Outlook Is Using An Old Copy Of Your Ost

[Courtland Boland]

Theremay be a few reasons why you want to export the mailbox of an account you have in the desktop version of Outlook. For example, you want a backup in case you lose your Outlook data. You want to move all the items from one email account to another account, you're moving from a personal account to a business account, you're moving to a new device and want to import your mailbox after setting up Outlook on your new device, etc. Check out the list of reasons to export a mailbox in the section below, When should I export a .pst file.

By default, Outlook is set to download email for the past 1 year. If you want to export all your emails, open Outlook, select Account settings > Account Name and Sync Settings and move the slider to All.

If the account you want to export isn't already added to the desktop version of classic Outlook, add the email account you want to export. Once the account and all the contents are added to Outlook, you can begin the export process.

After your email data is exported to a .pst file, it's portable! You can import it to other email accounts. If you want to do this using Outlook, see Import email, contacts, and calendar from an Outlook .pst file.

When Outlook exports email, contacts, and calendar info to a .pst, it makes a copy of the information. Nothing leaves Outlook. You'll still see and have access to your email, contacts, and calendar in Outlook.

For example, let's say you have a Microsoft personal or family email account, allieb...@yahoo.com, and you want to move your email to a new Microsoft 365 for business email account, allie...@contoso.com.

Using Outlook on your desktop, add both accounts to Outlook. Wait for all of your email to appear (if you have a lot, this can be a long time). Then, use Outlook to export the email from allieb...@yahoo.com to a .pst file. Finally, import the .pst file to your Microsoft 365 for business account.

Using Outlook on your desktop, add both accounts to Outlook. Wait for all of your email to appear (if you have a lot, this can be a long time). Then, use Outlook to export the email from your Yahoo account to a .pst file. Finally, import the .pst file to your Office 365 account.

You're moving from PC to PC: You're moving your email from one computer with Outlook on it to another computer with Outlook on it. For example, let's say your old computer has Outlook 2016 and you just got a new computer with Outlook for Microsoft 365 or Outlook 2021 installed. Export your email data from Outlook 2016 and import it to the current version of Outlook.

You want periodic backups: You can periodically backup all of your email, contacts, and calendar to a safe place. After you create the .pst file, copy it to a safe location: a USB flash drive, another hard drive, or cloud storage such as OneDrive or Dropbox.

This article describes how to use personal storage folders, also known as .pst files, to back up data that you created in Microsoft Outlook 2010, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, and Microsoft Office Outlook 2002. You can back up messages, contacts, appointments, tasks, notes, and journal entries in .pst files.

You can use a backup of your .pst file to restore or move your Outlook data if you experience a hardware failure, lose data unexpectedly, have to transfer data from one computer to another computer, or have to transfer data from one hard disk drive to another hard disk drive.

If you do not use Outlook with Microsoft Exchange Server, Outlook stores all its data in a .pst file. You can use the backup copy to restore your Outlook data if the original .pst file is damaged or lost. This section explains how to create a copy of your whole .pst file, with all the default items in the file.Follow these steps to back up the whole .pst file:

Because the .pst file contains all data that is stored in the MAPI folders that Outlook uses, the file can be very large. To reduce the size of the .pst file, select Compact Now in the Settings window .

Use Windows Explorer or My Computer to copy the file that you noted in step 8. You can copy the file to another location on the hard disk drive or to any kind of removable storage media, such as a floppy disk, a CD-ROM, a portable hard disk drive, a magnetic tape cassette, or any other storage device.

If you use Outlook with a Microsoft Exchange Server, you must know where the data is stored in order to back it up. The default delivery and storage location for Outlook data is the Exchange Server mailbox. The Exchange Server administrator typically handles backups of the mailboxes on the server. However, some Exchange Server administrators store Outlook data in a .pst file on your computer.

This option might be unavailable on some networks. The network administrator might have removed this option to protect the account information. If you do not see the Email Accounts option, contact the network administrator for help.

Look at the Deliver new email to the following location option. If the option contains the word Mailbox followed by an email name, Outlook stores data in folders on the Exchange Server. Contact the Exchange Server administrator for more information about how backups are handled.

If the field contains the words Personal Folder or the name of a set of personal folders or .pst files, Outlook stores new messages, contacts, appointments, and other data in a .pst file on your hard disk. To back up the data, go to the How to make a backup copy of a .pst file section.

If you want to back up only a part of your Outlook data, you can create a new backup .pst file of only the data that you want to save. This is also known as exporting .pst file data. For example, you might want to use this section if you have important information in only some folders and you have other, less important items in much larger folders. You can export only the important folders or contacts and omit folders such as Sent Mail.

Under Options, we recommended that you select Do not import duplicates, unless you want the imported information to replace or duplicate items that are already in Outlook .

The top folder (usually Personal Folders, Outlook Data File, or your email address) is selected automatically. Include subfolders is selected by default. All folders under the folder selected will be imported.

If the .pst file that you want to import is stored on a removable device, such as a floppy disk, a portable hard disk drive, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape cassette, or any other storage medium, insert or connect the storage device, and then copy the .pst file to the hard disk drive of the computer.

The specified device, file, or path could not be accessed. It may have been deleted, it may be in use, you may be experiencing network problems, or you may not have sufficient permission to access it. Close any application that uses this file and try again.

On the File menu, select Import And Export. If the command is not available, move the pointer over the chevrons at the bottom of the menu, and then select Import and Export.

Use the instructions in the "How to make a backup copy of a .pst file" section to copy the .pst file to a CD or DVD-ROM or other portable media, or copy the file to another computer over a LAN/WAN link.

You might also want to create a new, secondary .pst file that is intended for transferring data only. Save the data that you want to transfer in this new .pst file and omit any data that you do not want to transfer. If you have to make a secondary .pst file to store data for transfer between two computers, or for backup purposes, use the following steps.

Your Personal Address Book might contain email addresses and contact information that is not included in an Outlook Address Book or contact list. The Outlook Address Book can be kept either in an Exchange Server mailbox or in a .pst file. However, the Personal Address Book creates a separate file that is stored on your hard disk drive. To make sure that this address book is backed up, you must include any files that have the .pab extension in your backup process.

Make a note of the location of the .pab file. Use My Computer or Windows Explorer to copy the .pab file to the same folder or storage medium that contains the backup of the .pst file.

The Outlook Address Book is a service that the profile uses to make it easier to use a Contacts folder in a Mailbox, Personal Folder File, or Public Folder as an email address book. The Outlook Address Book itself contains no data that has to be saved.

If you have customized settings, such as toolbar settings and Favorites, that you want to replicate on another computer or restore to your computer, you might want to include the following files in your backup:

Signature files: Each signature has its own file and uses the same name as the signature that you used when you created it. For example, if you create a signature named MySig, the following files are created in the Signatures folder:

You have changed the default deliver location for your email. This will change the location of your Inbox, Calendar, and other folders. These changes will take effect the next time that you start Outlook.

Select the .pst file that was identified in step 4 in the How to determine the name and location of your personal folders file section and then select Remove to remove the local .pst file from your profile.

Select the .pst file that was identified in step 4 of the "How to determine the name and location of your personal folder file" section, and then select Remove to remove the local .pst file from your profile.

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