Backing up Your Email with Outlook

To prevent data loss, we recommend backing up your email. You can easily and routinely back up your data by exporting your PST or OLM file.

For more information about backing up Outlook for Mac (OLM) data files, check out How to Export to an Outlook for Mac Data File from support.office.com.

The PST file stores your email messages, attachments, folder structure, contacts, calendar items, and more. A backed up PST file is easy to import in the event of any data loss.

To Back Up Your Emails to a New PST File (Outlook 2007)

1. Launch Outlook®.
2. Click File, and then select Import and Export.
3. Click Export to a file, and then click Next.
4. Click Personal Folder File (.pst) or Outlook Data File (.pst), and then click Next.
5. Click the top folder, select Include subfolders, and then click Next.
6. Type or browse to the folder where you want to save the new file, and name the file.
7. Click Finish.

To Back Up Your Emails to a New PST File (Outlook 2010)

1. Launch Outlook.
2. Click File, and then select Options.
3. In the Options window, selectAdvanced, and then click Export.
4. In the Import and Export Wizard, click Export to a file, and then click Next.
5. Click Outlook Data File (.pst), and then click Next.
6. Select the folder to export, and then click Next.
7. Select where to save the exported file, and then click Finish.

To Import a Backed Up PST File (Outlook 2007)

1. Launch Outlook.
2. Click File, and then select Import and Export.
3. Click Import from another program or file, and then click Next.
4. Click Personal Folder File (.pst), and then click Next.
5. Browse to the folder that contains the backup and select it.
6. Click Next.
7. Click the top folder, select Include subfolders, and then click Finish.

To Import a Backed Up PST File (Outlook 2010)

1. Launch Outlook.
2. Click File, select Open and Export and then select Import/Export.
3. In the Import and Export Wizard, click Import from another program or file, and then click Next.
4. Click Outlook Data File (.pst), and then click Next.
5. Select the folder that contains the backup, and then click Next.
6. Select where to save the imported file, and then click Finish.

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