Understanding Archiving, Backup and Import/Export
Many people (incorrectly) use the terms (functions of) “Import/Export”, “Backup” and “Archiving” synonmously for various purposes but mostly in reference to “Backup” or migrating their current Outlook configuration to another machine.
Which process is applicable in a given scenario depends largely on what you actually want to achieve at the end of the day along with understanding how and where your primary Outlook data is stored something which is described in greater detail in “Understanding PST and OST Data Files“.
Archiving
While archiving can be considered a form of backup, it’s principal function is to reduce the size of a given Outlook folder by moving items based on a time-based criteria to a secondary (archive) location and/or simply deleting the original items. Archiving can occur automatically based on a user-defined schedule or manually on either a global level or individual folder items. Archiving options can be set at the folder level over-riding any global options that may have been set.
Archiving does not include contact related items.
Reality is that if original items are moved to a secondary PST file and deleted from the original location, there would still be a requirement to maintain a “backup” of the archive files in the event that there is a catastrophic machine or hard-drive failure.
Archiving is primarily one method used to “organize” data but shouldn’t really be considered as a “backup” option.
Backup
Most articles focus on backing up PST data file containing email and contact/calendar information which is generally the primary concern for most people. However this is not a “complete” backup of all things related to Outlook since there are many other files involved for such things as Rules, Signatures and the like.
The location of all these ancillary files depends on both the version of the operating system and Outlook in use. A comprehensive listing of all files involved and the default locations for each is provided in the following article from the folks at Intermedia
Outlook Data File Locations
https://hosting.intermedia.net/support/kb/?id=1424
Some key points to keep in mind about PST and OST files:
- PST files can be located anywhere on your system. The exact locations for each PST file used within your profile can be checked either via Outlook Account Settings –> Data Files tab or via the Control Panel Mail app.
- There is really no point in backing up OST files since this file type cannot be opened independently like a PST file can making it unusable if you ever need to re-configure the email accounts that originally created them. Also, excluding the next point, an OST file mirrors the contents of all folders on the email server and the file will be automatically recreated the next time the email account is sync’d.
- With Outlook ‘2013, email accounts configured as IMAP may contain folders with the designation of “This Computer Only” and care should be taken that the data contained in any folders with that description are backed up separately otherwise all data will be lost if the email account is deleted as described in item #2 above.
Typically, the folders with the designation “This Computer Only” represent the default folders (i.e. contacts, calendar etc) which were previously maintained in a separate PST file in Outlook versions ‘2010 and earlier. One of the easiest approaches to safe-guarding this data is to create a new PST file and make it the default for the profile. For more detailed information about “default folders” see “Understanding Default Folders versus Default Account“. Another way to maintain a backup of this data is to use the Outlook export function for the folders involved. Whichever approach is used, remember that this data should also be backed up to a location other than your local hard drive in the event of a catastrophic machine or hard drive failure.
Import/Export
There are certainly times when Import/Export is the method to be used for backing up data, one of which is noted in the above section. However, far too many people use Import/Export when migrating from one system to another or for backing up existing data. PST files do not need to be exported for backup purposes. All that needs to be done is to copy the actual PST file containing the data (with Outlook closed) to the desired destination location. Copying a PST file that is still open in Outlook can lead to data corruption making the copied file unusable in the future.
One of the most important settings when performing a PST2PST export is the “Include Sub-Folders” option. This is something that is frequently overlooked resulting in missing data in the newly created export PST file which may go unnoticed until its too late.
The most common reason for using the Import/Export in Outlook is for using existing Outlook data in other applications or in turn, importing data from other applications into Outlook. The data fields that can be exported from/imported into Outlook is limited to those fields that appear in the Outlook mapping field. if a desired/required field does not appear on this list, it cannot be imported or exported since there is no option to add any other fields to the Outlook import/export wizard field map.
One other important reason that a PST2PST export is done would be to convert an ANSI PST file to a Unicode based PST file. Outlook will create the newly exported PST file as a Unicode file. Note that this doesn’t apply to Outlook versions ‘2002 or earlier since Unicode PST files are not supported. It’s also worth noting that when exporting a PST specifically for this purpose, it would be worthwhile to first run ScanPST on the file to eliminate any potential underlying problems and preferably using the ScanPST program related to the version of Outlook using the ANSI based PST file.
While Outlook ‘2013 supports ANSI based PST files, this format really shouldn’t be used unless there is a some serious requirement to do so. In the event that you do not have access to the original Outlook version and have an ANSI based PST file, one of the first things that should be done when Outlook is opened is to export the file to the current format having run ScanPST on the file prior to it being opened by Outlook ‘2013. Once the file has been exported, it should replace the existing ANSI based file in the profile.
Category: Understanding Outlook
