How Do I Export Emails from Office 365 to PST? – Step-by-Step Guide

Admin | Cloud Backup Email Conversion How to's Software Technology | 4 minutes read | Last updated on February 8th, 2023,

Office 365 and Microsoft Outlook are the most thoroughly used email application across the globe. Though, in the increasing popularity of the cloud, users are exporting their data to cloud-based Office 365. But, have you still wonder what if users have lost or misplaced their whole emails from Office 365 account, and you have no one data left in your backup? This complete guide will describe you, how to export email from Office 365 to PST using two different methods – manual method (eDiscovery PST Export Tool) and professional method (Office 365 Backup).

Key Reasons to Export Emails from Office 365 to PST

However, there can be a number of reasons to export Office 365 emails to PST. But the main reasons are:

  1. Backup
  2. Archiving

Let’s discuss each one in detail:

Backup: Cloud-based Office 365 is a convenient email application to store emails and other data online. However, it has a number of drawbacks too. In cloud platform, data loss chances are more regarding account taping, network packet analysis, hacking, etc as related to the desktop email application such as Outlook. Therefore, to protect your data safe, taking backup of Office 365 emails is the great practice.

Archiving: As far as archiving is concerned, there is a vast difference regarding storage capacity as Cloud service come with subscription packages. If you are running out of storage, either you require to upgrade your cloud subscription for more storage space or to delete mailbox data to get more free space.

How Do I Export Emails from Office 365 to PST using Manual Way?

Before proceeding, make sure your system meets the following system requirements to come out the issue of how to export email from Office 365 to PST for MS Outlook:

  • You should have 32/64 bit editions of Windows 7 and later editions.
  • Microsoft .Net Framework 4.5
  • Web browsers should be any of these: Internet Explorer (IE8) and later editions or Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox along with ClickOnce add-in installed.

Steps:

  1. Sign-in to Office 365 with valid admin details.
  2. Then, hit on the Admin Center, and click on Exchange.
  3. Now in the Exchange Admin center, navigate to Permissions > admin roles and choose Discovery Management.
  4. In the Discovery Management, add Mailbox Import Export role, add yourself via using the plus button and hit on Save.
  5. Now back in admin center >> go to the Compliance Management and select for in-place eDiscovery & hold.
  6. Here you will see the + sign. Just click on it to make a new search query by giving the name and description of the search query and press on Next to continue.
  7. Now in the Mailboxes, choose for any of the following options as per your need and then click Next.
  8. Under the Search query, provide the details for searching items and then click Next.
  9. Now, in the In-Place Hold settings, you can perform in-place holder of Search items.
  10. Lastly, hit on the Compliance management and press on the arrow button to export the Office 365 emails to PST. It will download the PST Export Tool to migrate the PST tool.
  11. To save the exported PST file, one can browse the location in eDiscovery PST Export Tool. And click start to start the process.
  12. It will ask you to give the Office 365 login details to achieve the process. And click close once the process gets accomplished.
  13. Here you can view your PST file by adding it on an existing Outlook profile in MS Outlook.

Limitations of Manual Way:

There is some limitations of manual way are mentioned below:

  1. The manual technique is much-difficult and complicated task.
  2. It has very time-taking and lengthy process to solve the task of “how do I export emails from Office 365 to PST Outlook”.
  3. Not friendly or easy to use for non-technical users.
  4. It needs complete technical knowledge to follow the above mentioned task.

An Alternative Way to export Emails from Office 365 to PST Outlook

As we talk over the limitations or disadvantages of the manual method above, it is challenging task for non-technical users to achieve such lengthy and complicated task. So, it is suggested you to go for third-party tool such as, Office 365 Backup to resolve the query “how do I export emails from Office 365 to PST”. The tool has no requirement to have technical knowledge to use it. Hence, non-technical users can also operate the tool efficiently to export Office 365 mailbox as PST format for any MS Outlook edition such as Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, etc.

Final Words

In this blog, we have explained to users how to export email from Office 365 to PST Outlook using manual method. Though, it is very tricky for the non-professional users to opt for a manual way which needs technical knowledge. So here, we have also recommended a professional solution, which is a fast, reliable and simple to use.