# How Can I Back-Up Emails?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-back-up-emails/263904>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 10, 2004, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-back-up-emails/263904 "2004-09-10T11:51:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2004, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-back-up-emails/263904/1 "2004-09-10T11:51:32Z")

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Whether using Outlook or Outlook Express, can emails be backed up? Where are they really stored, anyhow? - Jinx

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2004, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-back-up-emails/263904/2 "2004-09-10T11:57:00Z")

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In Oulook Express, the messages are stored in .dbx files - one for each folder, plus an index called folders.dbx - you may have to search for these though, as they are found in different places depending on your Windows version and/or installation.

In Outlook, all the messages (plus the contacts, tasks etc) are stored in a single ‘personal folders’ file with the extension .pst - again, this might be in a different place on different machines. There also might be more than one .pst file on your system (i.e. one created during installation and another one dusring initial configuration) - the droid you’re looking for is usually the larger file with the more recent timestamp.