How to I remove 'online archive' from the menu pane?

To remove the 'Online Archive' from the menu pane in Outlook, you can follow these steps:

1. Open Outlook and ensure that you are in the main interface.
2. Right-click on the 'Online Archive' that you want to remove from the left-hand menu.
3. Select Close Online Archive from the context menu.

However, if you encounter a message stating that the group of files is associated with an email account and instructs you on how to remove the main mailbox account, it indicates that the Online Archive cannot be removed independently from the associated account. Unfortunately, this behavior is expected for accounts that have an Online Archive enabled.

If the Online Archive is not needed, you may need to consult with your IT department to see if they can disable the Online Archive feature for your account entirely, as it is not possible to hide it selectively without removing the associated mailbox account.

This situation can occur inconsistently across different accounts due to how the Online Archive feature is configured by your organization.

References:

• Shared calendar appears in delegate's Online Archive folder
• Outlook 2016 hangs with Junk Email Reporting add-in and large archive

The "Online archive" is basically another mailbox, linked to the user's main one. Whether you see it within Outlook depends on several factors, such as the permissions you have been granted, the method used to add the "main" mailbox, and so on.

To give you a more technical description, whenever you are granted Full access permissions on a given mailbox, you can access both the "main" mailbox and any associated archive mailboxes. In addition, there is the Automapping flag, which "instructs" Outlook to automatically load the shared mailbox, without you (as the end user) having to do anything. When this method is used, classic Outlook will only surface the "main" mailbox, without the archive. If however the mailbox is added manually, via the File > Add account functionality, both the "main" mailbox and the archive one will be visible.

The same applies when you are accessing the mailbox directly, without Full access permissions, but providing the credentials for the associated user instead. In such scenarios, there is no way to remove the Online archive, as it is treated as an extension of the main mailbox. Best you can do is drag the entry to the bottom of the pane, so it's out of sight. Alternatively, you can talk with your IT folks and check whether disabling the archive is an option, though you should thread careful on that front in order to avoid potential data loss.

If the mailbox is accessed via Full access permissions instead, ask the IT folks to configure automapping. Alternatively, if you are OK with manually adding the mailbox (via the File > Account settings > More settings > Advanced method), this will also result in just the "main" mailbox being shown.

The new Outlook client and the webmail (OWA) treat things a bit differently, but since you've tagged the question with the Classic Outlook tag, I'd assume that you're not using the new client, and will spare you those details.

Hi @Beth Poole 

Thank you for contacting the Microsoft Q&A forum.    

The Online Archive mailbox you see in Classic Outlook (or In-place Archive in New Outlook) appears because your administrator has enabled the archive mailbox in Microsoft 365 for your account. This archive mailbox provides additional storage space, allowing you to move items between your primary and archive mailbox. It can offer up to 100 GB of extra storage and, in some cases, scale up to 1.5 TB. 

For more details, you can refer to: Learn about archive mailboxes for Microsoft Purview | Microsoft Learn 

If you’d like to remove this folder, you’ll need to disable the archive mailbox. You can ask your IT administrator to do this through the Exchange Admin Center under your mailbox settings. 

Alternatively, your IT administrator can use the following PowerShell command: 

Disable-Mailbox -Identity <username> -Archive 

 Reference: Enable archive mailboxes for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn 

I hope this helps clarify the situation and supports you in planning your next steps. Please feel free to reply if you have any updates or need further assistance. 

Thank you for your understanding. 

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