Microsoft Office 365 eDiscovery Export Tool: Check Out How it Works?

User Query: What is Office 365 eDiscovery Export Tool?

I was looking for a solution that let me export Office 365 mailboxes to PST. After searching the web, I came to know a bit about this Microsoft Office 365 eDiscovery Export Tool. But I am totally unaware of how to execute this eDiscovery Export Tool.

We get several queries similar to the above on an everyday basis, hence, we have decided to explain the whole procedure in simple terms so, that users who are looking for a stepwise manual procedure to use this eDiscovery tool can execute the task safely.

Complete Step-by-Step Working of Office 365 eDiscovery Process

Before getting into the steps, there are a few things, that you should keep in mind, firstly you should have the global admin or Office 365 admin credentials with proper permissions assigned. In addition to this, you should have some technical knowledge about the PowerShell scripts and Office 365 Exchange Admin Center. Now, let’s move to the steps!

Step 1. Use Admin credentials to Open Exchange Admin Center. 

Step 2. Go to the Admin Centers tab and hit the Security and Compliance option.  

Step 3. Now go to Permissions and hit the eDiscovery Manager tab. You can click on the Edit button to make the essential changes to the role group, which are required to run the eDiscovery process.

Note: Ensure you are a  member of the eDiscovery Manager Role Group, only then you can access these features and settings.

Step 4. The role group already has some assigned roles such as  Case Management, Compliance Search, Export, Hold, Preview, Review, and RMS Decrypt.

Step 5. If the Export role is missing, then follow Step 3 and assign the Export role.

Step 6. Now from Security and Compliance, go to More Resources and open it. A new window will open and you can find all the services there. Click on the Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal. Now, hit the Content Search option from the left panel. Then click on the New Search button.

Step 7. Now you can see a new window with all customization options, that you can add to your search. Starting with naming your search, then you can add a description if required, then the Location tab will allow you to set the destination location from where the eDiscovery will search the data.  

Step 8. eDiscovery also allows you to apply different search filters such as query language/region, keywords/phrases, and conditions, including those related to time, message fields & properties, etc. which allows you a selective PST export.

Step 9. After applying all filters and customizing your search you can now click on submit and then done. 

Step 10. The eDiscovery process will start automatically, you can go to the search tab to see the status of this search.  

Step 11. When this search is completed, click on the Action button and then choose the Export Results option.

Step 12. In this step, you will see a variety of different settings that you can apply for a particular situation;  if you want to export encrypted files, etc, then you can set those settings accordingly. If you are not sure about this setting then ignore them to export the entire searched data to PST format. 

Step 13. Now hit the Export button to export these search results. You can check the status of this process in the Export tab.

Step 14. Click on the Download results when this process is completed. Also, copy the Export Key from this screen, we will use this key in the eDiscovery Export Tool to download the resultant files locally.

Step 15. When you hit the Download button it will launch the eDiscovery PST Export Tool, here you have to paste the copied Export Key & define the destination location on your local computer to save the PST files. 

As we can see, it is not at all an easy process for any nontechnical user to perform. One needs to be a technical expert to use this Office 365 eDiscovery export tool. However, the process is too long to execute without any expert help. Moreover, it can take a lot of time and if the process gets terminated in between due to any reason, then it needs to start again from the beginning.

Also Read About: Three Easy Ways to Import Outlook data file to Office 365 mailbox

Limitations of Using Office 365 eDiscovery Method

• The manual method is a tedious and time-consuming process.
• You cannot export all the mailbox data such as calendars, contacts, and emails at the same time.
• You cannot apply a filter while exporting. O365 mailbox export to PST requires technical knowledge.
• This method is a technical process. Therefore, it is not available to non-technical users.

Best Alternative of Microsoft Office 365 eDiscovery PST Export Tool

As this method is not officially developed for exporting data into PST files, many experts don’t recommend it to users. It is designed for some other purpose. So, we generally advise using a professional automated software solution to perform the procedure.

Many tools are available online for users. But when it comes to the best Microsoft Office 365 eDiscovery Export Tool alternative, then we would recommend Office 365 Export Tool. It offers a wide range of features which makes the complete process effortless. Users can download the free trial version of the software below:

eDiscovery PST Export Tool Alternative Software Working Steps

Here is the step-by-step process of using the software to export Office 365 mailbox to Outlook PST format:

• Step 1. Download  & launch the software on your Windows systems.
• Step 2. From the main window of the program, choose source and destination. 
• Step 3. Now, go to your workload selection screen and check the items you need to export. You can also export data selectively using the date filter by setting the date range.
• Step 4. Now log in using Office 365 admin credentials like Admin Email and Application ID Validate permissions.
• Step 5. Now in the destination tab, set the location to save the resultant PST files on your PC. Choose the PST file size from the drop-down menu. Validate the required permissions and click on next. 
• Step 6. Add users by using any of these three ways, such as:
  Fetch Users – It will automatically fetch users from the source domain.
  Import Users – This will import users through a CSV.
  Download Template – This downloads a template to be used as a sample for creating a CSV file.
• Step 7. Next, choose the user accounts you want to export. Next, click on the “Verify Permissions” button. Finally, click the “Start Export” button.

Also Read: Learn to Migrate Lotus Notes to Office 365 

Time to Conclude

In this article, we have discussed the entire eDiscovery process, and we have also learned about the best alternative to the Microsoft Office 365 eDiscovery Export tool. Above mentioned software is one of the best applications that work well in the same. It provides many advanced features and also performs the Office 365 to PST export process in a more customized way. You can use any of these two methods according to your needs.