If you’ve been using Outlook for a while, it’s a good idea to tidy up your mailbox by exporting your older items to an archive file. Many users export items to an archive file in Outlook for Mac to backup their data to a safe location and free up space. Having too many emails can cause Outlook to slow down, and in some cases, lead to data loss. The situation becomes worse, particularly when you’re using Outlook for Mac, where space is limited. To keep your Inbox organized and your Outlook running smoothly, archiving your emails, contacts, and other mailbox items is the way to go.
If you’re looking for easy ways to export items to an archive file in Outlook for Mac, this article is for you. Let’s first understand why exactly users export Outlook for Mac emails to an archive file.
Why Export Items to an Archive File in Outlook Mac?
- To create a backup of your emails and files: If you are worried about losing important data, exporting Outlook emails to an archive file is a great way to create a backup. So, even if your computer crashes, you’ll still have a backup.
- To free up space on your computer: Over time, OLM files grow large in size and take up a lot of space on your hard drive. Exporting your data to an archive file can help you cleanup Outlook Mailbox and free up some space.
- To share your data with others: If you need to share your Outlook data with someone else, you can look for the option to export Outlook for Mac emails to an archive file. That way, they will be able to access your emails and files without having to install Outlook on their own computer.
- This keeps files and data corruption-free: One big advantage of using an archive file is that it helps keep your files and data safe from corruption. When you store your data in an archive file, it is not as likely to be corrupted as it would be if it were stored on your hard drive.
- It is easy to access your data: Another advantage of using an archive file is that it is easy to access your data. All you need is a program that can open the file type to which you export your data. For example, if you exported your data to a .pst file, you could open it in Outlook.
- To keep your system running smoothly: If you notice that your computer is starting to run slower, it could be because Outlook is taking up too much space. Exporting your data to an archive file can help free up some space and speed up your computer.
How to Export Emails or Items to an Archive File?
For users that want to export emails from Outlook Mac to Archive file, Outlook for Mac has an in-built Export feature. This feature allows users to create an OLM export file with the required mailbox data and save the file at the location of your choice. Here we’ve given the steps for this process below:
- Open Outlook on your Mac device and go to Tools > Export.
- A new wizard “Export to Archive File (.olm)” will appear on the screen; select the items that you want to export to the archive file and click “Continue.”
- Now, in the “Save as” box, select the “Desktop” folder, and click on “Save”.
- It will take a few seconds to export the data; once it’s done, you’ll receive a notification. Click “Finish” to complete the process.
Using this technique, you can easily export items to an archive file in Outlook for Mac in an OLM file. If you’ve exported a large mailbox, managing the large-sized OLM file can get tricky. Thus, you can split OLM file by size to make it easier to handle.
What to Do If You’re Shifting from Mac Outlook to Windows?
Exporting your OLM file data to an archive file is a step in the right direction if you want to shift email clients or plan to move to a different device. However, this process is not as easy as just moving your OLM files because Outlook for Windows doesn’t support OLM files.
It’s necessary to convert the archived OLM files to PST format, in order to access the data like emails, contacts, calendars, etc. in Outlook for Windows. If you are converting multiple large files at once, Kernel OLM to PST Converter is designed specifically to perform batch conversion of OLM files to PST format.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a way to export your Outlook for Mac emails and items to an archive file, we have provided two methods that should work for you. Depending on the size of your mailbox and how frequently you need to access the archived data, choose the method that suits you the best. Make sure to take the backup of your OLM file data to safeguard your data and avoid data loss.
Frequently Asked Questions
A. No exporting OLM files to an archive file doesn’t delete them from the Mac mailbox. It simply creates a copy of them to be archived.
A. Yes, OLM attachments can also be exported to the archive file if you’ve opted for them during conversion.
