Backup Emails in Microsoft Outlook

This article will explain how to prepare, backup, and restore backups using Microsoft Outlook (365 Enterprise).

Prerequisites

To create a backup, you must ensure all the emails are locally available.
To do this, open Outlook, select File, Account Settings, and click Account Settings again.
Under Email select your email and click Change…
Depending on the mail settings locate Keep mail offline for or Download email for the past, and select All. Click Next and Done.
To be sure all the email is synchronized click Send/Receive followed by Send/Receive All Folders.

Backup Email

To backup emails open Outlook, select File, Open & Export, and click on Import/Export.
Select Export to a file and click Next. Now select Outlook Data File (.pst) and click Next.
Select your inbox, enable Include subfolders, and click Next.
Select where you want to save the export and click Finish.
Optionally, you can add a password and click OK.

Recover Email

To recover emails open Outlook, select File, Account Settings, and click Account Settings again.
Select the Data Files tab and click Add… Navigate to the location with your `.pst` file and click OK.

In case you open the mailbox and you do not see any emails check if the view is set correctly.
Do this by clicking View, Change View, and select IMAP Messages.
In case this works click Change View again and select Apply Current View to Other Mail Folders… Select the folders you want, optionally enable Apply view to subfolders, and click OK.

Sources

• Only a subset of your Exchange mailbox items are synchronized in Outlook (learn.microsoft.com)
• Back up your email (support.microsoft.com)
• What to do when PST file does not shows emails in Outlook? (linkedin.com)