In Microsoft 365, when an employee leaves or a project concludes, you might place their mailbox on hold and eventually make it **inactive**. This ensures the preservation of its contents for compliance or future reference. But what if you need to create a more permanent backup of an inactive mailbox for long-term archiving or other purposes? Here's how you can approach backing up an inactive Office 365 mailbox using Microsoft Purview.
Understanding Inactive Mailboxes
An inactive mailbox is a type of mailbox in Exchange Online that's used to preserve the email and mailbox content of former employees. These mailboxes can't be accessed by anyone but can be searched and their contents retained for as long as needed.
Why Back Up an Inactive Mailbox?
While inactive mailboxes already serve as an archive, you might need a separate backup for several reasons:
The primary method for "backing up" an inactive mailbox from Microsoft Purview involves exporting its contents. Here's how you can typically do it:
1. Access Microsoft Purview:
2. Individual messages: Exports each email as a separate file (e.g., .msg).
While there isn't a direct "download" button for inactive mailboxes in Microsoft Purview, you can effectively back them up locally by using the eDiscovery (Standard) search and export functionality. By exporting the mailbox content to PST files, you can create a local archive for long-term retention, compliance, or other organizational needs. Remember to carefully plan your export, understand the available options, and ensure you have the necessary permissions to complete the process.
Resources:
Understanding Inactive Mailboxes
An inactive mailbox is a type of mailbox in Exchange Online that's used to preserve the email and mailbox content of former employees. These mailboxes can't be accessed by anyone but can be searched and their contents retained for as long as needed.
Why Back Up an Inactive Mailbox?
While inactive mailboxes already serve as an archive, you might need a separate backup for several reasons:
- Long-Term Archiving Beyond Retention Policies: Your organization might have specific requirements for retaining data for extended periods that go beyond standard retention policies.
- Compliance Needs: Certain regulations might mandate exporting and storing data in a specific format or location.
- Historical Record Keeping: You might want a static copy of the mailbox content for historical purposes.
- Transferring Data to External Archives: In some cases, you might need to move the data to a different archiving system.
The primary method for "backing up" an inactive mailbox from Microsoft Purview involves exporting its contents. Here's how you can typically do it:
1. Access Microsoft Purview:
- Go to the Microsoft Purview compliance portal (usually found at `compliance.microsoft.com`).
- Ensure you have the necessary permissions to access eDiscovery and manage inactive mailboxes.
- Navigate to eDiscovery (Standard) in the left-hand navigation.
- Click + Create a case.
- Provide a name and description for your case and click Save.
- Open the case you created.
- Go to the Searches tab and click + New search.
- Give your search a name and description.
- Under Locations, select Exchange mailboxes.
- Choose Specific mailboxes and then select the inactive mailbox you want to back up. You can identify inactive mailboxes by their name and the "(Inactive)" tag.
- Define your search criteria (date range, keywords, etc.) if you want to filter the content. If you want to back up the entire mailbox, you can leave the keyword field blank.
- Click Save & run to start the search.
- Once the search is complete, go back to the Searches tab and select the search you just ran.
- Click on Actions and then **Export results**.
- You'll have several export options:
- 1. All items, including ones that have unrecognized format, are encrypted, or weren't indexed for other reasons:** This option ensures you export everything.
- Under Output options, choose how you want to export the files:
2. Individual messages: Exports each email as a separate file (e.g., .msg).
- You can also choose to include or exclude items with specific extensions, and whether to include the Exchange folder structure.
- Click Export.
- Once the export process is complete, you'll typically receive an email notification with a link to download the exported data from the Microsoft Purview Content search export page.
- The exported data will likely be in a compressed format (ZIP file). Download the file and extract its contents.
- If you chose to export to PST, you can then open these files in Microsoft Outlook or other compatible email clients to access the mailbox content locally.
- Permissions: You need the appropriate permissions within Microsoft Purview to perform eDiscovery searches and exports. This usually involves roles like eDiscovery Manager or Organization Management.
- Cost: Be aware that exporting large amounts of data might have cost implications depending on your Microsoft 365 subscription.
- Time: The export process can take a significant amount of time depending on the size of the inactive mailbox and the amount of data being exported.
- Alternative Third-Party Solutions: Just like with active mailboxes, third-party Microsoft 365 backup solutions can also handle the backup of inactive mailboxes, often with more flexible options and potentially more efficient processes.
While there isn't a direct "download" button for inactive mailboxes in Microsoft Purview, you can effectively back them up locally by using the eDiscovery (Standard) search and export functionality. By exporting the mailbox content to PST files, you can create a local archive for long-term retention, compliance, or other organizational needs. Remember to carefully plan your export, understand the available options, and ensure you have the necessary permissions to complete the process.
Resources: