The archive message store is a set of tables that coexist with the server message store, and stores all messages waiting to be deleted. A regularly executed system process transports messages between the message stores by removing all messages in the server message store that have reached a final state, and then inserting them into the archive message store.

Messages remain in the archive message store until deleted by a server delete rule. Usage of the archive message store improves the performance of the server message store by minimizing the amount of messages that need to be filtered during synchronization. See Delete rules.