Read time 8 minutes
Office 365 and MS Outlook are the 2 most widely used email clients across the world. However, in the growing popularity of cloud-based platforms, users are migrating their data to cloud-based Office 365. But what if users have lost their entire email mailbox from Office 365 account, and have no backup data? This guide will explain you all, how one can export emails from Office 365 to Outlook PST manually and using PST export tool.
Primary reasons to export emails from Office 365 to Outlook PST?
Though there can be many possible reasons to export emails to Outlook PST from Office 365. But the primary reasons are:
- Backup
- Archiving
- Backup: Many users take backup of their emails to save them in their local system. This proves to be the only saving grace in severe cases of corruption, threats, and loss of data. In cloud platform, data loss chances are more regarding account taping, hacking, network packet analysis, etc. as compared to a desktop email client such as Outlook. Hence, to keep your data safe, taking backup Office 365 is a best practice.
- Archiving: It is safe to say that it is a wise habit to keep a copy of all the important emails for any future urgencies.
- Save space: PST is a format with a compact file size which allows users to save up cloud space and can be stored without any complexities. If you’re running out of storage, either you need to upgrade your cloud subscription for more storage or to delete mailbox data to get more free space.
The manual approach to export emails from Office 365 to Outlook
Before proceeding, make sure your system meets the following system requirements:
- Should have 32/64 bit versions of Windows 7 and later versions.
- Microsoft .Net Framework 4.5
- Web browsers should be any of these: Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) and later versions or Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox along with ClickOnce add-in installed.
Follow these steps to export emails from Office 365 to Outlook using this manual method-
- Sign-in to Office 365 with valid admin credentials.
- Then, go to Admin center, and click on Exchange.
- Now in the Exchange Admin center, navigate to Permissions > admin roles and select Discovery Management.
- Under Discovery Management, add Mailbox Import Export role, add yourself by using the plus button and click on Save.
- Now back in admin center, go to Compliance Management and opt for in-place eDiscovery & hold.
- Here you will see a + sign. Just click on it to create a new search query by providing the name and description of the search query and click on Next to proceed.
- Now under Mailboxes, opt for any of the following options as per your requirements and then click Next.
- Under Search query, give the details for searching items and click on Next.
- Now in the In-Place Hold settings, you can perform in-place hold of Search items.
- Finally, click on the Compliance management and hit the arrow button to export the Office 365 emails to Outlook PST. It will download a PST Export Tool to export the PST tool.
- To save the exported PST file, one can browse the location in eDiscovery PST Export Tool. And click start to begin the process.
- It will ask you to provide the Office 365 credential to complete the process. And click close once the process gets done.
- Here you can access your PST file by adding it to an existing Outlook profile in MS Outlook.
Drawbacks of manual approach
Manual methods are not suitable for every user. There are some drawbacks of manual approach which are listed below:
- The manual method is a much-complicated task.
- It has a very lengthy and tedious process to export emails from Office 365 to Outlook.
- It is not convenient to non-technical users.
- It requires proper and in-depth technical knowledge to perform the migration task.
An Alternative and better approach to Export emails from Office 365 to Outlook
As we discussed the drawbacks of the manual method mentioned above, it is challenging for non-technical users to perform such a lengthy and complicated task. Therefore, it is advisable to you to choose a third-party tool such as, Kernel Export Office 365 to PST to export entire Office 365 mailboxes to Outlook swiftly. The tool requires less technical knowledge to operate it. Hence, all kinds of users can efficiently operate this Export Office 365 to PST tool without any technical assistance.
The process of exporting the emails from Office 365 using the Export Office 365 to PST is following –
- Start the software and click the Add button to add the Office 365 account.
- Input the valid credentials of Office 365 account. Then choose the options to migrate single mailbox or multiple mailboxes (es) using the Administrator credentials. Click Add.
- After selecting the account, click the Set Filter and Migrate button.
- A drop-down menu will let you select among Mailbox, Archive Mailbox, and Public Folder. After selecting the folder, click the Migrate button.
- The Filter Selection wizard will provide a set of useful filters to select the data to migrate –
- Date Filter – Only the data present in this date filter will migrate.
- Item type filter – Only the selected item type (Email, Journal, Task, Contacts, Calendar/Appointment) will migrate.
- Exclude Deleted folder – The deleted folder will not migrate.
- Exclude Empty folder – The empty folder will not migrate.
- Save Data into a new folder – Entire data will migrate in the mentioned folder.
- Skip previously migrated items – Already migrated items will not migrate.
Finally, click the button I am OK, Start Migration.
- From the Save As pop-up window, select the PST option and click OK.
- Browse the destination folder for the new PST file. Click OK after selecting the folder.
- The migration will start. After completing a successful migration, the tool will provide a message. Click OK.
- You can get a complete migration report by clicking the Save report to CSV option.
The migration report will brief you about the status of each item and its saving location.
Conclusion
In this blog, we have discussed how one can export Office 365 mailboxes to Outlook using manual and a professional approach. Users often export their mailboxes to take backup, save cloud space and achieve their emails. But it gets difficult for the non-technical users to opt for a manual method which requires sound technical knowledge and intricate detailing. Hence, we have also suggested a professional solution which is quick, reliable, and easy to use.
I was looking for such tool and I got this brilliant Kernel Export Office 365 tool. The easy to use with simple interface and the ability to backup of Office 365 mailboxes become an easy task for now. Cheers!