Office 365 Backup Best Practices- Complete to Follow in 2023

Microsoft offers a plethora of utilities to its Office 365 users that are evidently getting used in almost every country of the world. This led to the creation of a huge database but Microsoft does not offer any direct way to do so. Now users can not directly take a backup of their files & save it on their local system. Understanding Office 365 backup best practices is a great way to get all the knowledge regarding this operation.

This write-up consists of all the necessary checks to perform before stepping into the actual backup procedure. Read this comprehensive article till the end to get relevant answers to your query.

#1 Strategy Building is One of the Best Practices for Office 365 Backup

The first reliable practice that users must follow is – they must build a proper plan for their entire operation 3 days prior to the actual beginning of the procedure. A perfect plan is the foundation of your task. If your plan is strong & made while keeping all the risks & challenges into consideration, then you can easily execute the operation. Moreover, a strategy helps us to be prepared in advance for the upcoming scenarios that most users experience. Here, various steps must be taken like calculating the exact amount of data to save, preparing source & destination, etc.

#2 Frequent Backups of your Office 365 Account

This is one of the most simple yet effective Office 365 backup best practices. Nobody knows when they’ll lose their data. Hence, it is necessary to take a backup of your crucial files at frequent intervals. This ensures the businesses that they have their data secured & they won’t lose much if anything happens. If your Office 365 usage is extensive then it is recommended to take the backup once a day. Otherwise saving your files once in two weeks or a month is enough. 

Also Read: Know the Best Way to Migrate from Office 365 to G Suite

#3 Make 3 Copies of your Backed Up Data Files – The 3-2-1 Rule

The 3-2-1 rule is followed by businesses worldwide but there’s no compulsion. It means that businesses must save their data at three different places. The first one is simply the original copy of the production server where data is produced. The second copy should be at network attached storage [NAS]. Last but not the least, keep the third copy on physical storage offsite for the third layer of protection from potential threats.

#4 Office 365 Backup Best Practices Configuring Retention Settings

Do not forget to set the retention settings of your Office 365 account. It defines the period of time until Microsoft keeps your data before deleting it permanently. For instance, you have data in your bin folder, so by default, Microsoft keeps that data for 93 days before deleting it permanently from its server. Users must be aware of the fact that Microsoft can delete your data if the total amount of files present in your bin folder exceeds 50% of your storage quota.

#5 Crucial Security Measures 

You are saving these files due to security reasons, However, there can be a huge mess if even their backup files are not saved. So, Office 365 backup best practices include securing your backed-up files to avoid getting affected by any potential risks. That is why experts recommend that users should not keep their backups on the cloud servers. For example, if you’re using Office 365, then never keep your backup file on OneDrive. Keep that data on physical storage & that is too far from the actual site.

#6 Selection of a Reliable Tool & Strategy

Best Practices for Office 365 backup includes the selection of a safe & reliable tool along with a similar approach. As we know that manual methods are complicated, users must understand that selecting an automated tool that is beneficial. Such Tools can counter the limitations present in the manual method & can even keep the data integrity intact for users’ satisfaction. However, users must ensure that they are opting for a safe & customer-trusted utility.

Use The Most Trusted Automated Tool to Solve User Queries

As we know that best practices for Microsoft 365 backup always include the selection of an automated tool. Users can simply get the expected results by selecting this advanced & dedicated tool for this operation.  Download the tool & follow the steps below.

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Best Office 365 Backup Best Practices Is to Create a Local Copy at Desktop

Detailed step-by-step procedure to backup Office 365 data files with respective images for better understanding.

Step 1. Choose Office 365 as the source and Outlook as the Destination from the main screen.

Step 2. Select the required mailbox categories i.e. email, contact, calendar, etc., from the workload selection.

Step 3. Use your O365 admin account credentials i.e. Admin Email & Application ID to log in to the software and hit the validate button to validate the required permissions.

Step 4. In this step, locate a destination path and location to save the resultant PST files on your computer.

Step 5. Now choose the required user mailboxes from the list and hit the start backup button.

Also Read: Learn How to Backup Data From Locked Android Phone

Conclusion

We’ve successfully discussed Office 365 backup best practices, to execute a smooth backup operation. In addition to this, We focused on the need to know these practices & listed a reliable solution. Using the above-mentioned software, you can easily create PST files of backup data without any hassle. 

This article can be a great help for you if you’re planning to execute this operation anytime in the near future for your business or personal purpose. Just keep in mind the practices & opt for the best backup tool for running an error-free backup operation.