How to Backup and Restore Outlook 2010 Email Account Settings

How do I backup all my Outlook settings?

“I want to know if there is a way that I can backup Outlook 2010 email account settings, so that when I swap out a user machine I don't have to re-specify the mail server and email address, etc. If yes, how? Thanks very much.”

If you find yourself needing to reinstall Office Outlook or transfer your Outlook account settings to a new computer, it's important to have a backup of your Outlook email account configuration. In this article, we will guide you through the process of backing up your Outlook account settings and restoring them on another PC. Furthermore, we will also introduce a simple method to backup Outlook emails for protection.

Where are Outlook account settings stored?

Prior to learning how to let Outlook 2010 backup email account settings, it's essential to note that there isn't a straightforward method to do so. This is because, in various versions of Outlook, the account settings are stored in the Windows registry under different keys, as follows.

• Outlook 2010 or previous versions: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles
• Outlook 2013: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Profiles
• Outlook 365 or 2016: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Profiles

To backup your account settings from Outlook, you'll need to export the corresponding key from your registry and then import it into your new computer.

How to backup Outlook 2010 email account settings

By following the steps outlined in this section, you can easily export Outlook 2010 email account settings for backup.

Step 1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type "regedit" and hit Enter to launch the Registry Editor.

Step 2. Navigate to the Outlook 2010 profile path within the registry.

Step 3. Right-click on the Profiles folder and choose "Export" from the drop-down menu.

Step 4. In the Export Registry File dialog box, select a location to save the Registration Entries (.reg) file. Provide a suitable file name in the File name box and click on the Save button to create a backup of Outlook 2010 email account settings.

How to restore Outlook 2010 email account settings

If you need to restore your Outlook 2010 email account settings after reinstalling Office or on a new computer using the exported Profiles registry key file, follow these steps:

Step 1. Copy the exported Profiles registry file to new computer or the system where you have reinstalled Microsoft Office. And make sure the user account is the same on the old computer. And, close all Outlook windows.

Step 2. Locate the exported Profiles registry key file, and double-click on it to import Outlook Accounts settings inside the registry.

Step 3. When prompted by the User Account Control alert message, select "Yes" to proceed with the import.

Step 4. Open your Outlook program, and you will find your restored Outlook account settings. You only need to provide the password for your email account.

Bonus tip: How to backup Outlook 2010 emails easily

While you can export the registry key to backup Outlook account settings, it is prone to path mismatches during the backup and restore process. Since your email account can contain a lot of important data, if something goes wrong, you could lose not just your emails, but contacts, email attachments, and even calendars. To avoid it, we recommend using AOMEI Backupper Professional, powerful Outlook backup software, to back up your entire Outlook mailbox.

• Its Outlook Backup function allows you to backup Inbox, Outbox, Drafts, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and more in your Outlook email account to local & internal hard drive, USB, cloud drive, NAS, etc.
• You have the flexibility to schedule Outlook backups at various intervals, like daily, weekly, monthly, event triggers, and USB plug in.
• It offers incremental and differential backup methods to back up only the changed items in Outlook, saving backup time and reducing storage space requirements.
• Besides, it comes with other powerful backup options, including System Backup, Partition Backup, Disk Backup, and File Backup.

Download and launch the professional backup software on your computer, and follow the step-by-step instructions provided in the graphic tutorial below to backup Outlook emails:

Step 1. Open Outlook desktop and add the Outlook account that contains the emails you want to backup by typing the email address and clicking Connect.

Step 2. In the main interface of AOMEI Backupper Professional, click Backup and then select Outlook Backup.

Step 3. Click on Add Outlook data and choose the Outlook account that includes the mail folders you wish to backup. Click OK to proceed.

Step 4. Select the destination where you want to save the backed-up Outlook emails among a local path, network or NAS location, or cloud drive. If you want to backup Outlook emails to external hard drive, please connect it to your computer beforehand.

Step 5. Enable auto Outlook backup by clicking Schedule Backup (optional). Finally, hit Start Backup to backup everything in Outlook automatically.

Notes:✎...

By default, the software utilizes the incremental backup method. However, you have the option to switch to Full Backup or Differential Backup methods in Backup Scheme.

To efficiently manage your Outlook email backups, you can enable automatic backup cleanup within the Backup Scheme, which allows you to specify a configuration for removing old backup images.

To restore Outlook email backup on AOMEI Backupper, head to Restore > Select Task > choose a backup image > select a restore destination path to save the mailbox files > Start Restore.

Conclusion

This page provides a comprehensive guide on how to backup Outlook 2010 email account settings using the export feature of the registry editor, as well as steps to restore them. However, to ensure the utmost safety and reliability, we highly recommend utilizing AOMEI Backupper to backup your entire Outlook mailbox. This professional software not only simplifies the backup process but also offers additional features that make data backup and restoration easier.