Archiving in Outlook

[treysha]

Hi there,
I tried archiving one folder in my Inbox. It got saved into a .pst file, as it's suppoesed to.

When I click File | Open and opened the pst file, I see a folder called "Archive Folder" created in by folder tree. Assuming this is the archived folder, I open it but (surprise!) find it totally empty.

I have saved about 2 months of emails into the archive, so by right it really should NOT be empty.

Any advise anybody please?

[Variable]

Are you using Outlook? If you click on the icon to the right of the "Back" on the Outlook toolbar do you see Archive with a little plus sign on it?

[treysha]

No sir...

I do not see the icon you described.
I attached a print screen of my toolbar for you to see.

Thanks

[Variable]

ok see the little icon to the left of the blue green arrow, it looks like a little house with a clock. Click on that and see if you see Archive folders.

[treysha]

OK I clicked on that icon.
It only opened a Personal folder:Outlook Today window on my right pane which shows my calendar and tasks. But I don't see any Archive folders.
Is this right?

[Variable]

hmm Ok so you didn't archive, what you did was export a .pst file I think. Like File, Import and Export, Export to File, Personal Folder File (.pst).

If you want to view the files what you need to do is import them.
File, Import and Export, Import from another Program or File, scroll down to Peronal Folder File (.pst). You may want to try this and get them all back in and then Archive properly or just save the .pst to a cd and put it up someplace safe.

Next time you archive you will want to use the Archive item, File, Archive, click on your Personal Folde, click OK.

[treysha]

Let me describe what I did, maybe you can spot my mistake.

1) I highlight the folder that I want to archive.
2) Then I click File | Archive and another window opens.
3) In this window, I click "Archive this folder and all subfolders", choose the date from which I want all my emails to be archived, then I
browse to choose the archive file. Then I click OK.
4) I go back to Outlook, click File | Open | Personal Folders File (.pst), and a folder called "Archive Folder" with a subfolder called "deleted items" appear in my folder tree.
5) Click on both folders, but both are empty.
6) Tried the alternative method, which is to click File | Import & Export | Import from another Program or File | Personal Folder File (.pst) choose the archive file I saved earlier, and a folder called "Archive Folder" with a subfolder called "deleted items" appear in my folder tree.
7) Click on both folders, but (AGAIN!) both are empty.

So what step did I miss out here?

[Variable]

Yes, what you are saying is basically correct, I can only see one thing you might be doing wrong. When you say you browse, then it makes me think you arn't saving it in the default location, if this is so when you click on Open, Personal Folder File, then archive, this archive is from the default location (unless you browse again)
Here's my suggestion, search your hard drive for all .pst files. Move all these files to a folder on the desktop and then, back in Outlook, click File, Open and then click on the desktop Icon in the left pane and open each .pst that you find. If one of these files does not contain any of the several hundred emails you backed up then I would think that they (emails) are gone.
If you archived them to a .pst you will find them. If something happened and you thought you archived them and deleted them then they may be in the deleted folder or if you emptied it, they may be gone.

Variable