How to Save Emails from Outlook 365 to Hard Drive Using Multiple Methods?

Outlook 365 is the email client offered by Microsoft that comes as a part of the Office 365 business productivity suite. Previously, it used to be known as OWA or Outlook Web Access/ App. Since it is a part of Office 365, its data is also stored in the cloud. Now, if users want to access the data of Outlook 365, they need to have a copy of it in their local system. Hence, comes the question, “how to save emails from Outlook 365 to hard drive?”

If you are also looking for a solution for the Office 365 email related problem, this is the perfect blog for you. In this post, we will explain different methods that will prove to be useful if you want to save Outlook 365 emails to hard drive. Let’s go straight to the full procedure of the methods without wasting any more time.

How to Export Outlook 365 Emails to Desktop to Hard Drive?

Various techniques can be applied to perform this task. We will be describing some of the most common methods along with their step-by-step guide. However, here are the quick steps for the same:

Method 1: Export Outlook 365 Emails to Desktop to Hard Drive Using Automated Software

As readers can understand, all these manual methods are time-consuming and any mistake may lead to data loss. Office 365 emails are business-critical and data loss during offline export can cost you a lot if the cloud data gets lost or deleted. Therefore, most people choose SysTools Office 365 Export Tool to save emails from Outlook 365 to hard drive. This tool is especially suitable for enterprise-level users who need to save a bulk amount of emails from their Office 365 account to their local hard disk. This application allows users to save their emails in PST, MSG, or EML file format.

Also Read: Learn to Migrate Users and Computers From One Forest to Another In 3 Separate Ways

Besides saving the entire mailbox data, users can also export selective files using this utility. The software is suitable for all Office 365 subscription plans and works on all Windows OS systems. When logged in using admin credentials, it allows the processing of the complete mailbox data of all the users of that O365 account. For a smooth and data-loss-free email export, choose this software.

Detailed Software Steps to Save Emails from Outlook 365 to Hard Drive

Step 1. Download the utility on your computer from the below button. Install and launch it.

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Step 2. Choose Office 365 and Outlook as the source and destination platforms respectively.

Step 3. Choose the Mailbox Categories items you wish to save from your Office 365 mailboxes. Utilize the filtering options to perform selective data backup based on a specified date range.

Step 4. Log in to the tool using your Office 365 admin email and application ID. Click the validate button and proceed to the next step to save emails from Outlook 365 to a hard drive.

Step 5. Set the destination location on your system where you’d like to save the resulting PST file to a hard drive.

Step 6. From the list, select the Office 365 Mailboxes you desire. To initiate the backup and export of Office 365 mailbox contents to PST, click on the Start Backup button to save emails.

Method 2: Export Exchange Online Mailboxes to PST using Outlook

If users have desktop-based MS Outlook installed on their system, they can choose to save all emails from Outlook 365 to hard drive in PST file format. This will enable them to open email files in Outlook when they are not online or do not have an internet connection.

• First of all, users have to configure the Office 365 account in MS Outlook.
• Once the configuration is done, click on File>> Open and Export>> Import & Export.
• Choose Export to a File>> Outlook data file (.pst) options in Import and Export Wizard.
• Select the necessary email folders under the Office 365 tree to extract the emails in PST format. If needed, check the Include subfolders box.
• Select the destination location within the hard drive on the next page by clicking on Browse.
• Click Finish to save or export the process of emails from Outlook 365 to hard drive locally.

Must Read: Microsoft Office 365 eDiscovery Export Tool – Know How it Works

If you have the New Outlook Version or are Using the Web App then

• Open Outlook 365 on browser and login to your account
• Right click on a email you wish to bring in your Hard drive
• From the fly out menu select Save as (you may have to scroll to see this option)
• This will open a new window on your desktop outlook.live.com wants to save
• Then, select the Hard drive as the location and hit Save.
• Repeat for every other email.

If you have a client (new or classic) you can drag and drop emails 

Method 3: How to Save Emails from Outlook 365 in External Hard Drive via the Classic Client

The classic client opens many different possibilities for a user.  

Using this method will let users save Outlook 365 emails to hard drive in TXT, HTML, MSG and many other file formats. Which is not possible from the web browser version of Outlook. In this method, you will get each email separate in a file. You can use this method to when there are only a small number of emails to backup.

• Start the Outlook Classic Client and select any one email.
• Now, click on File >> Save as this triggers a box to appear.
• Select your destination hard drive location in that box. At the same time, add a name for the file and select any one of the options from the drop down.
• Click Save to finish the saving process. Repeat for all other emails.

Method 4: Save Emails from Outlook 365 to Hard Drive as a PDF

There is no direct way to save Outlook 365 messages to desktop in PDF format. If you are interested to save emails in this format or want to have a printed copy of that email, try these steps:

• Save the email in HTML format by following the method mentioned above.
• Open Microsoft Word and click on File >> Open to choose the HTML file.
• Then, click on File >> Save As to select PDF from the drop-down menu.
• Finally, click Save to store the file in PDF file format.

Also Checkout: Office 365 Backup Best Practices– An Overview

Un orthodox Ways to Move Outlook Emails to External Hard Drive

• Install the Classic Client on Hard Drive
  • Install Outlook desktop app on external drive.
  • Add Outlook 365 account; configure to download all emails.
  • Then, your Emails stored are kept locally in PST file on hard drive.
  • Regularly backup PST file.
• Use Power Automate to Save Emails on a External Network Drive
  • Create new flow in Power Automate.
  • Trigger: Email arrival in Outlook inbox.
  • Then, set conditions (attachments, subjects).
  • Action: Save email/attachments to external drive.
  • Test and refine flow.
• Build a Graph API App and Fetch Your Email Data
  
  • Register app in Azure Active Directory.
  • Authenticate using OAuth2.
  • Script (Python/PowerShell) to fetch email data (/me/messages).
  • Then, save emails/attachments to external drive.
  • Schedule script for periodic syncing.
• Save Outlook 365 Data in Hard Drive Via Gmail
  
  • Add your Outlook 365 account to Google’s Gmail, or Forward all emails to the New Gmail account
  • Then use Google Takeout feature to get all emails in a external hard drive.

These methods are quite lengthy for a relatively simple task. You may also try to setup your Outlook account in Thunderbird and use its export feature to get copy of emails in a hard drive.

Conclusion

In this post, we have discussed multiple methods of saving O365 emails in the local system. Users should not have any trouble performing those methods as the write-up answered how to save emails from Outlook 365 to hard drive successfully. Moreover, we have also suggested users of the above-mentioned software for a trouble-free & reliable email extraction into their hard drives.

Frequently Asked Questions