{"id":18198,"date":"2021-11-17T18:35:45","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T18:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/?p=18198"},"modified":"2021-11-23T05:05:47","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T05:05:47","slug":"what-are-in-place-archives-in-office-365-and-how-do-i-back-them-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/what-are-in-place-archives-in-office-365-and-how-do-i-back-them-up","title":{"rendered":"What are in-place archives in Office 365 and how do I back them up?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TL;DR Summary <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
  1. In-place archives effectively act as special searchable mailboxes associated with a standard mailbox. <\/li>
  2. In-place archives are a premium Exchange feature.  <\/li>
  3. Office 365 archive mailboxes offer from 50GB to 1.5TB of additional space. <\/li>
  4. BackupAssist 365 v1.9.4 and later allows you to automatically back up Office 365 in-place archives.  <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    What are in-place archives in Office 365?  <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    In-place archives are a premium Exchange feature. In short, they are special mailboxes that make it easier for users to store and search for emails without cluttering up standard user mailboxes. In-place archives can also play an important role in enterprise retention policies. <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Microsoft\u2019s article on in-place archiving<\/a> does a good job covering the technical nuts and bolts, but it doesn\u2019t make it clear why you should care about in-place archives.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To understand the benefit of in-place archives, consider a user with an Exchange Mailbox that exceeds the standard mailbox size limits (usually 50GB). Typically, to search their emails for relevant information or access an old email, they\u2019d need to leverage PST files somehow. For example, they may store them locally and mount them to Outlook. While that workflow is feasible, it is hard for an administrator to oversee and implement enterprise retention policies. It\u2019s also inconvenient for the user. Those PST files won\u2019t be available from \u201canywhere\u201d like most Office 365 resources.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Alternatively, if users just try to keep all of their emails, they\u2019ll eventually reach the point where they have to delete emails to make room for new ones.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In-place archives solve this problem by creating a separate archive mailbox tied to that user\u2019s account. After users act on an email, they manually move it to the archive or use rules to move it automatically.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With in-place archives enabled, users can declutter their inbox but still have online, indexed, and searchable archive emails available to them whenever they login. Additionally, retention policies can be implemented to move emails to an archive instead of deleting them after a given period of time.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How much more space do you get with Office 365 in-place archives? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The storage space available in an archive mailbox varies depending on your licensing. For example, Enterprise E1 licenses include 50GB archive mailboxes, while Enterprise E3 and E5 can go up to 1.5TB.\u00a0You can read more about Exchange Online limits here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You may have heard that archives were unlimited in the past. However, according to MC288051<\/a>, that will change in November 2021 and Microsoft has already begun dropping the term \u201cunlimited\u201d from affected service descriptions.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Are there downsides to Office 365 in-place archives?  <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Extra space and simpler searches sound like a win\/win, so should everyone enable in-place archives? Not necessarily.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Many users don\u2019t come close to hitting their mailbox limits and in-place archives are a premium feature that require an Exchange Enterprise client access license (CAL).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In most cases, whether or not you should use in-place archives boils down to a tradeoff between licensing costs and the value added by in-place archives for your business. If the additional cost (and licensing or operational complexity) can\u2019t be justified, it makes sense to pass.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What\u2019s the difference between in-place archives and AutoArchive?  <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    If you\u2019ve worked with Exchange Mailboxes and archiving before, you may be familiar with
    AutoArchive. The key difference between the older AutoArchive feature and in-place archives is simple: AutoArchive automatically moves old emails to off-server PST files.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Since the emails are in PST files, they are harder for users to search and don\u2019t offer the same convenience and agility of in-place archives.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How to back up Office 365 in-place archives <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Now that we know what in-place archives are, let\u2019s walk through backing them up. BackupAssist 365<\/a> v1.9.4 and later supports backups for Office 365 in-place archives. With BackupAssist 365, you can back up your archive mailboxes as PST files outside of Microsoft\u2019s cloud platform.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To follow along here, you\u2019ll need to download BackupAssist 365 and have a version of Office 365 with archives enabled.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Step 1: Launch BackupAssist 365 and create a new \u201cOffice 365\u201d backup <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    To get started, launch BackupAssist 365 and click Backup \u2192 Create New \u2192 Office 365 Mailboxes<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Step 2: Name the task and select Multi-User  <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Next, give the backup task a unique Task Name<\/strong> and click Multi-User<\/strong>. Note that you\u2019ll need administrative privileges for Multi-User backups. Click the green checkmark icon to proceed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

     Step 3: Authenticate to Office 365 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Next, we\u2019ll use Modern Authentication <\/strong>to login to our Office 365 account. In addition to being our recommended authentication method for Office 365, Modern Authentication <\/strong>is required if you have MFA (multi-factor authentication) enabled on your account.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While any user with the required permissions will work, we recommend you use a dedicated unlicensed backup user account<\/a> for this step.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n \n \n \n
    <\/td>\n Note: For Modern Authentication to work, it must be enabled in your Office 365 account. It\u2019s enabled by default for new Microsoft 365 instances. If you need to enable modern authentication on your account, see Enable or disable modern authentication for Outlook in Exchange Online.<\/b><\/a><\/td>\n <\/tr>\n <\/tbody>\n <\/table>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

     To authenticate with Modern Authentication<\/strong>, follow these steps.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Ensure Connect to Office 365 via:<\/strong> is set to Modern authentication (web browser login)<\/strong>. <\/li>
    2. Choose your preferred browser in the Select your browser:<\/strong> dropdown. Leave Use private \/ incognito <\/strong>checked. Ensure you do NOT currently have an open private \/ incognito browser session running that is logged into an Office 365 account.  <\/li>
    3. Click Launch web browser to login<\/strong>.  <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      \"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
      1. Your browser will launch. Input the credentials for your dedicated unlicensed backup user account. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
        \"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
        \"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
        1. After you see the success message in your browser, close the browser window.  <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
          \"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
          1. In the BackupAssist 365 console, you will now see a Successfully logged in<\/strong> message. Click the green checkmark icon to proceed.  <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
            \"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
            1. BackupAssist 365 will automatically test the connection and then load the available mailboxes. Proceed to Step 4 once the available mailboxes are displayed.  <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
              \"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
              \"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

              Step 4: Select the mailboxes to back up <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

              Next, you can select the mailboxes you need to back up. Choose 1 of the 3 radio button options below: <\/p>\n\n\n\n