A cluttered desk with a chaotic agenda and a mountain of unsorted pieces of paper and folders. The computer screen reads, Archiving IMAP Emails in Outlook.

Archiving IMAP Emails in Outlook

Many shared web hosting packages offer an IMAP email service. This is a really handy solution for small businesses that don’t need to send large files via email. It allows them to get up and running using their domain for their emails, which looks a lot more professional.

However, the downside to this email solution is that the emails are stored on the web server, alongside the website. Server space, therefore, is very limited. So, for those who like to keep a record of every email they’ve ever received, it isn’t a great solution. And if you send and receive emails with attachments, the mailbox file size can soon add up.

We recommend using more professional email solutions such as Microsoft Exchange or Google Workspace. However, if you don’t have the budget, and want to stick with your IMAP emails, there is a solution.

If you use Microsoft Outlook to manage your emails, you can create a PST file to archive your emails locally. Then, when you move messages from your inbox to your new local archive, they will be automatically deleted from the server.

The following steps and screenshots are for the specific version of Outlook that we are using at the time. However, the principle remains the same and should work on different versions of the software.

Create Your Archive File

First you need to create your PST file:

  1. Select ‘File’ from the top menu
  2. Roll over ‘Account Settings’ and select ‘Account Settings’
A detail screengrab of Microsoft Outlook with a mouse cursor hovering over the Account Settings option.
Select File and open the Account Settings
  1. In the dialogue box that opens, select the ‘Data Files’ tab
  2. Select ‘Add’
The Account Settings dialogue box in Microsoft Outlook showing a single email account, whilst a mouse cursor hovers over the 'Add' button.
Add a new data file
  1. Browse to where you want your file to be saved.
    If you have a Microsoft OneDrive account, this is a perfect place to save it as it will be stored online and will be backed up. If it is stored on your local machine and is not backed up, if you lose your machine, you lose your emails.
  2. Give your PST file a suitable name. e.g. studiomail.archive.pst
  3. Make sure ‘Save as type’ is set to ‘Outlook Data File (*.pst)’
  4. Hit ‘OK’.

You should now see your new archive file in the left hand menu in Outlook.

A detail shot of Microsoft Outlook showing an email inbox and a newly connect PST archive file.
You have now created your PST file

Archive Your Emails

There are auto-archiving options in Outlook, but I like to keep my emails organised in folders.

  1. Now that you can see your archive file in Outlook, you can add your preferred folder structure. Simple right-click the new archive file, select ‘New Folder’ and name it something suitable.
  2. Now all you need to do is click on your IMAP email inbox. You can then simply drag your emails from your inbox into the new PST Archive. When your device next syncs, the emails will be deleted from the remote server but stored locally.
  3. Don’t forget about your sent items too, as this is easy to overlook. Create a folder for sent items and drag any or all of your sent items that you want to archive into your new ‘Sent Item’ folder.
A fictitious email inbox of an IMAP email account indicating how to drag emails from your inbox into a newly created archive pst file.
Drag your emails from your inbox into your new archive folders

By doing this, you will free up lots of space on your server, but you will still be able to access your archived emails locally.

A Word of Warning

If you have synchronised mobile devices to your IMAP email, you will no longer be able to see archived emails. Because they are no longer on the server, your mobile device will not be able to access them.

For this reason, I suggest archiving all emails older than say 2 months. This will allow you to access your recent emails on your mobile devices and keep your server usage to a sensible level.

There may be other, better solutions out there. But if you’re not ready to upgrade your emails, this is a good free alternative.

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