Provision an Online Archive Mailbox in Exchange Admin Center

Provision an Online Archive Mailbox in Exchange Admin Center

Summary:  This guide explains how administrators can provision the Online Archive mailbox for a user in Microsoft 365 using the Exchange admin center (EAC).


Prerequisites

- You must be a Global Administrator or Exchange Administrator.

- The user must have a license that includes archiving (for example, Exchange Online Plan 2, Microsoft 365 E3/E5, or the Exchange Online Archiving add-on).


Steps to enable the Online Archive in the Exchange admin center

1. Sign in to the Exchange admin center: https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com

2. In the left-hand navigation, go to Recipients > Mailboxes.

3. Select the mailbox where you want to enable archiving.

4. In the flyout pane, scroll down to Others and select Manage mailbox archive.

5. Switch the Archive mailbox toggle to On.

6. Click Save.

7. Allow several minutes for the archive mailbox to be provisioned.


What happens next

- Once provisioned, the user will see a new mailbox tree in Outlook and Outlook on the Web called Online Archive - <MailboxName>.

- Items can be moved there manually by the user, or automatically if a retention policy that moves mail to archive is applied.

- Archiving policies are managed in the Microsoft Purview portal under Data lifecycle management.


Verify the archive mailbox is enabled

- In the Exchange admin center, under the mailbox properties, the Archive mailbox should show as Active.

- In Outlook, the additional Online Archive mailbox tree should appear under the user’s primary mailbox.


Notes

- Enabling the Online Archive does not back up mail; it simply provides extended storage and retention management.

- If auto-expanding archive is enabled, the mailbox will grow beyond 100 GB automatically.

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