How to backup and restore your email, contacts, and calendar with Microsoft Outlook

[@toddlawrimore3577]

Thank you. Never seen such a clear explanation as this. Had no idea what the "Outlook Data File" was.

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad it helped! Thank you for your comment.

[@TJ-Rockstar76]

I've spent the last 3 days trying to learn the best way to download my emails, so I don't lose them all once my account closes and this was the best way and presentation ever! I even did a practice trial on a new small email account and everything was saved and it worked still afterwards. Thank you!

[@itwithcarlos]

Thank you Tina, I am glad it helped. Have a nice day!

[@TJ-Rockstar76]

The only crappy thing that I discovered is that is only recorded 1 years worth and not all of my emails. Is there something I can do to change this?

[@itwithcarlos]

@@TJ-Rockstar76 Hi Tina, yes you can change that. The the whole history should be on the server. The one year history is what is being kept in your local computer (Outlook). You can change that. In Outlook, click on File > Account Settings > Account Name and Sync Settings > then you can move change it to keep the whole history. Hope it helps. Thanks!

[@blackberryflash6893]

Thank you Carlos. I was trying to figure out how to view and screen my outlook files. My files have a lot of duplicates in them and some are repeats of other files. You explanation of how to import them, view them, and then remove them back out of Outlook was just what I was looking for.

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad it helped! Thank you for the feedback!

[@hobalwatan1816]

This is the best video I have ever seen to solve this issue, Many thanks Sir for sharing it with us. Regards

[@itwithcarlos]

So nice of you, thank you!

[@JasonPurdyNH]

Thank you! Super helpful to know how to open and view back up .PST files without importing. Thanks!

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you!!!

[@corythickett1745]

Awesome video! Well done and way better than what others have created! Thank you! You have a new subscriber!

[@itwithcarlos]

Thank you Cory for your comment. Have a great day!

[@jamesbentz7883]

Thank you for this video, very clear and informative. Saved much time versus contacting my Office 365 provider support.

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad it helped, thanks

[@stealthbusiness]

Nice tutorial, thank you for putting it together. Please make a video that can export or save all the email account settings only. I find this is really needful, yet difficult to find How to do it.

[@itwithcarlos]

Thanks for the idea! I will research about it!

[@firmaevents9594]

Wow wow wow. This process is made very simple with you. I actually contacted microsoft 365 support to help me with this process and you know over the chat we stayed like 30 min trying to explain to me how to it with alot of confusiom for me since here u demonstrated through a video which is very helpful. Thank yoi alot for this help and all help you have given through this channel

[@itwithcarlos]

Thank you again for your comment. I am glad you found it useful! Have a nice day!

[@subtainanwar]

great work thanks for your outstanding teaching way

[@itwithcarlos]

Thanks and welcome

[@rickbudway877]

Excellent video, very easy step by step showing how to backup and restore Outlook email, contacts etc...Thank you

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad you liked it

[@AmilcarPino]

Very practical and summarized explanation Carlos muchas gracias, new subscriber here 😀

[@itwithcarlos]

Awesome, thank you!

[@meggokayzee6620]

OMG!!! This is the video I was looking for! Thsnks a lot, you have no idea how you helped me honestly! I really appreciate this video,...its straight to the point and easy to understand

[@itwithcarlos]

Hello Meggo, thank you for your comment. I appreciate it. Have a great weekend!!!

[@petertiedemann7180]

Very useful: Simple and straightforward!

[@itwithcarlos]

I am glad you like it, thank you!

[@kinesiology-moves9598]

Hi, thanks, that was very helpful. Can you please explain how to empty the mailbox? I keep getting constant notifications now because my mailbox is 91 % full. But I don't know how to empty it.

[@itwithcarlos]

Hi, sorry for my delayed response. To empty your mailbox could actually be a challenging task. It depend on the criteria that you want to use to delete/remove old emails. You could create email rules (within Outlook) to delete some emails automatically. You will need to decide what criteria to use when deleting your emails and create the rules. Thank you.

[@tatendamadarani7934]

Excellent Video Thank you. I have a question. i did the whole process but only the inbox emails can be viewed. the other emails from sent items, drafts are not available. It is stating we didn't find anything to show here.

[@itwithcarlos]

Please make sure that you have selected the root of the folders that contain all your folders. You can also try by creating a separate pst file for each folder that is missing. Hope it helps. Thank you!!!

[@ml6941]

Thank you, Carlos!! Quick question - as I have 2 different email accounts in my Outlook - I must make a separate .pst for each, correct? I don't see a way to make just one backup that would capture both accounts. THANKS again for the great video and the help.

[@itwithcarlos]

Yes, you will create a pst for each account. Thank you and have a nice day!

[@ml6941]

@@itwithcarlos Thank you again!

[@anirudhaphadke7136]

Thank you nice and clear video of outlook. I have one query I am using Outlook 2010 and want to upgrade it to 2026 please let me know , I need to take complete backup of existing pst and then uninstall outlook 2010 and then install outlook 2016 and against restore backup or only upgrade directly will solve my problem Please do reply Thanks

[@itwithcarlos]

Hi Anirudha, in this case I suggest you create the backup, uninstall Outlook 2010 (btw, it is not supported by MS anymore), then install Outlook 2016 and restore your email from the pst (backup). Thank you and have a nice day!

[@regwatson2017]

I understand this backups and restores emails. But if you are moving to a new PC what about all the Outlook settings within the Outlook program itself that you have created on the original computer ? Do those get moved with the PST file of if not, how do you transfer all the Outlook program settings to the new installation ?

[@itwithcarlos]

This process only allows you to migrate the email history, contacts and calendar. If you have anything else, then you will have to look at every specific piece of data/configuration/rules/add-on and probably re-doing manually in your new computer. Thank you.

[@regwatson2017]

@@itwithcarlos Many thanks for the reply - very much much appreciated. Seems incredible that Microsoft hasn't thought that people might actually want/need to do that !! I'll try and find some software that automates the process...But I shouldn't have to - ridiculous in the extreme.

[@TALAL66]

Thanks a lot for the well explained video! When I scroll down to my old emails on Inbox, there are some very old emails that are stored in the server, will it be included on the backup too?

[@itwithcarlos]

They should be included in the backup. Thanks!!!

[@rampawar7983]

Thanks for making this video. very help us to email backup. And time saves.

[@itwithcarlos]

Happy to help, thanks

[@theFakeSleepyJoe]

Very Helpful! Thanks Carlos.

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you Joseph.

[@mattisola]

Man you helped me so much! Thank you

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad I could help! Thank you.

[@microsoftsarker]

excellent explanation

[@itwithcarlos]

I am glad you like it, thank you!

[@trking649]

VERY useful & beautifully described. Thank you.

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks!

[@blstewart001]

Great video. Just enough info and not too much.

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad you liked it!, thanks

[@mulvadad]

Help! When following your instructions in backing up my Outlook Data File to an external hard drive, I seem to have lost a number of folders (and the email in them) that I had created in Outlook (2013). Also all my most recent Sent emails are missing. The .pst back-up file is not in the folder I had created for it in my external drive. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[@mulvadad]

I found my folders (they were simply collapsed) but still missing most recent Sent emails. Was not able to create the .pst file back-up.

[@itwithcarlos]

That is odd, did you recently change email provider? Sometimes different email providers may different sent email folders, like "Sent" or "Sent items". Don't you have more that one sent email folder? That is my only guess at this time.

[@itwithcarlos]

Did you check the folder in the webmail? compare with what you see via webmail.

[@mulvadad]

Thank you for this suggestion. I was able to find the Sent emails on my AT&T mail site. Not sure why they dropped off from my Outlook Sent folder? Thanks again.

[@itwithcarlos]

@@mulvadad I am glad you solve the issue. Thank you for the feedback. Thank you!

[@khalidniazi5789]

Thank you so much very good and helpfull video

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you!

[@gregvoneinem5671]

We have storage problems, so if we move required emails onto our desktop, then delete them from Outlook - will they still be available? Does the access to the back up inside Outlook add to your storage limit?

[@itwithcarlos]

Hello Greg, if you move them to your desktop, they will be available from Outlook, but be aware that there are several ways to do this. One is by creating a pst file which you can open with Outlook (what is shown in the video). A different options is to archive them. Here is an article that shows how it works: support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/archive-items-manually-ecf54f37-14d7-4ee3-a830-46a5c33274f6#:~:text=To%20manually%20archive%20Outlook%20items,that%20you%20want%20to%20archive. None of the above options uses your online (server) storage. Hope it helps. Thank you!

[@anderokurm]

Thank You!!! Nice tutorial :)

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you Andero!

[@christopherodonnell7718]

This is BRILLANT. Thank you!!

[@christopherodonnell7718]

I followed all the steps. Unfortunately, only some of the sub folders were save and the SENT folder was not saved. I selected the entire outlook profile - not just a single folder. Any tips?

[@itwithcarlos]

Hi Christopher, most of times this kind of issues happen because the folder was not actually selected or highlighted. You could try creating a pst/backup with only that folder and see if it still happens. Thank you!!!

[@itwithcarlos]

Thank you!!!

[@mohddaud9563]

Hi.. can apply for Outlook 2007? I've problem to backup email from Outlook 2007 to Outlook 2021.

[@itwithcarlos]

Hi Mohd, you should be able to export to pst file from Outlook 2007. The menu might be a little bit different but the principle is the same. Thanks!

[@shoebamersyed3192]

Thanks, I was looking for a way to see without import. Which is at 6:06

[@itwithcarlos]

I am glad it helped you, thank you!

[@clevelog]

Thank you so very much. I am grateful.

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad it helped, thank you!

[@marycollins3320]

Thank you! I think I can do this!

[@itwithcarlos]

You can do it! thank you.

[@chelceafun1321]

Hi I have a problem with the new version. Can you please make a video for the new version

[@itwithcarlos]

Thank you Chelcea, what Outlook version do you have?

[@brucerumrey8894]

very helpful Thanks for the video

[@itwithcarlos]

Thank you Bruce. Glad it was helpful!

[@michaelabule]

Great video. Thank you

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad you liked it! thank you.

[@TheHamilton53]

Saludos, que herramienta recomienda para visualizar un backup de buzon de gmail (.mbox) y verlos en formato .PST en la aplicacion de microsoft outlook?

[@itwithcarlos]

Hola Hamilton, disculpa la demora en mi respuesta. Reconozco que no tengo experiencia con el archivos .mbox. He escuchado de una extension de Google Chrome (MBOX viewer) de Systool que tenia una version gratuita, pero que ya no esta disponible. Ahora solo existe la version paga que quizas te puede ayudar. Saludos y gracias por la pregunta.

[@anasbouhsaina3026]

That's not possible with Mac and olm files I guess, cant merge folders imported 😕 Any advise?

[@itwithcarlos]

I don't have a new Mac version to test it, but you can try exporting to a OLM file. Here is how: support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/export-items-to-an-archive-file-in-outlook-for-mac-281a62bf-cc42-46b1-9ad5-6bda80ca3106 Thank you.

[@japjapheth5230]

Thank you so much sir for the tutorial ^_^

[@itwithcarlos]

So nice of you. Thank you!

[@mrmesalman7754]

Thank you . very helpful ❤❤💕💕

[@itwithcarlos]

So glad! Thank you!!!

[@Theindianfreelancer]

Very well described :) Thanks!

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad it was helpful!

[@muthudiamond]

Nice Vedio, very detailed explamanation

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad you liked it

[@ramlakshvlog]

Really excellent

[@itwithcarlos]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@sokhaprom]

Can I still retrieve the backup if my email account is later deactivated/deleted permanently?

[@itwithcarlos]

in general the answer is yes, however, there are some considerations, like the protocol you were using (IMAP vs POP)?, was Outlook configured to save the whole history or just part of it? If you can open Outlook and see your emails, then you can create the backup. Thanks.

[@sokhaprom]

Nice to know about this, thank you so much for replying :) @@itwithcarlos

[@user-ov4dw3yr5d]

Awesome. Thanks Bro.

[@itwithcarlos]

Thank you too

[@catherinejackson5552]

Fantastic info 👍

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad it was helpful!

[@julianlange8132]

Hey I have a question, I have now backed up my email, its 1,39GB. What if I delete my email account, will I still be able to open it on outlook? Its an old web mail so I have to delete it.

[@itwithcarlos]

HI Julian, you can test your backup file by opening from Outlook. You can click on File > Open & export > Open Outlook data file. After checking it has all your emails, you can delete your account. Thank you!!!

[@julianlange8132]

@@itwithcarlos Thank you so much🙏

[@wimvangeyt3866]

Hi if you export the emails and other data, can you import or open this in Outlook with another account?

[@itwithcarlos]

Hi Wim, yes, you can. You just actually need to open the pst file from Outlook (from any Outlook profile). Hope it helps. Thanks

[@wimvangeyt3866]

@@itwithcarlos Hi Thanks that helps. And with .msg files? This is where they just do a save as of the emails.

[@itwithcarlos]

@@wimvangeyt3866 Hi Wim, the msg file is mainly used to save an item (email, contact, task) and is useful to share it with other users. It can also be openned with other third-party programs.

[@wimvangeyt3866]

@@itwithcarlos Hi, yes but it would be more practical when they export a .pst file. With .msg files you need to open them one by one.

[@itwithcarlos]

@@wimvangeyt3866 Totally agree.

[@gauravpatil8885]

Is there any way that I can backup msstream videos. I have access to view it only not download and I hace recived notifications form my college that my email will be deleted in coming days

[@itwithcarlos]

Hi Gaurav, I have used this tool to capture video and download it to my PC. Maybe it can work for you. www.kapwing.com/trim-video Thank you!

[@gauravpatil8885]

Thanks

[@MohammedSalah-fv5rj]

Can you please help me ? My mails cannot imported before one year , i mean i have 1000 mails in inbox, when i make export then import to other mail it shaw that i have like 300 mails only , when i open it , i see that the date is 29/08/2022 , no mails before this date is successfully exported.. Can you help? 🙏 thanks 🙏

[@itwithcarlos]

Hi Mohammed, it is possible that Outlook is configured to download/sync only one year of data. This can be changed/configured within Outlook. Within Outlook, click on File > Account Settings > Account Settings, then select the account and click on "Change". It will show a bar that you can move from left to right to change the amount of email history that you want to sync/download in Outlook. Hope it helps.

[@druidsongevergreens]

Excellent. Thank you

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you!

[@druidsongevergreens]

So the directions were clear and simple but when I open the program on my mac it looks different. File doesn’t lead to open/export etc. Any tips? Is there a specific setting I can change?

[@bornfreedz]

very nice thank you

[@itwithcarlos]

Thank you too

[@rajivmenon1770]

Is there anyway to backup expired emails? By mistake, retention policy was enabled in my outlook and i couldn't able to view my old mails. Pls help

[@itwithcarlos]

It depends, if the emails have been deleted, they could still be available to be recovered. Once recovered, they could be backed up. It could vary depending if you are referring to In-Place archive in MS 365. Thank you.

[@KernelDataRecovery]

Very Well Described

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad you liked it, thank you

[@Goldenglossify]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

[@itwithcarlos]

Glad it helped!

[@PalaWootje]

Thank You.

[@zainabawulu7938]

Thanks!

[@itwithcarlos]

Thank you so much. Glad you liked it.

[@hydecourt3679]

Can I do this on outlook web based.

[@itwithcarlos]

No, you can not :( This only works on Outlook Classic. Thank you.

[@dorihooks4825]

I can't get my quick parts to save in outlook. Once i log out and back in they are gone. Do you know what causes this?

[@itwithcarlos]

Hi Dori, I am not sure what you mean by the quick parts. Would you please provide some more information? Thanks.

[@dorihooks4825]

@@itwithcarlos The part where you save canned emails.

[@itwithcarlos]

@@dorihooks4825 Sorry Dori, I am kind of lost on this one.

[@bosy2648]

So exporting should only be copying right?

[@itwithcarlos]

yeap, when you are exporting, you are actually creating a copy of your emails in a file (pst file). Thank you.

[@bosy2648]

Yes thank you man you're a life saver 50gb of emails has been backed up. Much love keep up the good work!

[@ProjectInsight_LA]

can i use this file after i deleted the gmail account

[@itwithcarlos]

Absolutely, I suggest you verify the content of the pst file. You can check it offline within Outlook. Thanks!!!

[@ubobcat]

@@itwithcarlos I tried to backup the Gmail account, but when I open the PST file, it doesn't show any emails it just says "We didn't find anything to show here". Do you know what could be the reason? EDIT: Nevermind I found the solution: Click on View, then click on Change View, then change the state from Hide Messages Marked for Deletion to Preview.

[@uniquesports1675]

This doesn't work if you only have Outlook online version and you need to import emails from your old desktop version of Outlook.

[@itwithcarlos]

You are correct. This tool only works from Outlook desktop. If you need to migrate from Outlook Online, then you could use a different tool like IMAPSync, here is a link imapsync.lamiral.info/X/

[@sherihankamel9398]

Perfect

[@itwithcarlos]

Thank you, I am glad you like it. Cheers!

[@mostafanagar181]

Thank you

[@itwithcarlos]

You're welcome, thank you!!!

[@julianlange8132]

thank you!

[@itwithcarlos]

I am glad it helps, Thank you!!!

[@julianlange8132]

@@itwithcarlos Hi, I transferred my really old web mail into outlook, and made a backup of it on outlook, but when I open the outlook data file, the sub folders wont contain any emails inside them, do you know why? the web mail came from icywarp

[@julianlange8132]

@@itwithcarlos Nevermind, I figured it out! Apparently outlook didnt export the subfolders because I had not clicked on them yet, meaning that they had not been downloaded and therefore not exported

[@itwithcarlos]

@@julianlange8132 Thank you for the feedback, have a nice day!!!

[@halrose]

Good job but I was interested mostly in Contacts and Calendar and you really did not go into that.

[@itwithcarlos]

Thank you, the process is exactly the same. You can select the specific folder for contacts and/or calendar. In any case, if you select the top (the email account), all (emails, contacts and calendar) will be backed up. For contacts, sometimes is more practical to save to a csv file instead of an Outlook Data file (pst). Hope it helps.

[@halrose]

@@itwithcarlos Thank you. I was able to save the contacts as a csv file and accomplish what I needed to do. :--)

[@itwithcarlos]

@@halrose great!! thank you for letting me know

[@julianlange8132]

❤❤❤

[@MustafaSonOfMohamed]

Thanks

[@itwithcarlos]

No problem, thank you!!

[@toma1610]

You just needed specify in the title that this is for WINDOWS.

[@itwithcarlos]

Thank you for your comment, I will add it.

[@najehmaaroufi1445]

J'ai perdu tous boite de réception

[@itwithcarlos]

Peut-être avez-vous créé un nouveau profil Outlook. Vous devrez peut-être vérifier si vous avez plus d'un profil Outlook

[@najehmaaroufi1445]

@@itwithcarlos non jai fait archiver les messages de menu j'ai consulter fichier.pst et ost rien n'est recupérer

[@itwithcarlos]

@@najehmaaroufi1445 Le fichier ost ne devrait pas être affecté lorsque vous exportez vers un fichier pst. Le fichier pst doit être créé à partir des données ost.

[@najehmaaroufi1445]

Merci mais j'ai pas pu les récupérer

[@najehmaaroufi1445]

Merci svp je besoin de ton aide

[@chrissyc3247]

Seems to complicated

[@itwithcarlos]

Hi Crissy, it could be a little bit intimidating, however, you just need to follow the steps and it the worst scenario it won't break anything (at least when trying to create the backup). Good luck!

[@denchoo305]

Brain.exe Has Stopped Working

[@hoogstraten4271]

Does this still work?

[@itwithcarlos]

Yes, it does. Thank you!!!

[@eprenpeword3208]

thank you!

[@itwithcarlos]

I am glad you like it, thank you!

[@alokeklaghar87]

Many thanks.

[@itwithcarlos]

No worries!

[@LuxVoyages-au]

thank you.

[@itwithcarlos]

You're welcome! Thank you!

[@MohamedZakki-u9v]

Thank you

[@itwithcarlos]

Welcome! Mohamed and thank you too!