How to Backup Microsoft 365 Emails
If you're looking for the last office productivity bundle you'll ever need, then you've found it: Microsoft 365.
Microsoft 365 is the premier solution for everything from accountants to clerical workers. It continues to be the top-used software for email and word processing to this very day. But once you've taken a dive into the Microsoft ecosystem, you might not know how to back up Microsoft 365 emails.
Backups are vital for personal as much as business use. Failure to make a backup put you at risk of losing valuable data forever.
Keep reading as we discuss how email backups work, and how you can get started backing up data.
Table of Contents:
- Identify Which Email Service You Use
- How to Back Up Microsoft 365 Emails
- Find Cutting Edge IT Solutions With Evolved Support
Identify Which Email Service You Use
When you use email with Microsoft and Microsoft 365 backup solutions, you are likely using one of two systems: IMAP or Microsoft Exchange. IMAP is the modern standard that most email service providers use. It downloads emails to your device and keeps it in sync with the cloud, unlike the older POP3 standard.
Anyone can back up IMAP emails with a few clicks. But if you have an Exchange account, you will need admin privileges to do so. Exchange has much higher security standards than a baseline IMAP email solution.
Depending on which subscription you have, you likely have automatic Exchange or OneDrive backups. However, it is good practice to keep local offline backups. You can then import them elsewhere when needed.
How to Back Up Microsoft 365 Emails
Fortunately, there are options to do this automatically. Automatic backups spare you from having to remember or schedule regular backups. You can do this with the AutoArchiver utility.
However, you may have reason to do this manually from time to time. It's important to know how in case you run into technical issues with AutoArchive. Let's go through the steps of how how email backups work
- Navigate to File, then Open & Export, then Import/Export
- Find the option to Export to a file, then hit the Next button
- Find the Outlook Data File (it has the file extension .pst) and hit the Next button
- Find the mail folder that you intend to back up and hit the Next button
- Find a suitable location for your backup file, give it a name, and then hit the Finish button
The messages in this .pst file are fully accessible, meaning you can do anything with them as you would with normal messages. You can search through them, reply to them, or even forward them.
If you want to go further than Microsoft's standard backup solution, or your cloud storage solution, consider requesting Backup and Disaster recovery. This can help you create an effective data protection plan. Protecting Microsoft 365 emails is essential to maintaining your company's sensitive information and privacy compliance.
Find Cutting Edge IT Solutions With Evolved Support
Now that you know how to back up Microsoft 365 emails, it's time to build a robust backup schedule. You need to have several online and offline backups of all your most important files. Make sure to secure these emails and files with the latest encryption standards.
Evolved Support provides IT solutions ranging from VoIP to anti-virus and anti-malware protection. Contact us today and find out how we can improve your IT systems.