5 Ways to Backup and Restore Your Outlook Data

Outlook is one of the most widely used email clients worldwide and is the native email application in Office 365. Businesses using Office 365 can choose to use Outlook for day-to-day business operations and, more specifically, for all of their email, calendar, and contact needs. However, despite its reliability and convenience, data loss can still occur due to various factors such as system crashes, accidental deletion, hardware failures, and malware.

Therefore, it is essential to have an Office 365 total backup solutions that can back up your Outlook data to avoid losing important emails, contacts, calendars, and other critical information. But what if we told you there are other ways to backup Outlook data? In this article, we’ll discuss these five ways and explain how you can protect your entire Outlook data against data loss. Let’s begin.

5 Ways to Backup Outlook Emails and Data

Office 365 is a suite of applications and tools aimed at enhancing collaboration and productivity. But Microsoft doesn’t sit idly and allow you to lose your most important data. Instead, they provide native features for total protection and backup and restore capabilities. We can use these features to back up existing data in Microsoft Outlook. Moreover, you can always rely on third-party software to get the job done. Here are the five ways to perform Outlook backup and restore:

Export to a PST File

The PST format is a proprietary file format used by Microsoft to store data. When it comes to using native features to backup Outlook data, none work better than backing up exporting to an Outlook data file (PST).

By exporting your data to a PST file, you can backup all your Outlook data, including emails, contacts, calendars, and tasks. To export to a PST file, Open Microsoft Outlook and go to the “File” tab, select the “Import and Export” wizard, and then choose “Import/Export.” From there, select “Export to a file.” Finally, select “Outlook data file” to finish the wizard and create your PST backup file.

After completing the export wizard, you can copy the exported file to your OneDrive to keep an extra copy. That way, your pst files can easily be accessed and you’ll always have an on-the-cloud copy to recover from. If you need to recover, follow the same steps and choose “Import” instead of “Export.” Then, click “Outlook data file” and select the backup PST file from the destination folder — your personal folder file with backups — to recover instantaneously. Navigate to the Outlook data files tab under your C directory to find all the pst files saved locally on your personal computer.

Use the Built-in Backup Feature

Outlook has a built-in backup feature that allows you to back up your data to a local drive or network location. To use this feature, go to the “File” tab, select “Options,” and then click “Advanced.” From there, scroll down to the “Export” section and click “Export.” Choose the data you want to backup and select the destination where you want to save the backup files.

This method works similarly to the previous one in the sense that everything is done through Outlook. Similarly, this method backs up desired Outlook files, and you can copy the existing Outlook data file to OneDrive or another cloud storage app for safe keeping.

Sync with OneDrive

OneDrive emerges as a popular “supportive” application when it comes to backing up Outlook data files. OneDrive is a cloud storage service that comes with Office 365. By syncing your Outlook data with OneDrive, you can automatically backup your data to the cloud.

To do this, go to the “File” tab, select “Options,” and then click “Save.” From there, select the OneDrive folder where you want to store your Outlook data and enable the “Save to OneDrive” option.

Syncing both applications means you always have an up-to-date record of Outlook in OneDrive. This makes it seamless to restore Outlook backup in case of accidental deletion, hardware failure, or malware.

Use a Third-Party Backup Tool

Third-party backup tools exist to offer simplicity and convenience when backing up Microsoft Office applications like Outlook. We can use these tools to streamline the process and have a complete Outlook backup of your entire data.

Several such tools are available that can automate the backup process for Outlook. These tools offer advanced features such as scheduled backups, incremental backups, and cloud storage integration. Before you settle on the right tool, make sure to do your due diligence to identify the right tool for the job and the one that provides the right benefits for your business needs.

Use an Email Archiving Service

Email archiving services are designed to backup and store emails for compliance and legal purposes. Similarly, we can use them as a backup solution for Outlook data. These services offer features such as advanced search, e-discovery, and legal hold. Email archiving services are becoming more and more important for various legal reasons.

Additionally, some services allow you to create a backup location of your choosing and even back up Outlook data on the cloud to save storage space.

Conclusion

Backing up your Outlook data is crucial to avoid losing important information due to various factors. There are several ways to backup and restore your Outlook data, including exporting to a PST file, using the built-in backup feature, syncing with OneDrive, using a third-party backup tool, and using an email archiving service. By choosing the right backup solution for your needs, you can ensure that your Outlook data is always safe and secure.