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GroupWise Archives Clean Up

Gauge depicting the amount of storage used by GroupWise archives

This spring, when we move from GroupWise to Microsoft Outlook, we'll also be moving our archives to a central location with limited storage space.

Currently there are over five terabytes of archives on the OHSU mail servers! (One terabyte can hold 1,000 copies of Encyclopedia Britannica.) Some of these documents contain important business information, but many of them are just taking up space. For example, sent tasks, emails, and appointments are all automatically archived, but rarely, if ever looked at again.

Reducing your GroupWise archive will help the transition from GroupWise to Outlook go smoothly.

How many do I have

Here is how to find the total number of archives you currently have:

  1. Open GroupWise email from your primary workstation.
  2. Choose File > Open Archive.
  3. Choose Tools > Find.
  4. Click OK to begin the search.
    NOTE: This can take a few minutes on accounts with large numbers of archives.
  5. The total number is visible at the bottom right corner of the Find dialog box.

Safeguard your archives

Over time, many of us have accumulated a sizeable number of archived GroupWise items – email, notes, and appointments. Larger archives will take longer to move to the new system. More importantly, larger archives are at greater risk for corruption.

To safeguard your archives, set aside some time to clean them up. Check out these resources:

Most people start like this:

  1. In GroupWise, open your archive by clicking the arrow next to the Online link:

    archive tab in groupwise

  2. Delete unneeded sent items.
  3. Delete unneeded received items (sort by date and start with the oldest).
  4. After you delete archived items, you need to manually empty your archive trash.

Guidelines for retaining email messages

Retain email, notes and appointments as long as they have a business value. Print the messages and keep them with your department's paper records or save electronic versions as text files. Delete messages when they have no further value.

Email messages may be subject to disclosure under Oregon's Public Records Law. Email messages are subject to the same retention requirements as the records they are filed with- for example, an email regarding an unemployment compensation claim should be kept three years.