When you have stored your Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes data inside a separate pst-file (as recommended), then your recommended restore strategy is to rename the current pst-file (if still available) and restore the pst-file from your backup location to its original location. Upon restarting Outlook, Outlook will create a new local cache file containing all the data from the IMAP mail server. When you have a corrupt local mail cache, the recommended restore strategy is to rename the ost-file or pst-file that contains the cache of your IMAP data to. Therefor, the recommended restore strategy for IMAP mail is to use the methods or processes provided by your provider to restore your mailbox or individual items. However, be aware these can’t be restored under all circumstances (see the restore section below).Īs mentioned before, when using IMAP, you’d normally rely on the company hosting your IMAP account to make sure your mail data remains available and that individual items can be restored.
Therefor, when this is not the company you work for, make sure you have a trustworthy mail provider and make yourself aware of their backup and restore services and capabilities. 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.
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.