You can download all of a mailbox's backed-up emails as a single .pst file. A .pst file is an Outlook data file, so you can open the emails directly in Outlook.
Who can export a mailbox as a .pst file?
- All users can export their own mailbox.
- Tenant-Wide Admins can also export the mailbox of any user in their organization.
Other roles (Read-only Admin, Limited Admin and End User) can only export their own mailbox.
How to export a mailbox
- Sign in to the backup portal and open Mail.
- If you're a Tenant-Wide Admin exporting another user's mailbox, select that user from the user list at the top of the page. To export your own mailbox, skip this step.
- Click Download and select Download All Mailbox.
- Wait while the file is prepared. For a large mailbox, this can take a while.
- When the download starts, save the file. It is named in this format:
Emails_<user's email address>_All_<date>.pst
How to open the .pst file in Outlook
In Outlook for Windows (classic), select File > Open & Export > Open Outlook Data File and choose the downloaded file. The emails appear as a separate folder in Outlook's folder list.
Good to know
- Folders aren't currently kept. All emails in the .pst file are in one folder called "Mailbox". If you need the original folders, use Download > Download Selected Folder to download them one at a time. Each folder downloads as a .zip file of .eml files.
- One export at a time. If you start a second export before the first one finishes, you'll see the message "Mailbox export is busy. Please try again later."
- Empty mailbox. If nothing has been backed up for the mailbox, you'll see the message "There are no backed-up messages to download."
- Exports are logged. Every export is recorded in the audit log, including who exported which mailbox.
- Single emails and selections. To download one email, you get a single .eml file. Several selected emails download as a .zip file of .eml files.