How to Import Backup Outlook Emails – Effortless Guide

Outlook is a popular email client and personal information manager developed by Microsoft. It allows users to send, receive and organize Emails, as well as manage their Calendars, Contacts, Tasks and Notes all in one place.

Outlook integrates with other Microsoft products such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This makes sharing files and collaborating on projects easy. And it has many advanced features, making many users regard Outlook as the preferred mail software.

Why You Want Import Outlook Email Backup?

Given the popularity of Outlook, people cannot avoid importing or exporting Outlook emails for different reasons in daily life. Below are examples of some common reasons why users want to import backup Outlook emails.

• Transfer data to a new computer: When you buy a new computer, you may want to transfer your Outlook data from the old computer to the new one. Importing Outlook items from an Outlook Data File is an easy way to do this.
• Backup data: Creating backups of your Outlook data is important to prevent data loss due to system crashes or other issues. You can use Outlook Data Files to backup and store your Outlook items, and then import them back into Outlook when needed.
• Merge data from multiple sources: If you have Outlook items stored in different locations, such as different PST files, you can import them into a single Outlook Data File to merge all of your data into one location.
• Reorganize data: You may want to reorganize your Outlook items by moving them into different folders or categories. Importing the items into a new Outlook Data File allows you to reorganize the data without affecting the original source files.

How to Import Outlook Backup (from Outlook .pst file)

Before learning about how to import backup in Outlook, there are a few things worth noting.

• Make sure your Outlook email is backed up. The first prerequisite for recovering Outlook data is to ensure that your Outlook emails has been backed up. Otherwise, there is no way to recover them.

• Make sure that the files you want to restore are not currently in use by other programs. If so, you should close the program before continuing.

Then, follow the steps below to learn how to restore Outlook emails from backup. 2 ways are included, choose the one that best suits your needs.

#1. Import Outlook Backup with Built-in Feature

If you use Outlook's Import and Export Wizard to back up your data, your backup will be stored as a PST file. You can use this method to restore a backup if you know the location of the PST file.

1. At the top of your Outlook ribbon, select File tab > Open & Export > Import/Export.

2. Select Import from another program or file, and then click Next.

3. Select Outlook Data File (.pst) and click Next.
4. Browse to the .pst file you want to import. Under Options, choose how you want to deal with emails and contacts, then choose Next.

💚 Note: If a password was assigned to the Outlook Data File (.pst), enter the password, and then click OK.

5. If you're importing the contents of your .pst file into your Microsoft 365 mailbox, choose that mailbox here. If you're NOT importing into your Microsoft 365 mailbox, choose Import items into the current folder. This imports the data into the folder currently selected.

💥 Tip: If you only want to retrieve a few emails or contacts from an Outlook Data File (.pst), you can open the Outlook Data File, then in the navigation pane, drag and drop the emails and contacts from the .pst file to your Existing Outlook folders.

6. Finally, choose Finish.

#2. Import Outlook Backup via Third-Party Software

Another situation is that you use the best backup and restoration software AOMEI Backupper to create an Outlook email backup image, and then you can use it to restore emails easily. When you use it to restore Outlook emails from backup, you can preview the mail content. It is the best email backup software that offers many great features, including:

• It offers you the “Outlook Backup” feature to backup the entire Outlook mailbox including mail folders (Inbox, Outbox, Drafts, etc.), Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and more. Or specify one or more folders.
• It allows you to run scheduled backup tasks with “Daily”, “Weekly”, “Monthly” or “Event triggers”. And you can even wake the computer to run scheduled task when you are not using the Outlook app.
• It allows you to run incremental backup or differential backup to reduce backup time and the backup image size, thus improve your backup efficiency.

Please download this powerful backup software to have a try.

1. Open AOMEI Backupper, click Restore and then click Select Task.

2. Select a backup point based on the created time and backup type and click the "Next" button.

3. Please select the Outlook email folder you want to restore and click the "Next" button.

4. Choose “Restore to original location" or “Restore to a new location" to select the target storage path to store the folders. Select "Start Restore" to begin the restore process.

💚 Tip: If you choose to Restore to a new location, your emails will become MSG files in the destination path. To check restored emails in Outlook, just drag and drop them in the specific folder in Outlook client. 

In the end

After reading this article, you will know how to import backup Outlook emails. A total of two methods are provided for you. I recommend you to use AOMEI Backupper to backup or restore your emails. You can also automatically backup Outlook data to any location you want to prevent data loss using its Outlook backup feature. Try it yourself now!