How to use the In-Place Archive to free up space in Outlook

In certain circumstances, and upon request to the internal Human&Work support team, IT can enable a 100 GB online archive for your mailbox.

This article explains how to use this archive, called In-Place Archive, and provides practical steps to help you manage the storage of your Outlook mailbox efficiently.

Step 1: Manually delete large emails

Before using the archive, we recommend manually deleting large emails, especially those with heavy attachments.
Important attachments that need to be kept should be saved on your OneDrive for example.

The easiest way to identify large emails is to use a search folder sorted by size.
You can follow this tutorial :
- Use a search folder to find and delete emails in Outlook -

Step 2: Access Outlook Webmail and check mailbox usage

All the following actions should be done using Outlook Webmail:
- https://outlook.office.com -

Then, check which folders are using the most storage:
- Mailbox storage settings -

This screen will display your mailbox usage by folder. Focus on folders using the most space, as these will benefit the most from archiving.

While you’re there, feel free to empty your Deleted Items by clicking the "Empty" button.

Step 3: Move emails to the In-Place Archive

Let’s now archive the emails stored in the heaviest folders.

1. Go back to the main screen of Outlook Webmail.

2. Right-click the folder you want to archive.

3. Click Assign policy.

4. Under Archive policy, choose:
   → Personal 1 month move to archive (or another duration depending on your needs).

This will move all emails older than the selected period into the In-Place Archive.

Within a few days, a new archive folder will appear under your mailbox (named "In-Place Archive"), with the same folder structure. You can continue working normally while the move happens in the background.