Backup Your Office 365 Email Database to Your Local Computer

How to Download All Emails From Office 365? Step By Step

Office 365 is a widely used web-based professional platform, popular for its easy-to-use interface. Many organizations rely on this interface to experience a collaborative environment and to send/receive work emails.

However, as you know, Office 365 data is stored in the cloud, and you don’t have control over it. So, it’s hard to say who’s accessing your data at the very moment!

Moreover, if your important emails and documents get in the wrong hands then it would become the worst nightmare for you.

That’s why many experienced IT professionals suggest keeping a copy of all your important emails on the local system by taking backup to avoid security risks.

So, without further ado, let’s discuss the three different choices to download all emails from Office 365.

Must Read: How to Upload PST to Office 365? Learn the Best Way 

Method-#1: Effortlessly Download All Emails From Office 365 Using a Reliable Software

Whenever there is an IT-related problem, technology has always come forward to the rescue. There is no exception in this case also.

After consulting and considering the opinions of hundreds of experts, it is certain that SysTools Office 365 Backup Tool is the best choice to save all your crucial emails from Office 365.

The tried and tested tool can securely back up not only emails but also contacts, calendars, and documents without any data loss.

Let’s have look at the working steps of the tool.

Step-1: Run the software and go to the ‘Set up’ section. Choose ‘Office 365’ as the source and ‘Outlook’ as the destination. Here the emails will be saved in the pst file format.

Step-2: Scroll down and under the ‘Workload Selection’, click on ‘Email’, ‘Contact’, ‘Calendar’

Step-3: You can apply the ‘Date Filter’ to download selective emails from the desired date range.

Step-4: Next, go to the ‘Source’ tab, provide the ‘Admin Email’, the ‘Application ID’ 

Step-5: Perform a source permission verification by clicking the Validate button. 

After the required permissions turn green, press the Next button.

Step-6: Next, go to the ‘Destination’ tab and choose the ‘Backup folder path’ 

Step-7: Perform the destination permission verification by clicking on the Validate button.

After the permissions turn green, hit the Next button.

Step-8: Next, click on ‘fetch users’ to list out the source users. Then, select the users whose data you want to download.

Step-9: Finally, Verify the necessary permissions and click on the Start Backup to download all emails from Office 365.

Also Read: If you want to migrate Microsoft Teams from one tenant to another then use Migratorwaizard Teams Migration Tool.

What Additional Benefit You Can Get By Using the Software?

  • You can download Outlook 365 mailboxes in bulk and convert them into PST in one go.
  • It gives the facility to choose the desired destination location to save the downloaded emails.
  • It preserves the folder hierarchy of the source after the data is downloaded.
  • You can easily organize and identify the files as it facilitates naming convention.
  • Also, it lets you have a seamless uninterrupted experience while backing up the mailboxes. It’s possible because of its ‘Pause & Resume’ feature.
  • It maintains data integrity throughout the backup process which shows that your data will be secured during the process.

Method-#2: Save All Your Emails From Office 365 Using the Export/Import Wizard

It is a manual procedure that Microsoft supports. However, before attempting this method you must ensure that you have Outlook installed and configured Office 365 account.

[Note: This method will download your emails in the pst file format.]

Now, follow the below procedure to locally save your emails.

Step-1: Open Outlook and navigate to the top left of your screen then click on ‘File’ 

Step-2: Next, click on the Open & Export option. And, select the Import/Export

Step-3: After that, select the Export to a file under the ‘Choose an Action to Perform 

Step-4: Then hit the Next button.

Step-5: In the next window, choose the Outlook Data file(.pst)

under ‘Create a file of type

Step-6: Then, press the Next button.

Step-7: Next, select the folder that you want to download.

Step-8: Tick the Include subfolders checkbox to backup the entire mailbox. Or else, just choose the folders you wish to export from the list.

Step-9: After that, click on the Next button.

Step-10: Then, click on the Browse to choose the destination path where to save the downloaded Outlook (.pst) file. In addition to that, under the Options section, select the radio button according to your need.

Step-11: Lastly, hit the Finish button to download all emails from Office 365.

Why You Should Give it a Second Thought Before Using This Method?

  • It’s a very lengthy process and consumes a lot of time.
  • You need to be technically sound to do the configuration.
  • Unfortunately, this method is suitable only if you have a few number emails to download.
  • Also, if you try to download a large file then disappointment is going to come on your side.

Method-#3: Download All Emails From Office 365 One by One and Save them As PDF

Just like the heading suggests, by using this method you will be able to download emails one at a time in the popular file format(PDF).

However, there is no direct way to save the emails as PDFs from Office 365. So, first, you need to save the emails in HTML and later convert them to PDF.

To get a clear picture, refer to the below procedure.

  • Go to Mail View>> Open Inbox  containing emails
  • Search for the File option and click the same>> hit Save As >> Choose a destination path to save your emails on a local system
  • From the ‘Save As’ dropdown menu select the file format as HTML>> Finally, click on the Save
  • Now, in Outlook click on File>> select Open>> Browse for the HTML file created
  • Click Save As>> Choose the file format as PDF from the dropdown menu>> Hit Save

The above procedure may seem convenient but, it could be equally daunting if you have a huge number(in terms of thousands) of emails to download.

Must Read: How to Transfer Office 365 Mailbox to Another User Account?

To Conclude

Since Office 365 is a professional platform used by almost every industry, the number of emails sent/received must be in terms of hundreds/thousands per day.

And, to avoid the probable risk of security threats, experts suggest downloading all emails from Office 365 and saving them on your local machine.

So, what could be a smart choice than using the tried and tested software to carry out the process?