How to Save an Outlook Email as a File

If you use Microsoft Exchange emails at your company, you might have noticed that your email messages are set to expire after a certain period of time. For instance, an email received on March 4, 2020, with a one-year retention policy, will expire on March 4, 2021. When this happens, the email is deleted and you won’t be able to access it anymore.

To avoid losing important emails, you can save them on your laptop. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to do it:

1. Open Outlook and click on File.

2. Go to Open & Export and click on Import/Export.

3. Choose Export to a file and click Next.

4. Select Outlook Data File (.pst) and click Next.

5. Choose the email account you want to export and click Next.

6. Select the top-most checkbox and make sure that Include Subfolders is selected. Click Next.

7. Choose your desired option for handling duplicates and click Finish.

8. If prompted to, you can password-protect your .pst file. Click OK.

9. Wait for the export process to finish.

Depending on the number of emails you have, the export process may take some time. Once done, you can access your backup file from Outlook by doing the following:

1. Click on File.

2. Go to Open & Export and click on Open Outlook Data File.

3. Select the .pst file you just created and click OK.

Now, you can access all your saved emails even after they have expired from the company’s service. However, keep in mind that the export process can be time-consuming, especially if your mailbox contains a lot of emails. Also, you may want to regularly empty out your deleted file folders as this can significantly slow down the export process.

In conclusion, saving your Outlook emails as files is a smart way to ensure that you never lose important information. With these simple steps, you can easily export and access your emails whenever you need them.