Exchange Online Backup and E-Mail Restore

Exchange Online Backup and Email Restore

1. Microsoft does not provide backup of Exchange Online Database, however the user can take backup of their account individually using export functionality in Outlook.
2. There are 3rd party solution for taking backup of Exchange Database like ”Code Two Backup for Office 365” but you have to buy that separately.

The deletion of the e-mail in Exchange Online goes like this:

1. As the user deletes the email it goes into “Deleted Items” folder, It remains there until it is manually removed by the user, or automatically removed by retention policies.
2. After an item has been removed from the archive’s Deleted Items folder, the item is kept in the archive’s Recoverable Items folder for an additional 14 days before being permanently removed. Users can recover these items using the Recover Deleted Items feature in Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Web App.
3. If the user deletes it from there also then it is permanently deleted however if the “Single Item Recovery” or “Legal Hold” feature is enabled then it can be recovered by the administrator.
4. "Single Item Recovery" holds email for 14 days by default however it can be customized, "Legal Hold" stores the email for unlimited time until the legal hold feature has been released.

The following illustration shows the sub-folders in the Recoverable Items folders. It also shows the deleted item retention, single item recovery, and hold workflow processes that are described in the following sections.