How to Archive Exchange Online Calendar Items in Sent Items: A Comprehensive Guide by Medha Cloud

Managing oversized mailboxes is a common challenge for businesses using Exchange Online. One of the trickiest scenarios is dealing with calendar invites and responses in the Sent Items folder, which can accumulate to massive sizes over time. If these items aren’t archived properly, they may bloat user mailboxes, causing storage and performance issues.

At Medha Cloud, we specialize in helping organizations streamline their Microsoft 365 environments. This guide will walk you through resolving the issue of calendar items not archiving automatically in Exchange Online, ensuring your mailbox management strategy is both efficient and scalable.

Understanding the challenge

In Exchange Online, calendar invites in the Sent Items folder are treated as calendar objects rather than standard emails. This often means they aren’t subject to default archiving or retention policies, leading to potential storage issues.

For example, a real estate agency may find a user’s mailbox overloaded with 76GB of sent calendar invites because these items are not automatically archived. Without intervention, this can cause:

• Quota limitations, impacting email functionality.
• Difficulty in managing compliance and retention rules.
• Inefficient mailbox performance.

Solutions to archive calendar items automatically

To address this issue effectively, you need to modify retention policies and, where necessary, perform manual cleanup. Here’s how you can ensure calendar invites are archived properly:

Step 1: Modify retention policies in exchange online

Create a new retention tag for calendar items

Retention tags define how long specific items are kept before they are moved to the archive. You can create a tag specifically for calendar invites.

1. Access the compliance portal:
   • Go to the Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal.
   • Navigate to Data lifecycle management > Retention tags.
2. Define a new retention tag:
   • Create a tag called “Calendar Invites Archive.”
   • Set it as an Archive Policy with a retention period (e.g., move items to archive after 2 years).
3. Save and apply:
   • Add this tag to the existing retention policy applied to the mailbox.
   • This ensures that calendar invites in the Sent Items folder are archived based on the defined period.

Update retention policies across the organization

• Add the new retention tag to your organization-wide retention policies.
• This ensures that similar issues are proactively addressed for other users.

Force policy application:

While retention policies can take up to 7 days to apply, you can expedite the process using PowerShell:

PowerShell code

Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName admin@domain.com
Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -Identity user@domain.com

Step 2: Perform manual cleanup

If a mailbox has already exceeded storage limits, manual intervention may be required.

Use Outlook for manual cleanup:

1. Filter sent items:
   • Open Outlook and navigate to the Sent Items folder.
   • Use the search bar to filter calendar invites (search for “Kind:meeting”).
2. Move old items:
   • Select calendar invites older than a specific date.
   • Move them to the archive mailbox.

Automate cleanup with PowerShell:

For faster results, PowerShell can be used to identify and move calendar items:

PowerShell code

Search-Mailbox -Identity user@domain.com -SearchQuery "Kind:meeting" -TargetMailbox Archive -TargetFolder "Sent Calendar Archive"

This ensures old calendar invites are moved to the user’s archive mailbox, freeing up primary storage.

Step 3: Implement long-term best practices

To prevent similar issues in the future, adopt the following strategies:

1. Educate users:
   • Train users on regular cleanup practices for the Sent Items folder.
   • Encourage them to review and delete outdated calendar invites.
2. Enable immutable backup:
   • Use immutable backup solutions to protect archived data against accidental deletion or malicious actions.
3. Regular policy audits:
   • Periodically review and refine retention policies to align with business requirements.
4. Mailbox monitoring:
   • Use mailbox auditing to monitor unusual growth in Sent Items or other folders.

Why Medha Cloud is your trusted partner

At Medha Cloud, we specialize in Microsoft 365 administration, helping businesses streamline their IT processes and ensure compliance. Our expertise in Exchange Online management, data lifecycle policies, and mailbox optimization ensures your organization is always one step ahead of storage and performance challenges.

Whether you’re dealing with oversized mailboxes, complex retention requirements, or compliance concerns, our team can design a tailored solution that meets your unique needs. From proactive policy implementation to advanced PowerShell automation, we’ve got you covered.

Conclusion

Managing calendar items in Sent Items is crucial to maintaining a healthy Exchange Online environment. By creating specific retention tags, updating policies, and using automation tools like PowerShell, you can efficiently archive calendar invites and prevent storage issues.

Don’t let oversized mailboxes disrupt your operations. Let Medha Cloud handle your Microsoft 365 needs, ensuring your organization stays compliant, secure, and efficient.

Reach us at:

• India: +91 93536 44646
• US: +1 646 775 2855
• Website: www.medhacloud.com
• Email: info@medhacloud.com