Access the Data of a Former User

Access Outlook Data:

To save the email messages, calendar, tasks, and contacts of the former employee, export the information to an Outlook Data File (.pst).

  1. Add the former employee's email to your Outlook (If you reset the user's password, you can set it to something only you know.)

  2. In Outlook, choose File.

  3. Choose Open & Export > Import/Export.

  4. Click Export to a file, and then click Next.

  5. Click Outlook Data File (.pst), and then click Next.

  6. Select the account you want to export by clicking the name or email address. If you want to export everything in your account, including mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, and notes, make sure the Include subfolders check box is selected.

    You can export one account at a time. If you want to export multiple accounts, after one account is exported, repeat these steps.
  7. Click Next.

  8. Click Browse to select where to save the Outlook Data File (.pst). Type a file name , and then click OK to continue.

  9. If you are exporting to an existing Outlook Data File (.pst), under Options, specify what to do when exporting items that already exist in the file.

  10. Click Finish.

Outlook begins the export immediately unless a new Outlook Data File (.pst) is created or a password-protected file is used.

  • If you're creating an Outlook Data File (.pst), an optional password can help protect the file. When the Create Outlook Data File dialog box appears, type the password in the Password and Verify Password boxes, and then click OK. In the Outlook Data File Password dialog box, type the password , and then click OK.

  • If you're exporting to an existing Outlook Data File (.pst) that is password protected, in the Outlook Data File Password dialog box, type the password , and then click OK.

Access OneDrive documents:

If you remove a user's license but don't delete the account, you retain access to the content in the user's OneDrive site. If you delete their account you have 30 days to access a former user’s OneDrive data. If you don't restore a user account within 30 days their OneDrive content is deleted. Before you delete the account, you should move the content from their OneDrive to another location.

To preserve a former user's OneDrive for Business documents you first access their OneDrive site and then move the files.

  1. In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.

  2. Select a user.

  3. In the right pane, choose OneDrive. Under Get access to files, choose Create link to files.

  4. Click the link to open the file location and download and copy the files to your own OneDrive for Business, or a common location. You can also share the link with another user to download the files.

    You can move up to 500 MB of files and folders at a time.
    When you use  Move to with documents that have version history, only the latest version is moved.