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How to back up and restore Outlook properly?

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I use Microsoft Outlook locally on my Windows 10 PC and I have 15 IMAP email account defined to it along with my personal view settings, etc. Occasionally I need to restore my C:\ drive and when I do, my whole Outlook set-up is completely lost  and I have to add all the accounts and my personal settings to it again, which is very time consuming.

I have learnt that I need to export my Outlook calendar for restoration later, but I have not found away to re-add my accounts and other personal settings automatically after a C:\ drive restore.

I found a help article that says Outlook OST files are omitted by Acronis disk backups, so I tried a test using manual copies of them, but I was unable to use them to rebuild my Outlook setup. 

Does anyone know foolproof way to backup my complete Outlook configuration so it can be fully restored to exactly how it was prior to a disk image restore on a Windows 10 machine please?

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See webpage: How to Backup Outlook Account Settings: Manual vs. Automatic tools - that may be of help to you.

There are multiple options for third-party apps that will do the same that you can explore via the following Google search results.

Thanks. I looked at that first link yesterday, but I was hoping for something slicker. I did in fact try to get the trial of SpinOne, but you have to have a Microsoft work or school account and I don't have one. I also tried unsuccessfully to set up a MS business account which is meant to work too.

What I don't understand is why a full disk Acronis image restore doesn't put everything back exactly as it was just before the backup. The first time I had to carry out a C:\ drive restore it was extremely frustrating to find that MS Outlook was completely unconfigured on restore, especially the loss of the calendar, which could not be recreated.

Unfortunately this is an area where Microsoft gets involved with how they set restrictions for their VSS snapshot service (as documented in KB 48032: Acronis software: *.OST-file is not backed up), which is also why there are third-party apps such as SpinOne to try to mitigate against the shortcomings for users with complex Outlook accounts.

I only use Outlook on my Android phone and use Mozilla Thunderbird on my main computer where I have multiple options for backing everything up!

Thanks. I will investigate Mozilla Thunderbird and other email products. I currently have a problem with MS Office products constantly crashing and restarting, so I may well need to either go back a couple versions on my C:\drive or reinstall office, both which will clear down my Outlook setup.

Rather than reinstalling (removing then reinstalling) I would run the installer, which hopefully will give option of uninstalling or repairing the installation; select repair. That way you will not need to download everything again and your settings should remain in place. This may not be available for older versions; it is available for Microsoft 365.

Ian