. New mailboxes get the default from the organization config.

Now after you do this you need to actually enable the archives, which can be done via the EAC.

Enable archive mailboxes for Microsoft 365

Learn how to enable or disable archive mailboxes to support your organization's message retention, eDiscovery, and hold requirements.

learn.microsoft.com

You can also use powershell, the provided script to turn everyone on that isn't already on is very helpful

Get-Mailbox -Filter {ArchiveGuid -Eq "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" -AND RecipientTypeDetails -Eq "UserMailbox"} | Enable-Mailbox -Archive

This was very helpful thank you.

How do I confirm that this users email is now set to auto expanding archiving ?

 

[Sky-Knight]

This was very helpful thank you.

How do I confirm that this users email is now set to auto expanding archiving ?

Get-Mailbox -Identity <email> | fl AutoExpandingArchiveEnabled

Or you use the Exchange Admin Console to watch the archive size, it'll grow but only once a month.

I did confirm a bit ago that you have to manually enable the archiving feature for each mailbox, so my paranoia is there for a reason. My own tenant I enabled the tenant wide feature ages ago... and when I looked my mailbox didn't have the feature enabled. Checked another mailbox and the same. So the organization configuration only applies on mailbox creation.