Enable Archive Mailbox and AutoArchive Expansion in Office 365 Exchange Online (Microsoft 365).

This guide contains detailed instructions on how to enable the Archive Mailbox and the Auto-Expand Archive feature (aka “In-Place Archive”) in Office 365 Exchange Online, to resolve the “Your mailbox is full” issue when the 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 an Exchange Online Plan 2 license, or by enabling Exchange Online Archiving (aka “Exchange Mailbox Archiving”) for free.

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

After enabling Mailbox archiving, users will notice that an additional mailbox folder has been created, called “In-Place Archive”, where they can store messages from their primary mailbox using Outlook on desktop or Outlook on the web.

In addition, if you also activate”Expand AutoArchive“, then when the main “Archive” mailbox reaches its storage limit (eg 50 GB), additional storage space is automatically created and this process continues until the Archive mailbox reaches 1.5 TB.

Enable In-Place Archive and AutoExpand Archives on Specific Users. Enable In-Place Archive and Automatic Expansion of Archives Across All Users in Your Organization.

How to Enable “Archive” Mailbox & “Archive Auto-Development” feature for Specific Users in Microsoft 365.

Step 1. Enable On-Premises Archive Mailbox for Users in the Exchange Online Admin Center.

To enable Archive mailboxes for specific users in your organization, do the following:

1. Navigate to Office365 Admin Portalclick Show All then click Exchange.

2. In the ‘Exchange admin center’, open it Recipient > Mailbox.

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

4a. Select tabs Otherthen click Manage mailbox archives.

4b. Activate archive Mailbox and click it Save.

Step 2. Enable Auto-Expand Archiving for Users in Exchange Online PowerShell.

The only way to enable auto-expand archiving for specific users is to connect to Exchange Online from PowerShell. To connect to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, use the following 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 module Exchange Online Management use the following command and press”A“when prompted:

Install-Module-Name ExchangeOnlineManagement-RequiredVersion 3.1. 0

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

Connect-ExchangeOnline-UserPrincipalName [email protected] $true

4b. In the pop-up window type your admin credentials and click on it Okay.

5. After connecting to Exchange online via PowerShell, issue the following command to enable “Archive Auto Expanding” on the users you want:

Enable-Mailbox [email protected]

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

Get-Mailbox [email protected] | FL AutoExpandingArchiveEnabled

* Notes:
1. Value true next to ”AutoExpandingArchiveEnabled” indicates that automatic expansion of archives is enabled for the user.

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

Disconnect-ExchangeOnline

7. Finished! After a few hours, you will see an “In-Place Archive” folder in the user’s mailbox. If this doesn’t happen after 24 hours, make sure you’ve done the steps above correctly.

How to Enable “Archive”&”AutoExpand Archive” Mailboxes Across Your Entire Organization in Microsoft 365 (Office 365).

Step 1. Connect to Exchange Online from PowerShell.

To connect to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, use the following 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 module Exchange Online Management use the following command and press”A“when prompted:

Install-Module-Name ExchangeOnlineManagement-RequiredVersion 3.1. 0

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

Connect-ExchangeOnline-UserPrincipalName [email protected] $true

4b. In the pop-up window type your admin credentials and click it OK.

Step 2. Enable the On-Place Archive mailbox for all users in the organization. h3>

After connecting to Exchange online via PowerShell, issue the following command to enable “Archive” Mailboxes across your Organization.

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

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

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

Set-OrganizationConfig-AutoExpandingArchive

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

Get-OrganizationConfig | FL AutoExpandingArchiveEnabled

* Notes:
1. If the value of “AutoExpandingArchiveEnabled” is true means that automatic expansion of archives is enabled for the organization.

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

Disconnect-ExchangeOnline

3. Finished! After a few hours, you will see an “In-Place Archive” folder appear in the user’s mailbox. If this doesn’t happen after 24 hours (at least for some users), make sure you’ve done the steps above correctly.

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