Why Backup Office 365 Emails?

With the arrival of cloud technology, every individual and company is shifting their work from the on-premises platform to the cloud platform. Explained simply, people now prefer on-the-go technology accessed anywhere on their mobiles instead of the traditional in-office technology. 

 

One such cloud technology is Office 365, the product family of productivity software & cloud-based services by Microsoft, having applications like Word, Excel, Outlook, etc. Since you are an Office 365 user, a question must be roaming in your head – why backup Office 365 emails? There are many reasons for the same, along with the solutions you can use to backup your Office 365 emails, so keep reading this blog!

Reasons For Backup Of Office 365 Emails

Many reasons necessitate backing up your Office 365 emails, and we discuss some of them in the following points:

 

1. Accidental Deletion – You can accidentally delete crucial emails in Office 365, thinking the account storage is over. Unless you have technical expertise, you can’t recover the deleted emails, even those you accidentally deleted.

2. Data Compliance – Data compliance follows various regulations to maintain the integrity and availability of regulated and sensitive data. Many countries have data laws that mandate data storage where you work. Companies and individuals backup Office 365 emails to comply with the data laws.

3. Security Threats – Since your Office 365 emails are sensitive, they are prone to security threats. Now, the security threats here get divided into internal and external.
   
   Internal threats include data theft and intentional data deletion, while external threats include ransomware and virus attacks, natural disasters and power outages.

4. Hardware Malfunction – Your Office 365 emails stored in computers and data centres may become corrupted, prompting swift backup.

Now that we have read the reasons for backing up Office 365 emails, let’s read the solutions you can use to backup your emails.

Also Read: Enable IMAP in Proton Mail

 

Solutions To Backup Office 365 Emails

If we discuss the solutions, you can backup your Office 365 emails using manual or automated methods. We will discuss both in this article, so keep reading! 

 

Manual Method

 

The manual backup method involves the Import/Export Wizard to backup your emails in a PST file. It is the preferred method since using the eDiscovery tool for this task is complicated for many Office 365 non-technical users. Here are the steps to make a backup file:

 

1. Open Outlook on your Windows or MacOS computer and click the File menu.
2. Select the Open & Export option, then click Import/Export.
3. Once the Import & Export Wizard opens, choose Export to a file and click Next.
4. Select Outlook Data File (.pst) and click the Next button.
5. Select the folder you want to export data from. In this case, select Inbox and other folders like Drafts, Sent Mail, etc.
6. Check the Include subfolders option so that all the subfolders and their contents are also selected. Click Next.
7. Click on Browse to select the destination for saving the resultant PST file.
8. Click on Finish. 

This method looks easy, but it is not since it involves careful attention to exporting the PST file. A problem that doesn’t allow the usage of this tool is the corruption of the PST file. Let’s now read about the automated method to backup Office 365 emails.

 

Automated Method

The manual method described above can import or export only a single PST file at a time. Also, this method faces high chances of data file corruption that can make your emails inaccessible, leaving you with no option of manually backing up your Office 365 emails. 

Hence, you can use a professionally reliable automated tool backup Office 365 emails without data loss and file corruption. We will examine one tool: SysTools Office 365 Backup Tool. 

 

Features

 

• Export multiple Office 365 mailboxes without any worries.
• Download Office 365 mailboxes in bulk (Batch Mode) and convert them into PST.
• Apply the Date Filter for selective data backup.
• The software keeps the emails and the folders intact during the backup process.

Here are the steps to use the tool to backup Office 365 emails:

1. Install the tool in your system. Open and activate it after installation and choose Office 365 as the source platform and Outlook as the destination platform.
2. Under the Workload selection section, select the categories to backup from Office 365. Here, select Email as the main category. Select the Date Filter checkbox to backup selective emails from your Office 365 account.
3. Enter the Admin Email and Application ID for validating the source platform in the Source Office 365 window. Click Next after the validation.
4. In the Destination window, browse the backup folder path and set the resultant file size in gigabytes (GB). Click Next after validating the correct permissions.
5. There are several ways to add users from the source account in the Users window. Click on Validate and approve the selected user source account(s). 
6. Click Start Backup after the users are validated to start the backup process. The software checks your license and provides details. Click Start to begin the backup eventually.
7. Click Download Report to download the backup process report after the backup.
8. Click Re-Run Backup to restart the backup again. 

Conclusion

 Office 365 helps Microsoft users access their emails and other data anywhere from any device. There are many reasons to backup Office 365 emails, from accidental deletion to data compliance. We discussed two methods: manual and automated. The manual method involves the Import/Export Wizard. On the other hand, the automated solution uses the tool mentioned in this article for Office 365 email backup in a few minutes.