How to archive emails in Microsoft Outlook and declutter your inbox

Outlook email in office on iPad

You can archive emails in Microsoft Outlook to help keep your inbox well-organized by storing essential, non-urgent messages out of sight.
An archive button in your Outlook inbox's top menu lets you move the email into a folder accessible from the client dashboard.
You can only archive emails from your inbox and not any other folder.
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Many email clients can archive old emails, and Microsoft Outlook is no exception.

Archiving an email moves it from your inbox into a designated folder created by your email client, where it's easily accessible but out of sight. The feature helps you save the messages you might need without choosing between trashing them or a clogged inbox.

The process of archiving an email in Outlook only takes a couple of clicks. Since archiving is meant to move emails from your inbox into your archive folder, you'll need to be logged in to your Outlook account and have your inbox open. You currently can't archive emails from other folders, such as your drafts or sent folders.

If you want to clean up your inbox, here's how to archive an email on Outlook in four easy steps.