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    How to backup IMAP emails data locally?

    ChesterBy

    IMAP offers top email accessibility across multiple devices. Yet, this convenience comes at a cost: reliance on remote servers. What happens when connectivity is disrupted, or worse, your email provider suffers a catastrophic data loss?

    The vulnerability of your critical communications becomes apparent. To minimize these risks, a local email backup strategy is imperative. This post will help you with the backup of IMAP emails data locally. We will take a look at the detailed steps divided in two parts for easy configuration and then a backup. To help non-tech users, we will also introduce the Recoveryfix IMAP Backup tool. Let’s begin to safeguard your data.

    Reasons to backup IMAP emails locally

    Here are the reasons why you should backup your IMAP emails locally.

    • Offline access: Get uninterrupted email access, even without an internet connection.
    • Data protection: Protect your emails from potential email service disruptions or data loss incidents.
    • Smooth migration: Simplify the process of transferring emails to a new email provider by using your local backup as a convenient source.
    • Overcome storage limits: Maintain complete control over your email archive by bypassing storage quotas or retention policies imposed by email providers.
    • Disaster recovery: Protect against unforeseen data loss scenarios, such as technical failures or service outages, with a local copy of your IMAP emails.

    Using Outlook to backup IMAP emails locally

    When looking to backup IMAP emails, using Outlook is the ideal option. The manual process for IMAP emails backup will be carried out in 2 steps.

    1. Configuring IMAP account to Outlook

    First, we need to configure the IMAP account to Outlook before we move on to the IMAP backup. Follow the steps below for IMAP account configuration.

    • Open Outlook and go to the File menu.
    • Tap on Add Account. Choose manual setup or additional server types and tap on Next.
    • Select POP or IMAP and hit Next.
    • Fill in all the details such as: email address, account type [as IMAP], Incoming mail server [imap-mail.outlook.com], Outgoing mail server (SMTP) [ smtp-mail.outlook.com] and the login information.
    • Tap on More Settings.

    • Checkmark the box “My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication”.
    • Open the Advanced tab and configure these settings:
    1. Incoming server (IMAP): 995
    2. Select SSL: encrypted connection for the incoming server.
    3. Outgoing server (SMTP): 587
    4. Select TLS: encrypted connection for the outgoing server.
    • Tap on OK and hit Next in the Add Account window for testing and saving your account settings.

    After completing the account settings, let us now get to the steps to backup IMAP emails data locally.

    1. Using the Export option to backup IMAP emails locally

    Follow the steps given below to create a backup of IMAP emails via the Export feature of Outlook.

    • Access Outlook and click on the File menu.
    • Tap on Open & Export. Click on the Import/Export option.
    • Choose the option Export to a File and click on Next.
    • Select Outlook data file (.pst) and hit Next.
    • Choose the folders you want to backup and tap on Next.
    • Choose the destination as per your convenience to save your file. Tap on Finish.

    The above manual method is useful but has certain limitations that you must keep in mind.

    Limitations of the manual method

    Here are the manual method limitations to know:

    • It is time-consuming and needs a bit of tech-expertise.
    • You can only export 1 file at a time and this manual method does not support backup of heavy mailboxes.
    • Prone to data loss, the manual method is not 100% reliable.

    But then which is a 100% reliable solution? We will help you with an automated utility, Recoveryfix IMAP Backup.

    With this utility, you can backup IMAP mailboxes to PST and support major IMAP servers such as Gmail, Outlook.com, Zoho mail backup, AT&T, etc. Equipped with advanced filters, you can also carry out selective backup and get detailed reports in CSV files. Save your backups at your convenient location and try out the trial version for free today.

    Moreover, the tool is compatible with all major versions of Windows OS [Windows Operating System: Windows 365, 11, 10, 8.1,8, 7, Vista, 2008, XP, 2002, and 2000 (both 32-bit and 64- bit), Windows Server 2022, 2019 & older versions].

    Last say

    In conclusion, we have discussed the stepwise instructions to backup IMAP emails data locally. Starting from IMAP configuration to using the export feature for IMAP backup, we hope you can follow the steps with ease. As the manual method has some limitations, you can opt for our recommended tool, Recoveryfix IMAP Backup.

    With the ease of use offered by this tool, this tool is a no-brainer for any user and with its wide range of compatibility, this tool even offers the trial version for free.

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