It seems like I'm not alone in initially being surprised that IMAP accounts cannot be archived in Outlook.
After spending some time poking around forums, Q&A sites and product support pages it's as simple as IMAP and archiving are mutually exclusive. I thought I'd put a concept forward for anyone out there who needs both the convenience of externally hosted IMAP functionality as well as the maildrop & delivery capability provided by the POP3 system.
A typical example here for me is wanting to access the same email account across multiple devices, get alerts on incoming messages on those devices, and be able to reply should I need to.
I also want to be able to take an archive of older emails (receipts, legal conversations, audit items, records of business and conversations, etc) and store separately for a given period too.
So in order to get around this I use IMAP almost everywhere but then on one (perhaps two locations) I'll connect via POP3 over Outlook - use whatever email client you wish - and use the auto-archive facilities to create email archive files.
These files (PST) can then be added to an offsite backup. An IMAP account in Outlook will use an OST file to cache mail items and headers but if its deleted or lost your IMAP account is unaffected.
After spending some time poking around forums, Q&A sites and product support pages it's as simple as IMAP and archiving are mutually exclusive. I thought I'd put a concept forward for anyone out there who needs both the convenience of externally hosted IMAP functionality as well as the maildrop & delivery capability provided by the POP3 system.
A typical example here for me is wanting to access the same email account across multiple devices, get alerts on incoming messages on those devices, and be able to reply should I need to.
I also want to be able to take an archive of older emails (receipts, legal conversations, audit items, records of business and conversations, etc) and store separately for a given period too.
So in order to get around this I use IMAP almost everywhere but then on one (perhaps two locations) I'll connect via POP3 over Outlook - use whatever email client you wish - and use the auto-archive facilities to create email archive files.
 |
| Application and Service Relationship |
These files (PST) can then be added to an offsite backup. An IMAP account in Outlook will use an OST file to cache mail items and headers but if its deleted or lost your IMAP account is unaffected.
 |
| Archive and Artefact Relationships |
