Email backup using Outlook

It’s a good idea to backup your email from time to time, especially prior to a mail server maintenance session.

This technique works for types of mail service including, Hosted Exchange, Microsoft Hosted Exchange email, IMAP and POP.

Make sure there is enough space to store your email. This may be on your existing hard disk, an external (USB) drive or even a network share.

First, load up Outlook and select send and receive – to make sure all your email is up to date.

Then, select File > Open & Export > Import/Export

Select Export to a file, and then select Next

Make sure to select ‘Export to a file‘

Then select the appropriate folder to backup. If you have more than one, you should back them all up. Then select ‘Next‘.

Chose a location to save your backup and use an appropriate name for your backup. There is a folder on my computer called C:\backup and this is where I want to store my email backup. The datafile itself is to be stored in an easy way to identify which backup can be identified when I need to choose one for restoring.

Once you have selected the folder and datafile name, select ‘Finish‘.

Repeat the process for all your data files.