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Before we get to know how, let's take a look at why we should export Microsoft Outlook emails instead of just syncing them. If you just sync using Microsoft Outlook, then in the case of losing access to your account or your company deleting your account, you will lose all your data and it will disappear from everywhere. An export creates a physical copy that lives on your hard drive.

Method 1 to Export Microsoft Outlook Emails: The New Outlook and Web Approach

The New Outlook looks like the website or the web version, but the process to export Microsoft Outlook emails is a bit different than usual. Let's have a look at its process:

1. Go to the Settings.

2. Now go to General, then Privacy and data.

3. You will see an option to export the mailbox.

4. The catch here is that this will not be instant; Microsoft will prepare a copy of your mailbox and send you an email with a download link once it is ready. This can take you a few minutes or even a few days, depending on how much data you have. 

Method 2 to Export Microsoft Outlook Emails: The Automated Solution

Although the manual methods works for small tasks, they find it difficult to work with large amounts of data. In the case of a mailbox that is 20GB or 50GB large, the tools in Microsoft Outlook can crash. The manual exports also keep the attachments inside the email, which makes them hard to find without opening every message.

This is where SysTools Outlook Attachment Extractor helps you to find the best solution possible. It is the most suitable and efficient tool to export Microsoft Outlook emails along with attachments.

It can scan an entire PST file or even an active Outlook profile and pull out every single attachment in just one click. Instead of manually saving the files, this utility allows you to bulk-export Microsoft Outlook emails along with attachments directly from your Outlook PST files into a standard Windows folder, which in turn helps in backing up Microsoft Outlook Emails.

Why Use an Automated Tool?

Instead of just creating one giant PST file, the Automated Tool allows you to:

Maintain Order: It keeps your folder hierarchy in place, so that you know from where exactly each email attachment comes from.

Mass Extract: It pulls thousands of attachments out of your emails and saves them into the regular Windows folders in one click.

Filter by Type: Tell the tool to only grab the .pdf or .docx files while ignoring the signature images and icons.

Using an Automated Tool like this ensures that when you export Microsoft Outlook emails, the process is fast, it does not crash your computer, and gives you a much more organized result than the manual Wizard.

Method 3 to Export Microsoft Outlook Emails: The Official Way By Using the Import or Export Wizard 

The Wizard is the most helpful way to export Microsoft Outlook Emails for Windows users. It exports everything that you can think of from your folders to subfolders and even every single file attached to those emails.

Step1: Open the Wizard -  Launch your Outlook and click on File in the top-left corner. Then look for Open & Export on the sidebar, and then click Import or Export.

Step 2: Choose Your Action - A small box will pop up. It will look a bit old-fashioned, but it works perfectly. Then select export to a file and hit the next button.

Step 3: Select the file type - This is the step that asks what kind of file you want to create. You should choose the Outlook data file, as it is the format that keeps all your attachments inside the emails.

Step 4: Pick Up Your Folders - This step provides a list of all your mailboxes. From this list you have to choose the items that you want to export, for example: the entire account or just specific folders like the Inbox.

Step 5: Save and Protect - You can choose where you want to save the file. It asks whether you want to add a password, so if you’re backing up sensitive work information, don’t forget to add a password. But if it is your personal stuff, you don't have to worry about forgetting the code, as you can just leave it blank.

Method 4 to Export Microsoft Outlook Emails: The Drag and Drop For Quick Moves

If you want to export only a few emails along with their attachments, you don't need the whole Wizard. You can just apply the following steps.

1. Create a new folder on your computer's desktop.

2. Open Microsoft Outlook and highlight the emails you want to save.

3. Simply click and drag the emails into the folder on your desktop.

4. Now Outlook will instantly create separate .msg files for each email. When you open these files later, the attachments will still be inside them.

Checklist For a Successful Export of Outlook Emails

Clean Up First: Delete all the Items that you have already deleted, but have kept in the Junk folders, as there is no point in packing trash for your move.

Test the File First: Once the export is done, try opening the PST file on a different computer or in a different Outlook profile just to make sure everything is inside.

Stay Plugged In: In case you are using a laptop, make sure it is plugged into power, as exporting a large mailbox can take some time and uses a lot of processing power.