Enable Archive Mailbox and Archive Auto Expanding in Office 365 Exchange Online (Microsoft 365). (2024)

This guide contains detailed instructions on how to enable the Archive Mailbox and the Archive Auto Expanding feature (aka "In-Place archive") in Office 365 Exchange Online, to resolve the problem "Your mailbox is full" when a mailbox reaches 50GB.

The default maximum mailbox size in Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is 50 GB, unless you increase it to 100 GB by paying for Exchange Online Plan 2 license, or by enabling the Exchange Online Archiving (aka "Exchange Mailbox Archiving") for free.

Mailbox archiving in Microsoft 365, also called "In-Place Archiving", provides users with an additional 50 GB of space and almost unlimited space (1.5 TB), if you also enable the "Archive Auto Expanding" feature.

After activating the Mailbox archiving, users will see that an additional mailbox folder has been created, called "In-Place Archive", in which they can save messages from their main mailbox either using Outlook on desktop or Outlook on the web.

Additionally, if you enable also the "Archive Auto Expanding" feature, then when the main "Archive" mailbox reaches its storage limit (e.g. 50GB), additional storage space is automatically created and this process continues until the mailbox Archive reaches 1.5 TB.

1. Enable In-Place Archive and Archive Auto Expanding in Certain Users.
2. Enable In-Place Archive and Archive Auto Expanding in All Users on your Organization.

How to Enable the "Archive" Mailbox & the "Archive Auto Expanding" feature for Specific Users in Microsoft 365.

Step 1. Enable In-Place Archive Mailbox for a User in Exchange Online Admin Center.

To enable the Archive mailbox for a specific user in your organization, do the following:

1. Navigate to Office365 Admin Portal, click Show All and then click Exchange.

2. In 'Exchange admin center', go to Recipients > Mailboxes.

3. Click on the user you want to enable the "Archive" mailbox.

4a. Select the Others tab and then click Manage mailbox archive.

4b. Turn On the Mailbox archive and click Save.

Step 2. Enable Archive Auto Expanding for a User in Exchange Online PowerShell.

To only way to enable the auto-expanding archiving for a specific user, is by connecting to Exchange Online from PowerShell. To connect to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, use these steps:

* Note: Skip steps 1-3, if you have already installed the Exchange Online Management module .

1. Download and install Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.2 or later.
2. Open PowerShell As Administrator.
3. Install the Exchange Online Management module using the following command and press "A" when prompted:

• Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement -RequiredVersion 3.1.0

4a. Connect to Exchange online using your admin username (email address), with the following command:

• Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName username@example.com -ShowProgress $true

4b. On the pop-up windows type your admin credentials and click OK.

5.After connecting to Exchange online through PowerShell, give the following command to turn on the "Archive Auto Expanding" on the user you want:

• Enable-Mailbox user@example.com -AutoExpandingArchive

6. To verify that the auto-expanding archiving is enabled on the user, give this command:*

• Get-Mailbox user@example.com | FL AutoExpandingArchiveEnabled

* Notes:
1. A value of True next to "AutoExpandingArchiveEnabled" indicates that auto-expanding archiving is enabled for the user.

2. When done, disconnect from Exchange Online using this command:

• Disconnect-ExchangeOnline

  See Also

  Exchange Online Archiving service description - Service Descriptions

7. You're done! After a few hours you will see the "In-Place Archive" folder in the user's mailbox. If this does not happen after 24 hours, make sure you have done the above steps correctly.

How to Enable the "Archive" Mailbox & "Archive Auto Expanding" in your Entire Organization in Microsoft 365 (Office 365).

Step 1. Connect to Exchange Online from PowerShell.

To connect to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, use these steps:

* Note: Skip steps 1-3, if you have already installed the Exchange Online Management module .

1. Download and install Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.2 or later.
2. Open PowerShell As Administrator.
3. Install the Exchange Online Management module using the following command and press "A" when prompted:

• Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement -RequiredVersion 3.1.0

4a. Connect to Exchange online using your admin username (email address), with the following command:

• Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName username@example.com -ShowProgress $true

4b. On the pop-up windows type your admin credentials and click OK.

Step 2. Enable In-Place Archive mailbox for all users in the organization.

After connecting to Exchange online through PowerShell, give the following command to turn on the "Archive" Mailboxes in your Entire Organization.

• Get-Mailbox -Filter {ArchiveGuid -Eq "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" -AND RecipientTypeDetails -Eq "UserMailbox"} | Enable-Mailbox -Archive

Step 3. Enable Archive Auto Expanding for all users in the organization.

1. Give the following command in PowerShell to enable auto-expanding archiving for your entire organization:

• Set-OrganizationConfig -AutoExpandingArchive

2. Then, give the following command to verify that the auto-expanding archiving is enabled: *

• Get-OrganizationConfig | FL AutoExpandingArchiveEnabled

* Notes:
1. If the value of "AutoExpandingArchiveEnabled" is True that means that auto-expanding archiving is enabled for the organization.

2. When done, disconnect from Exchange Online using this command:

• Disconnect-ExchangeOnline

3. You're done! After a few hours you will see the "In-Place Archive" folder appear in users' mailboxes. If this does not happen after 24 hours (at least for some users), make sure you have done the above steps correctly.

That's it! Let me know if this guide has helped you by leaving your comment about your experience. Please like and share this guide to help others.

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