Query: “One of my Old Employees is leaving the organization and we need to delete his Office 365 account. But as he was managing the contact details of the entire company, I want to transfer Exchange Online Contacts to PST file format for his O365 account before permanently deleting it. Can anyone tell me how to export Office 365 contacts to PST using eDiscovery Method? Is there any alternative to eDiscovery Tool for Exporting O365 Contacts to PST? I am looking for a complete guide. Please provide me with a reliable solution. Thanking you in advance.
Reggie”
With no platform dependency, Office 365 is one of the top choices of users across the world. This cloud-based platform comes with regular & automatic updates, reduced security risks and flexible plans tailored for specific businesses and customers.
Out of all the Office 365 data items, contacts play a crucial role in establishing effective communication between people and organizations. Therefore, it is essential to store the contacts data separately so that I can be accessed in required conditions. This post provides a step by step guide to transfer Exchange Online contacts to PST file format.
Reasons to Transfer MS 365 Contacts to PST
Users, as well as organizations, give different reasons to transfer MS 365 Contacts to PST. Some of the common scenarios are:
- Your O365 admin account got hacked by unknown sources
- You want to store important contacts for a longer duration
- You need to delete an Office 365 user account and want to store contacts database
- There is a threat of Cloud Ransomware attack on your MS 365 user or admin account
- You don’t want to be solely dependent on Microsoft for management of the company’s crucial contacts
- You need data in PST file format for some legal purpose
How to Download Outlook Online Contacts?
Now that you are aware of the various reasons to transfer MS 365 contacts to PST, let’s talk about the ways to download the Outlook Online Contacts. There are two ways to do it – using a Manual Method or using SysTools MS 365 Export Software. Let’s understand each method one by one.
Using eDiscovery Method – A Manual Solution
As the Office 365 doesn’t provide any built-in solution to export contacts to pst, Content Search eDiscovery tool can be used as a manual approach to find or search the contacts and other items in O365. Before you understand the process, it is important to be aware of the requirements to use this utility.
System Requirements:
- 64 and 32-bit versions of Windows 7 or later versions
- Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5
- The latest version of Internet Explorer
- Permissions to carry out Office 365 export to PST
Detailed Steps to Transfer Office365 Contacts to PST using eDiscovery Tool
- Go to https://protection.office.com/
- Log in to Office 365 account.
- Click on Permissions → eDiscovery Manager → Edit role group
– Select eDiscovery Administrator and then Edit option.
– Click on the ‘+’ icon to add the user to the eDiscovery Manager.
– Choose the required user and hit the Add button.
– Now you need to create a new eDiscovery case. From Office 365 Security and Compliance, open eDiscovery and click on + Create a case.
– A new dialog box appears. Add the case name and description and hit the Save button.
– If you need to manage and access the case, it is essential to be a member of the newly added case.
– Go to eDiscovery option to find the list of cases.
– You need to click on the newly created case to add members to it.
– Now ‘Manage this case’ window will appear. Under ‘Manage members’, click on ‘+Add’ option to add the member to this case.
– Under Manage role group, click the +Add button to add a new role group to this case.
– Hit the Save button.
– Keep in mind that the content searches related to the case will be accessed only by the users that are members of the eDiscovery Manager group too.
– Go to eDiscovery and select the case which is to be used to perform the Content Search. Click on the Open button.
– Click on the ‘Searches’ tab and hit the +New Search button.
– A new search page will open. You can even add keywords to create the search query.
– Under Locations, select the content location. Click on Modify option to select users, teams, groups or site locations.
– You can also select SharePoint sites or Exchange public folders if required.
– Click on ‘Save’ and then hit the ‘Save & run’ to save your search settings.
– Enter the name and description of the search and hit the Save button to start the search.
– Now, the search process is completed. The next step is to download this search result.
– Go to eDiscovery option and select the case for which you want to export the results. Hit the open button.
– When the new window opens, click on the ‘Searches’ option.
– From the list of searches, select the search that you want to export.
– A new page opens. Click on More button and then Export results option to transfer Exchange Online contacts to PST file format.
– Select the Export option to display the export jobs for the particular case.
– Select the Export job and click the download button to download the search results.
– Now, copy the Export Key and then paste it in the pop-up window.
– Select the destination location for the exported results and hit the Start button.
– Once the process is completed, select the Close button and finish the task.
– After this complex procedure, your Office 365 contacts data is finally exported to PST format at the desired location.
Common Issues Faced by Users with eDiscovery Method
– The user account does not have the export or import role assigned.
– The role assignment changes are not yet reflected in the eDiscovery.
– The browser is not supporting the export results. This happens due to the fact that the export can only work with Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer browsers.
– The eDiscovery method creates duplicated items.
– Other common problems include missing items, the time-consuming export process, corruption of pst files and difficulty in carrying out the process due to technical expertise needed.
Alternative to eDiscovery Feature – Outlook Online Exporter
If you are not from a technical background, using the manual method can turn out to be really confusing. Not to forget the common issues that you might face even after performing the entire procedure. In such a scenario, it is better to opt for an alternative to eDiscovey feature – Outlook Online Exporter to carry out the export process seamlessly.
Office 365 Extractor allows you to export contacts in desirable formats and successfully exports email address, telephone number, location, work address, and mobile number. Some of the prominent features offered by this third party software are:
– Facility to extract Office 365 data into PST/ MSG or EML file type.
– Date and Category Filter for exporting selective data
– Availability of Split PST File option
– Facility to Export multiple user mailboxes using Admin Impersonation
– Supported majorly by all O365 subscription plans
– Works will all latest versions of Windows including Windows 10
– Provision to export data from In-Place Archive Mailboxes and Shared Mailboxes of Exchange Online
Summing Up
Office 365 users often need to transfer Exchange Online contacts to PST file format for various reasons. The manual method as explained above is a quite complicated procedure. If you do not have a technical background, it is difficult to get the proper output. Therefore, it is recommended to pick software to extract MS 365 Contacts and get a quick solution without any hassle. This post tells you how to export Office 365 contacts to PST using eDiscovery Method and an alternative approach for the same. You can try out any of the above methods and export your Office 365 contacts data to pst file format.
