Office 365 Backup Solution - Export Online Archive Mailbox to PST File

Are you an Office 365 user? Then you should seriously consider having backup of your Office 365 data. The reason behind this backup is simple. Our data is not 100% safe anywhere. It can suffer from malicious attacks and accidental deletion. So, Office 365 backup solution will always place you on a safe side.

Surprisingly, there is not much initiative on behalf of Microsoft to export Office 365 archive mailbox data. Their Office 365 data backup policy is a weak and ever-changing one. They support email backup for only 30 days, which is insufficient by all means. So, users are on their own when it comes to Office 365 archive mailbox. In this blog, we will provide users top 3 best Office 365 mailbox backup solutions. The aim is to enable users to secure their cloud data by backup process.

Office 365 Backup Solutions to Export Office 365 Archive Mailbox to PST

Here, users will know four different methods of saving Office 365 data. All the methods can be performed by the admin of Office 365 while individual users can backup their data by implementing the last method only. We will describe all the methods stepwise in this write-up so that users can easily perform them.

Solution 1: Approach using Efficient Tool

The best and perfect approach for O365 backup is Office 365 Export tool. We will describe instructions for both the admin and the users so that both can get benefited.

For Admin Account

Admin account holders should follow these steps to backup Office 365 mailbox to PST.

Open Office 365 Export tool on the machine and click Login.

On the next page, tick the checkbox named “Is Admin” situated just above Sign In button.

Type Office 365 username and password in the designated boxes and click on Sign In.

You will see a list of Office 365 user ID on the screen. Select all the mailboxes you want to take backup of from that list. Click on Next.

Choose email format from the given options of PST, MSG, and EML. We have chosen Microsoft Outlook (PST) option.

Once PST option has been chosen, splitting PST file option will also be available. You can try this option to prevent PST file corruption due to oversized PST.

Choose the mailboxes you wish to backup from your Office 365 account.

“Date Filter” option is also there in the software. Users can use this option to filter during migration.

The above steps are to export Office 365 primary Mailbox to PST format. To export Office 365 archive Mailbox to PST file only, check Archive Mailbox option. If you want to complete data of Office 365, then check above items like Mails, Calendar,Tasks and Contacts.

Check "Archive Mailbox" option to export Office 365 online archive mailbox to PST.

Note:

Click on Browse to select the destination folder of Office 365 mailbox backup. Select the folder for the resultant PST file and click OK.

Now, click Start to initiate the backup process of Office 365 mailboxes.

Once the process begins, users can see the real-time progress status of the procedure on screen. They can also pause the process if necessary by clicking on Pause button.
After O365 backup is done, the status will be shown as Completed.

If you want to save the backup process report, Click Save Report and select the saving location.
Finally, you can find the backup of selected Office 365 data on the chosen folder of local system.

For User Account

Follow these steps to perform the backup of Office 365 mailbox from an user account.

Launch Office 365 Export application on your system and click on Login.
Enter Office 365 credentials like username and password and click Sign In.
All Office 365 folders and sub-folders will be displayed in front of you. Click Next.
Follow steps no. 5 to 14 of the earlier procedure of “For Admin Account.” Thus you will be able to export Office 365 mailboxes to PST smoothly for user account.

Solution 2: Free Approach using eDiscovery PST Export Tool

In this free solution, we will use Office 365 eDiscovery PST export tool to backup Office 365 mailbox to PST file. This tool is a useful one for O365 admins to export Office 365 mailboxes to PST. Before using the tool, users have to follow certain steps. The steps are mentioned here:

Assign all compliance and security related permissions for eDiscovery tool.
In the ‘Search and Investigation’ section of eDiscovery, create a case.
Add some new users if eDiscovery is created recently.
Put legal hold on the existing content to protect them from any type of alternation.
Now, generate and execute some content searches with the case.

Solution 3: Free or Manual Approach using PowerShell Command

This manual method involves execution of MS Windows PowerShell commands. If you want to export O365 mailbox to PST via PowerShell, follow these steps:

First of all, connect your Office 365 account with MS Exchange Server.
Grant permissions for accessing export rights to perform O365 backup.
Now, you have to configure Office 365 account in MS Outlook email client.
Once configuration is done, verify the settings done in Microsoft Outlook.
From currently open email client, transfer Personal Storage Table(PST) file.
Make sure if the Office 365 mailboxes export to PST has been completed.
Terminate all the permissions you granted during the step 2 of the procedure.
Discontinue the connection initiates at the beginning of this export process.

Conclusion

This post has successfully described four different Office 365 mailbox backup solutions. Users can choose to perform any of the above solutions to archive Office 365 mailbox to PST, EML and MSG format. Before performing, they must consider the pros and cons of each solution and then decide which one they wish to adopt.