Enable or Disable Office 365 Archive Mailbox Properly

# Complete Guide to Enable/Disable Archive Folder of Exchange Online One of the main use of Microsoft 365 in the organizations is to store and manage their data. Those who deal with huge amounts of emails regularly have to regularly archive them. Office 365 has its own in-built feature to archive mailboxes, which is called In-Place archive. In this article we are going to explain how you can enable or disable Office 365 archive mailbox. So, properly follow them. ## What is Archive Mailbox in Microsoft 365? Archive mailbox or **In-Place Archive** is a secondary mailbox where users can store their emails for an extended period of time. It allows you to save your emails longer than the primary mailbox. It is an optional mailbox which means you can be enabled or disabled according to your need. ## Benefits of Using Archive Mailbox Let’s see what advantages you will get when you do In-Place Archive in Exchange Online. * Usually archive mailboxes provide you 100 GB storage and you can expand up to 1.5 TB using the auto-expanding archiving. This way you can keep your multiple data securely. * By moving your old emails to archive, you can make your primary mailbox clutter-free and organized. * The In-Place Archive supports retention policies and legal hold. Therefore, it also helps you in data governance and compliance requirements. * Just like primary mailboxes, archive mailboxes can also easily search or access the data. * This archive feature is included with Microsoft 365 plans like E3, E5 and business premium. It does not take any extra charges for eligible users. Now it is time to see how you can enable or disable Office 365 archive mailbox. Before going through the process, there are some prerequisites that you must follow. ### Preparations Before the Methods * Check your administrative privileges. Go to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Click on **Roles** >> **Admin Roles** button. Then, check Exchange Administrator and Compliance Administrator. * You must have Microsoft/Office 365 E3, E5 or Business premium plans. * Install the PowerShell and set up. Once it is done, we start enabling the Exchange Online In-Place Archive. Follow the steps below. ### How to Enable Office 365 Archive Mailbox? To do this, there are two techniques that you can use, * Microsoft 365 Admin Center * Use PowerShell commands ### Access Microsoft 365 In-Place Archive using Admin Center 1. First login to the Office 365 Compliance Center. 1. Then, go to the **Data lifecycle management** >> **Microsoft 365** >> **Archive** option. 1. Find the user to **enable** the archive mailbox. 1. Click the **archive mailbox** to enable it. 1. Hit the **Yes** button to save the changes you have made. ### Use PowerShell to Enable Microsoft 365 In-Place Archive This method uses Exchange Online PowerShell to access your archive folder. Therefore, follow the commands properly. 1. First connect Exchange Online Powershell: **Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName admin@yourdomain. com** 1. Now, enable the archive mailbox: **Enable-Mailbox -Identity user@yourdomain. com -Archive** 1. To verify the status: **Get-Mailbox -Identity user@yourdomain. com | FL ArchiveStatus** Here are the steps to enable the In-Place Archive. Now, disable it following the next process. #### Disable Office 365 Archive Mailbox with Admin Center 1. Login to the **Admin Center** and click on the **app launcher**. 1. Select the **Admin** button. Then, click on the **Admin Center** option. 1. Choose the **Exchange** option. Click **OK** to the window confirming you want to enable the archive for all the recipients at once. 1. Select the **Recipients and Mailboxes** option. Choose the **desired mailbox** button. 1. Press the **Disable** button under In-Place Archive. To bulk disable, select your mailbox and click on Disable option. #### Using PowerShell to Disable In-Place Archive 1. Connect your Exchange Online with PowerShell use the same steps from the enable option up to archive steps. 1. Use this command to disable the archive: **Disable-Mailbox -Identity "<username" -Archive** 1. Run this command to verify the disable status: **Get-Mailbox -Identity "<username>" | Format-List Archive** #### Common Issues of Using In-Place Archive The archive mailbox is a robust feature, some users may encounter issues during the process. Some common problems related to this are. * Archive mailbox not appearing in Outlook. * Unable to Enable Archive mailbox * Archive mailbox fills up too quickly * Emails not moving to archive automatically * Archive Mailbox disabled unexpectedly * Users can't access Archive on mobile devices So the archive mailbox alone cannot secure your data. You need a third-party tool that can store your complete mailbox for unforeseen events. #### How to Secure Microsoft 365 Data? **[Office 365 Backup Tool](https://turgs.com/office365/) by Turgs** is one of the software that can easily export your entire data without any issues. The program is used on Windows as well as Mac OS. It is easy to use software because of the user-friendly interface. Download its free trial version and try to save your Office 365 for limited folders. #### Conclusion In this article, we learn about Office 365 In-Place Archive and how you can enable or disable. Moreover, we also discuss the issues you might face during archiving your data. To solve this problem, we also suggest professional software to secure your data.