How to Export PST from Office 365 Admin (Full Guide)

Why backing up email boxes from Office 365?

Exporting PST files from Office 365 mailboxes offers several advantages, including:

1. Security: Safeguarding your data from cybersecurity threats or other potential problems by keeping it on a local drive.

2. Storage Space: Saving storage space by backing up your mailboxes to compact PST files, freeing up room in your Exchange Online account and saving costs.

3. Email Migration: Making email migration smooth when switching to a new email client or device, ensuring data continuity.

4. Legal Compliance: Meeting legal and compliance requirements by archiving emails and critical data, essential for regulations and legal disputes.

Below are the methods to export your Office 365 or Exchange Online mailboxes to PST files.

How to export Office 365 mailbox to PST for backup

eDiscovery offers the capability to search for content across various platforms like Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Groups, and Yammer Teams. This includes the ability to search both mailboxes and sites in a single eDiscovery search and then export the results. To download PST from Office 365 admin, follow these steps:

Procedure 1. Assign eDiscovery Permissions in Microsoft 365

1. Sign in and access the Microsoft 365 compliance center. Go to the Permissions option from the left menu. Then, expand the compliance center section and tap on Roles.

2. In the next step, search for eDiscovery. Upon locating the eDiscovery Manager role, proceed to select it.

3. Within the eDiscovery Manager role group, add your account to the eDiscovery Administrator list by clicking Edit and then follow the simple steps.

Procedure 2. Create Content Search in Microsoft Office 365

1. In the same portal, navigate to the Solutions section and select Content search. From there, proceed to click the + New search button.

2. Given a Name and Description based on your preference.

3. Turn on the switch next to Exchange mailboxes in the Locations wizard. Then, click the Choose users, groups, or teams link to select your mailbox and hit Done.

4. Then, you will find a wizard to define search conditions.

★Tip: If you want to export the entire Office 365 mailbox, you can keep the Conditions screen empty.

5. On the Review your search window, confirm that all looks good and tap on Submit to start a new search creation.

Procedure 3. Export Office 365 to PST File Format

1. In the Content searches list, find and select the name of the search you performed in the previous step. When you do this, you'll notice that the search status indicates that it has been completed.

2. Click on the Action button and choose Export results. From the options presented, select Export Exchange content, and then click on the Export button to proceed.

3. Go back to the list of content searches and click the Export button again. Then, choose Download Report. Make sure to keep a copy of the export key for future reference.

4. Following this, proceed to install the Microsoft Office 365 eDiscovery Export Tool.

5. Paste the export key that you copied in the previous step. Also, select a location where you want to save the PST file. Finally, click the Start button to initiate the process of export PST from Office 365 admin center.

Easy tool to backup Office 365

The previous method is complex, right? To save your efforts and time, there’s another best alternative to export PST from Office 365 admin for you! AOMEI Backupper is reliable and professional email backup software that can enable you backup Office 365 emails with only several steps! Meanwhile, this software is completely safe and offers you the freedom to customize backup needs.

☞It provides Outlook Backup function to backup all of your emails, contacts, notes, calendars, and tasks within Outlook to a computer, local & external drive, network drive, or cloud drive.
☞Not only Office 365 email, this software can also support other email services, which allows you backup Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and so on.
☞It can auto-backup your emails once you set a backup parameter. You can backup emails in daily/ weekly/ monthly/ event triggers and USB plug-in mode as you like.

Now please download this software via the below free link and follow me to backup Office 365 email with 5 steps. Pro version supports multiple Windows systems including Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, XP, Vista, etc. If you are a Windows Server user, try AOMEI Backupper Server.

Step 1. Please add your Microsoft 365 email account to Outlook.

If you are adding your email account for the first time, please go to Start and choose Outlook. Then the pop-up window will remind you to enter your Microsoft 365 email address and then click Connect.

If you are adding an additional email account, please go to Start > Outlook > File > Add Account. Then fill in the account info as required.

Step 2. Then launch AOMEI Backupper. Select Backup > Outlook Backup.

Step 3. Click Add Outlook Data. In the popup window, select the Office 365 mailbox under your Microsoft 365 email account as the backup source.

Step 4. Select a destination path to save the backup image. There are three suboptions: Select a local path, Add Share or NAS Devices, and Select a cloud drive.

Step 5. To have the backup task run automatically, click Schedule Backup to configure it. Finally, click Start Backup to begin backing up Microsoft 365 mailbox.

To sum up

Exporting PST from Office 365 admin takes a lot of time and effort. If you want to save more time, you can directly use professional email backup software AOMEI Backupper to assist you. This tool can also help you save sent items in shared mailbox Office 365. It’s quite easy and convenient due to its powerful features! Now download this wonderful software to have a try!