Tips on email backups please

Ok. So I have been using outlook.com email (formerly hotmail) for many many years and have almost 5gb of stuff stored in it - many folders etc. So I would like to download it and keep a hard copy somewhere. Am also thinking of maybe starting fresh and keeping all the old stuff stored/backed up.

I've tried thunderbird before but found it confusing at times - I don't need the emails in two places permanently. Just to download them for storage rather than access them on the computer.

What is the best way to download/store all the emails from this account - and still be able to access them from storage if needed? Thanks.

Outlook.com, Settings, View all Outlook settings, General, Privacy and data, Export mailbox:

How to Export Copy of Mailbox from Outlook.com

Thank you that is very helpful. This exports them as a .pst file - which suggests I'd need the full outlook program installed to read them again in future. Just wondering if there's a way of downloading them as html - so they can easily be read in future without relying on programs that may go out of date etc.

Hazel123 said:

Thank you that is very helpful. This exports them as a .pst file - which suggests I'd need the full outlook program installed to read them again in future. Just wondering if there's a way of downloading them as html - so they can easily be read in future without relying on programs that may go out of date etc.

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You can convert them to PDF: How to Convert PST to PDF with Attachments?.

Thank you. I didn't think it would be simple! That sounds like a good option though. Will it save attachments as well?

Hazel123 said:

Thank you. I didn't think it would be simple! That sounds like a good option though. Will it save attachments as well?

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For email backup I use MailStore. You may to check it out.
It does save attachments. Additionally, it has been one of the very best free downloads I have used over the years.

Thanks. I had a look. Is it cloud based or something stored on your computer?

Hazel123 said:

Thanks. I had a look. Is it cloud based or something stored on your computer?

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The backups are stored on your computer. If you read through the information on their site, the application has some very useful features.

Hazel123 said:

Thank you. I didn't think it would be simple! That sounds like a good option though. Will it save attachments as well?

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It should according to the article.

Sir_George said:

The backups are stored on your computer. If you read through the information on their site, it has some very useful features.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I downloaded it. It's having difficulty logging into my email address though - keeps failing. Wondering if it's because I have 2FA on the email account (more than just username and password).

The app has to support 2FA authentication for it to work. So many apps do not.
One observation...As long as the emails are still stored on the server, they'll stay on outlook.com servers until you delete them.

Thanks. Unless outlook servers get hacked or go down! Also I'd just like to clear the lot, save it somewhere accessible and start fresh.

Can't seem to get mailstore to retrieve my email anyway. I tried the advanced option, putting IMAP TLS and server and username etc but it just comes back saying can't login.

According to this article mailstore supports OAuth2 which is 2 step authentication. MailStore Version 13 has arrived!

Yes I use an authorisation app to sign in. Just wondering if that's blocking mailstore from signing in.

Hazel123 said:

Thanks. I downloaded it. It's having difficulty logging into my email address though - keeps failing. Wondering if it's because I have 2FA on the email account (more than just username and password).

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The article below provides some information on using 2 FA.

MailStore Server & Modern Authentication​

How does Modern Authentication with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace work with MailStore Server now? In a first step, the user enters his user name only. Then, MailStore Server checks if the authentication attribute of that user is either set to MailStore integrated, or to directory services and what type of directory service is currently configured. Depending on the result, the user is either asked for a password, or, if the configured directory service supports Modern Authentication, is redirected to a third-party identity provider. In the case of Modern Authentication with Microsoft 365, MailStore Server will return a sign-in URI of the identity provider. When using the MailStore Client or the MailStore Outlook Add-in, a web browser is opened automatically to open the sign-in-URL of your identity provider. When using MailStore Web Access, users are redirected automatically to the sign-in-URL of their identity provider. What happens next? That depends on the conditional access policies defined by the admin. If the user logs in from a secure network for which the administrator has not defined additional policies, then entering the credentials is typically sufficient. If the administrator has defined additional policies, the user may be asked to enter additional information (e.g. with MFA). If authentication with the identity provider was successful, the identity provider knows to which application the user originally wanted to log in. Thus, the identity provider redirects the user back to MailStore Server and has him submit an ID token which is sent to MailStore Server. The ID token is validated by MailStore Server and additional user information is requested from the identity provider (for example the alias address). This helps MailStore Server to map the MailStore user to the user that is trying to log in. Then, the session is marked as authenticated and the user can access the archive.

The entire article is posted at the following link.

Thank you.

Hazel123 said:

Yes I use an authorisation app to sign in. Just wondering if that's blocking mailstore from signing in.

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Probably. I would think mailstore would have to have direct authorization to access outlook.com rather than going through another app to get there.

I think so. I'm going to leave it for now if I can't get it to log in!

Interesting tips, got mail from early 00's stashed and it is a bit hard to keep track of it all, also consuming lots of space on the hosted mail servers.

Hazel123 said:

I think so. I'm going to leave it for now if I can't get it to log in!

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I only use the mail app but you might like to try GitHub's Xst Reader.


It does export as HTML though I haven't got any mail with an attachment to test.
Just create a destination folder first then you can export one email with attachments to test.

Open XstReader.exe and click on the open tab bottom left and navigate to the downloaded .pst file from Microsoft.
You can select a folder or a single mail to export to your destination folder.