How to Download Office 365 Emails – Top 3 Methods of 2023

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Written By Chirag Arora
Anuraag Singh
Approved By Anuraag Singh  
Published On September 29th, 2023
Reading Time 8 Minutes Reading

Been searching for the best way to download Office 365 emails lately? Here is all you need! Get the explicit solutions to save all your Office 365 online mailbox data to local storage with methods that are mentioned here.

“My organisation has provided me with an Office 365 account for email purposes. I am leaving from here very soon, but I would like to download my emails to my PC. I don’t find any way to do this distinctly. How do I download all emails from Office 365 that I can load into another email client?”

Since Office 365 is a cloud-based Suite, we somehow need to have a backup or simply export the data on-premises. Microsoft doesn’t provide a direct method through which you can download the mailbox data to your local storage, however, you can adopt a couple of approaches which we are going to discuss below.

Also Read: How to Backup Office 365 Essentials Account – Complete Guide

How to Download Office 365 Emails – 3 Best Ways

These are the best 3 approaches I believe, users must opt for if wondering how do I download all emails from Office 365 mailbox.

Techniques to Download Office 365 Email:

  1. Configuration of O365 account with Outlook desktop
  2. Automated Direct Method to Save Emails of O365 webmail
  3. Save Outlook Web App Email Files as HTML / PDF

Let’s understand each method in detail.

Method #1 – Configure Office 365 with Outlook Desktop Application

Prerequisite: For this approach, you need to have installed any desktop version of Outlook on your system.

  1. Go to your system’s Control Panel and choose Mail
  2. Click on Add option on the Mail window
  3. Now in the opened dialog box choose Manual setup or additional server types >> hit Next
  4. Here choose “Office 365”, followed by entering your Office 365 login credentials >> click Next
  5. Your Office 365 account will be verified in a while and then you will see Autodiscover.xml login window where you need to enter O365 login details >> hit Next
  6. If everything goes right, you will receive a notification window with Congratulation messages

congratulations message

You have to open your Outlook account and check all your Office 365 emails.

Export all Emails from Outlook 365 to Desktop

  • Open Outlook
  • Go to File >> Import & Export option.
    download all emails from outlook 365
  • Navigate to Export to a File option, and select Outlook PST.
  • Mark the checkbox to include subfolders.
  • At last, click OK to backup Outlook 365 emails.

Method #2 – Direct Solution to Download All Office 365 Emails (Experts Suggested)

The automated tool named as SysTools Office 365 Email Backup and Restore is a smart choice to quickly download Office 365 mailbox data into PST formats securely. Built with advanced algorithms, the backup utility provides multiple features along with backing up the huge Office 365 data in one shot.

You get the option to download Office 365 emails from multiple accounts in one go. The Concurrent Backup option makes sure that the entire process becomes quick and efficient. With the Restore option, you can import Outlook PST files to Office 365 Mailbox.

Step 1. Download and Install the software to download all Office 365 emails.

install software

Step 2. Check the “Email” checkbox and use Date-Filter if you want to export selective data.

select source

Step 3. Provide Office 365 Admin ID and Application ID and validate both of them.

enter credentials

Step 4. Browse for the destination location where you want to save your emails.

browse designation location

Step 5. Click on the Start Backup button to start downloading all Office 365 emails.

download all emails from outlook 365

Method #3 – Save Email Files As HTML or PDF

This method is really simple and can be applied to download Office 365 email files one by one. But it becomes a daunting process when applied to save a lot number of email messages. Follow the below steps:

As HTML-

  • Go to Mail view >> Open the inbox folder containing the required emails.
  • Go to File option >> click Save As >> provide a location path to the emails on your local storage.
  • Now select the file format HTML from the Save As drop-down menu >> hit Save.

As PDF-

Since PDF is not a default file format supported by Microsoft, we can’t directly save emails in PDF extension. For that, we will have to choose the HTML format first and then follow the below steps:

  • First of all, follow the above steps performed for HTML.
  • In Outlook, navigate to File >> choose Open >> browse the HTML file created initially.
  • Navigate to File >> hit Save As >> choose PDF format from the drop-down menu >> Tap Save.

Save Email Files As PDF Using Automated Solution

As it is quite evident from the above manual method, it could become a daunting process when used to save a large number of email messages as PDFs. Hence, it is advised to use SysTools Export Tool, as it offers numerous features that one can use to quickly save bulk Office 365 email messages as PDFs. 

Follow the below steps:

Step 1. Download, install and run this software on your PC. 

Download Now Purchase Now

Step 2. From the main screen choose Office 365 as the source and destination as PDF.

select source & export option

Step 3. Choose email from the workload selection and apply the date filter option for selective data download. Then click on the Next button.

select email from workload section

Step 4. Login with source Office 365 admin accounts credentials such as Admin Email and Application ID. Validate the permissions and click on Next.

allow permissions

Step 5. Select the path to save the resultant PDF file, choose the preferred naming convention and validate permissions. Then click on the Next button. 

browse location

Step 6. Select the required user accounts and validate permissions and then click on the Start Export button. 

start exporting Office 365 emails

Why an Organization might Want to Save Email Files as PDFs?

There are several reasons why an organization might want to save email files as PDFs using an automated solution. Some of these reasons include:

  1. Archiving: Saving email files as PDFs allows organizations to archive important communications in a format that is easy to access and preserve for long-term storage.

  2. Compliance: In certain industries, there may be regulations that require email communications to be archived in a tamper-proof format. Saving emails as PDFs can help organizations comply with these regulations.

  3. Collaboration: Saving emails as PDFs allows multiple people to view and work with the same email file, making it easier for teams to collaborate on projects.

  4. Backup: Automated solutions can help organizations create backups of their email files, which can be useful in the event of data loss or other issues.

  5. Searchability: Saving emails as PDFs allows for the emails to be indexed and searched easily, making it easier to locate specific information in large collections of emails.

  6. Accessibility: Saving emails as PDFs allows for the emails to be accessed and read on any device, regardless of whether or not the recipient has access to the original email client.

Wrapping Up

Users can opt for any of the above-described methods on how to download Office 365 emails. The configuration method would be lengthy and time-consuming, and if the data is huge, Outlook freezes. The software is an instant way to download all emails from Office 365 Outlook to the desktop in a short time span. So make a choice according to your convenience.

Frequently Asked Queries

Is it possible to download Office 365 emails directly into PDF?

No, PDF is not a default file format supported by Microsoft. Hence to save Office 366 emails as PDFs first you need to convert your data into HTML and then into PDF files.

Can I access Office 365 emails in the Outlook application?

Yes, if your system is installed with MS Outlook then you can access your Office 365 emails within it. The only you need to do is configure your account in the Outlook application with Office 365 credentials. This will also help you to save your emails in the local system.

How can I save Office 365 emails as HTML files?

Follow the steps to download your O365 data in HTML format:
1) Go to the Mail View.
2) Open the mailbox which you want to save.
3) Select the Save As from the File option and provide the destination file location.
4) Select the file format as HTML from the drop-down menu & save.

Can I download my O365 data selectively?

Yes with the help of Office 356 backup and restore automated solution you can save your data selectively. It provides the date filter option which allows you to save the data between a particular date.

  author

By Chirag Arora

Having around 9+ years of experience in technical writing. Knows about the core technical areas. Also, provides easy and reliable solutions to resolve difficulties faced by users while working with different platforms.

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