In general, your recommended backup strategy for email is to rely on the backup and retention methods in place by the company hosting your IMAP account. Your Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes are stored inside the same ost-file but Outlook can be configured to store this data inside a separate pst-file as well (recommended). Your Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes are stored inside a separate additional pst-file. Your other data (Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes) are not stored on and synched with the IMAP mail server as the IMAP protocol only supports synching emails. You can lookup the location and name of the pst- or ost-file as explained in the section: Managing pst-files. Your mail cache is stored inside an ost-file. Your mail cache is stored inside a pst-file. Your emails and email folders are stored on the IMAP server and are synched with Outlook which stores them in a local cache file on your computer. This can make it somewhat complex to properly backup both your emails and other data such as Contacts, Calendar and Tasks for IMAP accounts. When you use an IMAP account, your Outlook data is either stored in a pst-file, an ost-file or a combination thereof. You can also choose to backup individual items. If you only want to backup a select amount of folders, you can use the Export and Import method. There are also various free backup tools available to automate the process of backing up your pst-file on a regular basis. This whole process is explained in further detail in the Managing pst-files section.

Your recommended restore strategy is to rename the current pst-file (if still available) and then restore the pst-file from your backup location to its original location.

Your recommended backup strategy is to regularly make a copy of your pst-file to your backup location when Outlook is closed.

When you use a POP3 account, all your Outlook data (emails, contacts, calendar, tasks and notes) is stored locally on your PC inside a pst-file.

Backing up and restoring individual items.It describes various methods and explains which method is best to be used in which scenario. This guide is all about backing up and restoring your Outlook Data.

With today’s use of e-mail you almost can’t afford to lose a single e-mail so let alone your entire mail archive, Calendar items and Contacts.

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