Thank you for helping!

I am sorry, but i am going to have to ask you to use little words in big font and as many pictures as possible... Yes, that is an exaggeration, but as i tried this once before and was not successful i must be tripping over something obvious to the community but to which i am blind.

I am using classic Outlook. Up until yesterday when i read the We are raising 365's annual cost by 30% type email, i was running the Outlook that came with Office/MS 365 subscription, for which i turned off autopayment. Yesterday i installed Microsoft Office 2024 Professional i thought (I first deleted all 365 then ran the installation package) though now when i look at Office Account the page shows:

Product Information
Microsoft
Subscription Product for <my email address>
Microsoft 365
This product contains...

And so perhaps they are just letting the present subscription run out (Oct. 22nd).

Phase 1:

I want to take local possession of ALL my emails on the server. When i look at the history of emails in several folders they only go back to May 15, 2023. I don't care if copy remains on the server, but i do want the full history locally.

Phase 2:
Once i have everything locally i want to transfer specific folders to a second file - archiving, but i fear to use the word "archiving" might mean a specific procedure within Outlook whereas i wish to mean "moving or transferring data to another location so it is no longer within the original working file, but can be loaded independently and prior information read if need be". I do not want that file cluttering up my working copy, i simply want that file so if i ever need some historic piece of information i can switch to that file, record the information, then switch back to the operating file.

It is possible i am making this harder than it needs to be. The wish to do so comes from my losing all the emails i once had with Thunderbird prior to roughly 2015 due to my not archiving, and moving too fast without brain cells keeping pace.

I have tried Menu Item File | Open & Export | Import/Export | Import from another program or file | Outlook Data File (.pst) | ... Then i open that data file from Outlook and it appears to be the same thing i am staring at - nothing new that might be stored on the server.

Quite honestly, i ALWAYS work from the Outlook client on my computer. When i opened up the web interface and looked at the oldest dated email for the same folders i ran into the same date. I am now questioning if i did something stooooopid that blew away everything prior to May 15, 2023. I would hope not, but having dealt with others and also knowing myself, it is always a possibility i must consider.

Any nice an easy instructions (See the keyboard. The nice keyboard. The nice black keyboard"...) are appreciated!.



I thank you very much for considering my issue and putting up with my rambling. To add to the latter, last week i had one eye's lens replaced (the other gets done tomorrow) so i am trying to work with two eyes having significantly different focus. Who needs drugs when you can mess yourself up like this?

Respectfully,
Bruce