How to Export & Backup Office 365 Mailbox to PST: 4 Ways Explained

If you need to export or backup your Office 365 mailbox to PST format, this is the complete guide. Whether you’re creating a local backup before leaving an organization, exporting M365 mailbox data to PST for compliance, or migrating an O365 archive mailbox to PST, this article explains 4 proven methods, including eDiscovery, PowerShell, Outlook and an automated tool. All the mentioned methods are tested step-by-step by our Microsoft-certified technical team. Export an Office 365 mailbox to PST by following a step-by-step process with all mailbox attributes, such as emails, contacts, and calendars. Go through the guide, and you will get to know about different approaches to perform this task. According to a recent report from USA TODAY, a global outage hit Microsoft Exchange Online and other services. It disturbed several industries such as hospitals, banks, and 911 call centers. Moreover, it also hampered public transit systems and airlines by grounding their flights. Therefore, keeping a copy of your cloud data locally allows you to access it in the event of a Microsoft server outage and downtime. Since PST files are commonly used for archiving and transferring email data between different email clients, such as Microsoft Outlook. Hence, exporting Office 365 emails to a PST (Personal Storage Table) file is also useful for creating local backups, archiving cloud data, or migrating data to a different email platform. There are a few ways that exist to carry out this task. However, it can be an overwhelming yet technical process to execute. It involves several lengthy steps to be followed carefully to ensure all data is exported correctly. One popular method is to export PST from the Office 365 admin center using eDiscovery. However, admins have reported encountering errors when using this method, such as export request failed with status code 500, etc. Another commonly searched query is: how to export PST from Office 365 via PowerShell commands. However, there is a misconception that PowerShell commands can download Office 365 emails, contacts, and calendars to PST. No such method is available, but you can use PowerShell to export Exchange server mailbox data. But before jumping directly into the solution, let’s discuss the reasons behind this task first.

Why Do We Need to Export Office 365 to PST?

Administrators often perform this task when they need to create a PST from the Office 365 user accounts. See below how exporting Office 365 to PST can help you in different scenarios:

• Organizations often backup Office 365 data in PST for legal, audit, and compliance purposes.
• In the event of employee termination, administrators keep a copy of user data before deletion.
• Keeping PST files locally also helps in the event of accidental data deletion in an M365 account.
• Exporting the cloud data into local systems also helps to mitigate cloud ransomware attacks, resulting in data encryption.
• In the event of data backup and disaster recovery, the administrator uses the offline PST files to restore the mailbox data.
• When undergoing migrations, organizations often export Office 365 mailbox data to PST files, which helps them to import it into the target platforms easily.

What are the Different Ways for Exporting Office 365 Mailbox to PST?

Microsoft does not offer any direct tool, especially to export mailbox data and other items to PST format (like the New-MailboxExportRequest) command. However, there are a few ways that you can use to perform this task easily. These include eDiscovery, PowerShell, and Outlook. So, eDiscovery Content Search becomes a prime manual approach available for O365 admins to export Office 365 Exchange Online mailbox data and save it in PST format. This will enable users to download and protect their Outlook 365 Online data. Using these methods, you can also Export Office 365 Group Members to CSV. Below elaborated step-by-step solution for the Admin to export PST from Office 365 Webmail using the eDiscovery PST Export Tool.

Important: eDiscovery can also be used to export on-premises Exchange 2016 / 2013 mailboxes.

Method 1. Export PST from Office 365 Mailbox Using eDiscovery from Admin Portal

Step 1. First, you must log into your Office 365 account and launch the Microsoft 365 Admin Center

Step 2. From the Admin Center portal to export PST from Office 365 Security and Compliance, click on the Security and Compliance option.

Step 3. Under the Security and Compliance section, select the Permissions option and drag it to eDiscovery Manager.

Step 4. After that, check the box beside eDiscovery Manager, Next Edit icon to add the important roles that are required for the Discovery Management group. Step 5. Generally, the role group is assigned to the following roles, i.e., Case Management, Compliance Search, Export, Hold, Preview, Review, and RMS Decrypt. Step 6. If the Export role is missing. Click Edit role group, and add the same.  

  Step 7. Now, click on the More Resources option and open the Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal. Navigate to Content Search, and click the New Search option.

Note: If the Content search option is not available for you then, make sure, you have set the required eDiscovery permissions. Furthermore, changes in eDiscovery permissions can take up to 24 hours to reflect.

Step 8. When you click on  New Search, a wizard will appear that will let you customize all elements of content search options. You can specify the name and description of the search. The second option, i.e., Location, allows you to specify which mailbox data you want to export.

Note: If you will select all locations including SharePoint Online and Public Folders Database, then it might cause the tool to take a long while to export Office 365 mailboxes to PST and to complete the entire search.

Step 9. Now, in the next part of the Search customization, you get the Conditions tab, which allows you to apply several different filters like query language/region, keywords/phrases, and conditions, including those related to time, message fields and properties, etc.

Note: If you want to export entire mailbox data, then do not apply any conditions or keywords.

Step 10. Once all the required settings and filters are applied, you can click on the Submit button and click on Done to close this window and start your search instantly. Step 11. Now the Search will be running in the background – in the meantime, you can also check the status of your Search by clicking on the Search tab. Step 12. On the next screen, you can easily see whether the search is complete or not. If yes, then click the Actions button and choose the Export Results option. Step 13. If you want to export encrypted files, you can include the Encrypted Files option. You can also customize the export results. Once all the required settings are applied, click on the Export button. 

Note: If you want to Export the search results in a single PST file then do not the Enable Deduplication Option. Exporting the results with default settings is suggested to avoid any confusion

Step 14. The export process will start immediately. Navigate to the Export tab and select your Search again to see the progress, whether it is completed or in process. Step 15. Once the export process is finished, you can click on the Download Results option. Make sure to copy the unique Export key, as it is required in the “ClickOnce” extension that will start in the next step. Step 16. Click the Download Results option, and the eDiscovery PST Export Tool will start automatically. Provide the export key and define the destination path and location to save the exported PST data on your local computer. Once you have provided all the details, click Start to export the Office 365 mailbox to PST without Outlook. When it is completed, close this extension.   Important Note: Microsoft suggests using the Edge Browser to run the eDiscovery export. If you are using anything other than this, such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, then you need to download the below-listed extensions respectively.

• For Google Chrome: ClickOnce launcher for Google Chrome
• For Mozilla Firefox: Breez ClickOnce

Errors You Might Face While Exporting Office 365 to PST via eDiscovery

The errors can occur if eDiscovery is not configured properly: #Error 1: eDiscovery PST Export Tool Stuck Calculating Error

#Error 2: Can not Start an Application Error at the end. (eDiscovery Export Tool download fails)

#Error 3: You can’t start the eDiscovery PST Export Tool from the admin center in Office 365 Online

Method 2: Export Office 365 Mailbox to PST Using SysTools Software in a Few Clicks

Users often raise concerns about the above-mentioned manual methods. Considering the growing needs of the user, I will only suggest that SysTools Office 365 Export software is a complete package. It can help you perform the export process from Office 365 mailboxes to PST / EML / MSG / MBOX / PDF format. While testing the software, I was surprised by its performance. I exported my primary, archive, and shared mailboxes to PST  files within hours. This tool does not compromise the integrity of the data; instead, it ensures data integrity throughout the process.

Moreover, you can easily run this software on any version of the Windows operating system, including the latest Windows 10. This is why the Microsoft MVPs also suggest this software while exporting emails from Office 365 to PST files safely.

Detailed Explanation & Working Steps of Software to Export Office 365 Online Mailbox to PST

Step 1. Download, install, and launch the Microsoft 365 to PST export software on your computer. Free Download Purchase Now Step 2. Select Office 365 as the Source and Outlook as the Destination platform. Step 3. From the Workload selection, choose your desired workload from the list of mailbox items, such as Email, Contact, Calendar, etc. Apply date filters (if required) for selective data export based on the date range. Step 4. Log in with your source Office 365 Admin credentials to authenticate the platform securely. Click the Validate button to ensure the required permissions. Step 5. Set the destination path to save the resultant PST files on your computer. Choose the appropriate PST file size. Step 6. Add users using any of the following methods: 

• Fetch Users – Automatically fetch users from the Source domain.
• Import Users – Import users through a CSV file.
• Download Template – Get a sample CSV template to create your user list.

Step 7. Select the users whose data you want to export and click the Start Export button for the Office 365 export mailbox to PST file.

Features Offered By Automated Tool

• Backup Microsoft 365 Mailbox in PST, EML, MSG, MBOX, and PDF file formats.
• Option to split PST file into smaller parts to generate variable-sized .pst files.
• Export the Archive mailbox to PST from an Office 365 user account.
• Export Office 365 Shared mailbox to PST using Admin impersonation.
• Allows you to export Contacts from Office 365 to the desired format.
• Download Office 365 emails in bulk using the Admin account.
• Allows you to export the O365 mailbox to PST using a date range filter.
• Offers a Naming Convention option to archive emails in EML and MSG formats.

Method 3: Using PowerShell to Export Office 365 Mailbox to PST

First thing, there is no such option available to directly export PST from an Office 365 online mailbox via PowerShell. There is no such PowerShell command available in Office 365 (like the New-MailboxExportRequest command ). If the user wants to export an Office 365 online mailbox to PST for free, then using the eDiscovery PST Export is the only solution. Other methods are also available, which are technically sound solutions to export Outlook 365 mailboxes. Those are: Using the PowerShell command, the user can synchronize an Office 365 Outlook Online account with a desktop-based MS Outlook. And then using the Import / Export feature, one can export Office 365 emails to PST using Outlook. Script delegation: full access, Outlook Online binds to the delegated mailbox, and exports to PST. Technically very likely possible, but I think no one ever tried to do it. Well, after trying scripts, I found that it is quite complex for archiving Microsoft 365 mailbox to a PST file.

Note: There is no such PowerShell script available to directly export PST from Office 365. However, you can use PowerShell to Export Exchange Mailbox to PST from an on-premises Exchange environments.

Export an On-Premise Exchange Mailbox to PST Using PowerShell

Here’s a basic PowerShell script to export an on-premises Exchange mailbox to a PST file using the New-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet: Step 1. Connect to Office 365 Exchange Online Open PowerShell on your computer and run it as an administrator. Use the following command to connect to your Office 365 Exchange Online account:

   $UserCredential = Get-Credential

   Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName <UserPrincipalName> -UserCredential $UserCredential

   Note: Replace <UserPrincipalName> with the actual user’s principal name. Step 2. Export the Mailbox to PST Once you are connected, you can use the `New-MailboxExportRequest` cmdlet to export the mailbox to a PST file. Here’s an example command:

   New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox <MailboxName> -FilePath \\Server\SharedFolder\mailbox.pst

 Note: Replace <MailboxName> with the actual mailbox name and provide the appropriate file path for the PST file. Step 3. Monitor Export Progress You can use the Get-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet to monitor the progress of the export request:

   Get-MailboxExportRequest

Step 4. Remove the Export Request (Optional) Once the export is complete, you can use the Remove-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet to remove the export request:

   Get-MailboxExportRequest | Remove-MailboxExportRequest

Note: Make sure to replace <UserPrincipalName> with the actual user’s principal name and `<MailboxName>` with the mailbox you want to export. Also, provide the appropriate file path for the PST file. Remember that you need to have the necessary permissions and Exchange Online PowerShell modules set up on your system to run this script. So, to make the task easy, the automated solution is recommended over other methods.

Method 4: Export Mailbox from Office 365 Using Outlook 2021, 2019, 2016, 2013

Using Outlook, you can export data into a PST. However, before you begin, you have to ensure a few things. There are a few prerequisites for this method. In the very first step, you have to configure your Office 365 account with POP configuration in Outlook. By default, Outlook is set to download email for the past 1 year. You can change this setting if you need to export all your Office 365 emails collectively. Open Outlook, click on Account Settings> Account Name and Sync Settings, and move the slider to All.

Step-by-Step Guide to Export Office 365 Mailbox Using Outlook

Step 1. Run Outlook on your computer. From the top left corner, click on File. Step 2. From the drop-down list, choose Open & Export > Import/Export option. Step 3. Click on Export to a file > Next. Step 4. Choose Outlook Data File (.pst)> click on Next. Step 5. Select the name of the email account to export; only a single account can be exported at a time. Make sure that the Include subfolders check box is selected. This ensures that everything in the account will be exported: Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks. Choose Next. Step 6. Click on the Browse button to specify the destination location to save the Outlook Data File (.pst). Enter the desired file name, and click on the OK button to continue. Step 7. Click on the Finish button to export the Office 365 mailbox to PST using Outlook. Prima facie, this method seems simple, but there are various shortcomings of this method.  Some of them are as follows: You must have the technical knowledge to configure your Office 365 email account in Outlook with POP configuration. Additionally, you can only export a single account at a time; for multiple-user data export, this method is not practical. It does not export metadata of mailbox items such as folder properties (views, permissions, and AutoArchive settings), message rules, and blocked sender lists. For instance, if you’re using Cached Exchange Mode, then this method will only export the items in your current cache.

Let’s Sum Up

Users constantly search for how to export Office 365 mailboxes to the PST file format. Hence, in this article, I have discussed each step after performing it myself. The manual methods discussed in this blog are quite complex and require technical expertise. Moreover, a novice user fails to implement these approaches. Therefore, for an effortless process to export Office 365 online to PST, use the automated tool as discussed above. It is a proficient tool that does not require technical know-how. You can smoothly download bulk PST files from multiple Office 365 user accounts without encountering any technical hurdles.

Frequently Asked Questions