When an Outlook app - such as Outlook 2016 - is installed on your computer, you can use it to move email, contacts, and calendar items from one email account to another.
For example, let's say you have an Office 365 mailbox and a Gmail account. You can add both of them to Outlook 2016. Then, you can use Outlook 2016 to export items from your Gmail account and import them to your Office 365 mailbox.
You export items by creating a .pst file, which is an Outlook Data File that contains your messages and other Outlook items and is saved on your computer. To learn how to import items after you export them, see Import email, contacts, and calendar from an Outlook .pst file.
How to export email, contacts, and calendar items from Outlook to a .pst file
Choose from the following list of export instructions.
Office 365: Export from your Office 365 mailbox to a .pst file
Outlook 2013 and 2016: Export Outlook items to a .pst file
Outlook 2010: Export Outlook items to a .pst file
Outlook 2007: Export Outlook items to a .pst file
What data is exported?
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.
When Outlook exports emails, it includes any attachments to the emails.
Outlook does not export meta-data such as folder properties (views, permissions, and AutoArchive settings); message rules; and blocked senders lists.
When should I export (backup)/import a .pst file?
You want to move email from one email account to another email account.
Using Outlook on your desktop, you can add both accounts to Outlook. Wait a while for all of your email to show up (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. Office 365 to Outlook PST
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 2007 and you just got a new computer with Outlook 2016. Export your email data from Outlook 2007 (described in this article) and import it to Outlook 2016.
You're moving from PC to Mac: For example, when you're moving your email from Outlook on a PC and importing to Outlook 2016 on a Mac.
You want periodic backups: When you want to 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, such as a USB flash drive, another hard drive, or cloud storage such as OneDrive or Dropbox.
There's no automated way periodically backup everything (old and new). Auto-archive only backs up old items, and it moves them rather than making a copy.
If you only want to backup your contacts, see Export contacts from Outlook. It explains how to copy your contacts to a .csv file.
