Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Learn how to back up - also known as export - your Outlook folder.
Lesson versions
Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:
2016, 2019/365.
Quick reference
Outlook Backup
Secure your data from a disaster and BACKUP your Inbox, Contacts and Calendar!
When to use
No one can anticipate a computer failure and data loss. By pre-emptively running a backup, you will be a step ahead of a potential loss of data.
Instructions to Export, or “Back up”, Outlook data:
- Click the File Ribbon
, Options 
, Advanced 
- Locate the Export section
and click Export 
- Choose “Export to a File” and click Next:
- Choose a file type:
Comma Separated Values is compatible to Excel or Outlook
Outlook Data File (.pst) is compatible to Outlook only
- Select the Folder to Export from:
- Outlook auto-names the file “Backup.pst”
- You should rename it to “Inbox Backup.pst”, then Calendar Backup, Contacts Backup, etc.
- You should click BROWSE and store this file somewhere safe on your computer or on a USB removable drive.
- Click Finish
- Tips:
- Make your backup files individually for Email, Calendar, and Contacts. Then in the case that you just need to restore Contacts, you won’t overwrite months of new emails with old ones.
- Name your backup files accordingly and include the date in the name, i.e.:
Email backup, 05-05-16
Calendar backup, 05-07-16
Contacts backup, 06-08-16
Instructions to Import, or “Restore”, your data:
- Click the File Ribbon , Options , Advanced
- Locate the Export section
and click Export
- Choose “Import from another program or File” and click Next:
- Choose a file type: (pick the same type you chose when exporting)
Comma Separated Values is compatible to Excel or Outlook
Outlook Data File (.pst) is compatible to Outlook only
- Click Browse and find your file:
- Select which folder to import from: (should be the only folder unless you have done many of these)
- Click FINISH
- 00:04 It's important to take you through the backup process for your Outlook file.
- 00:09 If you click on the File ribbon in the top left corner, go down to Options,
- 00:15 on the left panel is Advanced, and right over here it says Export.
- 00:20 It says export Outlook information to a file.
- 00:23 We're gonna go ahead and click Export and, by the way, it's the same process
- 00:27 to import, you just click Export again, I'll show you that as well.
- 00:31 Here's the first time I see the word Import,
- 00:33 but we're gonna stick with Export for right now and click Next.
- 00:37 Comma Separated Values will simply store all the emails in a spreadsheet format.
- 00:42 Every line item would be a different email.
- 00:45 Outlook Data File stores it as the Outlook .pst, that is the Outlook file type, as
- 00:50 individual emails, and when you reimport, you can only open them in Outlook.
- 00:54 I'll go ahead and click Next.
- 00:56 It wants to know, do you wanna backup your Inbox,
- 01:01 backup your Calendar, backup your Contacts?
- 01:05 If you want to do everything in one fell swoop you click the Mailbox right up here.
- 01:09 But honestly, that's a bad idea cuz if you just wanna then later import contacts,
- 01:14 you're gonna have to import everything together.
- 01:16 So I would highly recommend doing an inbox backup, Calendar backup, Contacts backup.
- 01:22 I'll go ahead and click Next.
- 01:23 This is the first I actually see the word backup.
- 01:27 I'm adding the script inbox 2015 backup.
- 01:30 I would browse to where I want it to store and I'll go ahead and click Finish and
- 01:34 it happens that fast.
- 01:35 If you have huge file, you'll see little papers flying across your screen.
- 01:39 All right, I'm gonna go ahead and close this.
- 01:41 And I'm gonna show you my backup file on my desktop.
- 01:47 Okay, right over here on my desktop is my inbox 2015 backup file.
- 01:51 It looks like a little O, cuz it's the Outlook file type.
- 01:55 And then I would just store that somewhere in my files.
- 01:58 All right, let's go through this again.
- 02:00 But this time I'm gonna reverse it, and do an import.
- 02:04 It's basically the same process.
- 02:06 I click on File on the ribbon, I go to Options, go to the Advanced
- 02:11 section and to import, I must go to Export.
- 02:16 So I'll click Export and now here is where we see the word import.
- 02:21 Import from another programmer file.
- 02:22 Go ahead and click Next.
- 02:24 Which file type?
- 02:26 Well I saved it as a PST so I'll import from a PST, and I'll click Next.
- 02:32 And it's gonna replace duplicates with items imported.
- 02:36 And here is the file type.
- 02:37 I can browse my way to it, but that is my file name.
- 02:40 Click Next again, and I'll go ahead and click Finish.
- 02:44 And it will bring all those files in there.
- 02:46 All right, so that's how you do a backup of individual folders.
- 02:50 I recommend you inbox your contacts and
- 02:52 your calendar backup at least every few months.
- 02:55 You never know when a computer's going to go down.
- 02:57 All right, please watch the next video.
- 02:59 I have a great tip for you on backing up client files.
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