How to Export an Office 365 Mailbox to PST

We might want to export Office 365 mailboxes to a PST file. For example when a user leaves the organization, legal purposes, or when you want to migrate a mailbox to another mail service.

Users can export their own mailbox through the Outlook client, but also as an admin we can easily export a complete mailbox through the Office 365 Admin Center.

Requirements to Export Mailbox to PST in Office 365

We are going to use the Content Search and eDiscovery Export Tool to export an Office 365 mailbox to PST. To use the Content Search you will need to have the eDiscovery Manager role in the Microsoft 365 Compliance center.

A global administrator doesn’t have this role by default, so first, we are going to give your account the proper permissions. You will need to be a global administrator to change permissions.

1. Log in at the Microsoft 365 Admin Center
2. In the menu, click on Compliance to open the Compliance Admin Center.
3. Click on Permissions
4. And open the Compliance Center Roles

Compliance Center Permissions

5. Select eDiscovery Manager
6. Make sure that the Export Role is listed in the Assigned Roles (otherwise add it)
7. Edit the eDiscovery Administrator

8. Click on Choose eDisovery Administrator or Edit
9. Click + Add
10. Lookup your own account and add it to the list
11. Clic Save to complete

We have now the proper permissions to start a Content Search and export an Office 365 mailbox to pst. To apply the new permissions it’s best to log out, close the tab and log back in again.