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Manually moving Outlook messages to Archive

17 February 2020

Move a message to the Archive folder with any of the usual ways to move an item between Outlook folders plus three dedicated special options only for the Archive folder.

See Starting with Archive in Microsoft Outlook

Archive in Outlook 365 and Outlook 2016/2019 for Windows

Archive button

Most obvious is the button at Home | Delete | Archive.

It’s right next to the Delete button – the thinking is that when managing messages you can quickly switch between Delete or Archive.

Of course, ‘Move to ….’ would be with Delete and Archive if you took that thinking to its logical conclusion. But Move is further along the Home tab.

Archive Shortcut

Backspace key is the shortcut that moves a message to the Archive folder.

It works when the message is in the Reading/Preview pane but not when a message is ‘fully open’ in a separate window (use the Archive button instead).

Using Backspace means that the Archive key is near its partner ‘Delete’.

Disabling backspace shortcut

In Outlook 365, the Backspace shortcut can be disabled using the following Registry setting

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HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/policies/Microsoft/
office16.0/outlook/options

Name: DisableOneClickArchive
Type: DWORD
Value: 1
According to Microsoft this doesn’t work for perpetual licence versions of Office.

Right-click

Right-click on a message and Archive is on the list of menu options.

Marked as unread

All the special ‘Archive’ options above also mark the message as Unread.

Move or drag and drop

Aside from the special Archive options, all the usual move commands are available on the ribbon, right-click menu etc.

The Archive folder (or sub-folders) will appear on the recently used list once you’ve moved a message to that folder. Again, Archive is just another Outlook folder with nothing really special about it.

Starting with Archive in Microsoft Outlook

About Outlook Archive, Online Archive and AutoArchive

Rename the Outlook Archive folder

Archive in Outlook 365 and Outlook 2016/2019 for Windows