You can add one or more Exchange Public Folder tasks to enable archiving from public folders. Exchange Public Folder tasks run under the Task Controller Service.

An Exchange Public Folder task archives a Public Folder target. Each Exchange Public Folder task can process multiple Public Folder targets. A Public Folder target is a single public folder hierarchy, starting from its root path and working down. You can add a Public Folder target with a root path that is higher up a public folder hierarchy than the root path of an existing Public Folder target. You cannot add one with a lower root path.

When you add a Public Folder target, you select the vault store and archive that is to be used for it. The archive must be a Public Folder archive but the vault store may be the same one used for other archive types, such as mailbox archives. If required you can also use the same archive for more than one Public Folder target. To be able to change the archiving settings for a Public Folder target you need owner access to the Public Folder.

An Exchange Public Folder Policy is assigned to each Exchange Public Folder target. This defines how the task will archive the items in the public folders that it services.

The Exchange Public Folder task processes all folders beneath each target's root path, except for folders that are processed by another Exchange Public Folder task and those that have archiving disabled (This can be set in Outlook using the Enterprise Vault Properties for the public folder or in the properties for the Public Folder target).

If required, custom filtering can be configured to select the items to be archived from Public Folders.

New Public Folders under a specified root can be automatically added as targets by setting the public folder target to be an Auto-Enabler. Whenever a new Public Folder is added under the target root, the folder is automatically enabled for archiving and a new archive is created for that folder and any subfolders.

This feature should be used with caution, as it could result in a very large number of archives being created. However, it can be useful in some organizations, such as legal departments, where folders are created for new cases.

Public Folder Auto-Enablers can generate targets for other tasks. On large systems, scanning for new public folders can take a long time, so passing new targets to other tasks means that processing of folder content is not held up by scanning.