While in school, students have a Microsoft for Education license that gives them access to Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Word, and other Microsoft Office applications. Recent graduates can sometimes find alumni discounts and offers. (UW-Madison does not have any control over what these alumni offers are or when they are offered.)

After graduation, you may choose to purchase a Microsoft 365 Personal license for yourself. Purchasing your own Microsoft 365 license would give you access to Microsoft Outlook Desktop application.

Outlook .pst files

With your own Microsoft 365 license, you can create a backup of your email, contacts, and calendar via an Outlook Data File (.pst).

• Create an Outlook Data File (.pst) to save your information - Microsoft Support

• Back up your email - Microsoft Support

• Export emails, contacts, and calendar items to Outlook using a .pst file - Microsoft Support

Depending on the size of your mailbox, the export process may take quite some time (sometimes over 24 hours). It is strongly recommended to decrease your mailbox size before beginning this process: Manage my mailbox size - Microsoft Support.

Once your Outlook data is in a .pst file, it's portable.

• You can save the .pst file to a personal OneDrive account, Google Drive, Box, or another personal online storage solution to download later.

• You can also save to a portable hard drive.

• You can use the .pst file to import your email, contacts, and calendar to your personal Microsoft 365 Outlook license: Import email, contacts, and calendar from an Outlook .pst file - Microsoft Support

You are responsible for storing your personal data. UW-Madison does not offer long-term storage solutions for personal data.

Outlook for Mac

Outlook for Mac only exports to an .olm format: Export items to an archive file in Outlook for Mac.

Note: You must use the "Legacy" version of Outlook to export emails. 

How to Revert to Legacy Outlook

• Microsoft 365 - Introducing the new Outlook for Mac
• New Outlook for Mac features

Copy messages over once both accounts are configured in Outlook

If your goal is to move data from your UW-Madison Microsoft 365 account to your new personal email account, we recommend configuring Outlook desktop with both accounts. Once they are both configured in Outlook, you can copy messages from your NetID@wisc.edu email address to your new one: Microsoft 365 - Configure your desktop client.

You can still extract your data from your UW-Madison Microsoft 365 account to another personal email account without purchasing a new license.

Microsoft Support

The Microsoft Support website offers instructions on how to save your Outlook contacts to your iOS contacts app.

Thunderbird

Follow the steps outlined here: Microsoft 365 (Thunderbird) - Configuring Two Accounts for Email Backup.

Thunderbird is a free, open-source email and calendar client. It needs to be configured with modern authentication: Microsoft 365 (Thunderbird) - Configure Modern Authentication.

1. Configure Thunderbird using IMAP with both your netid@wisc.edu email account and your personal email account. For directions, reference Automatic Account Configuration | Thunderbird Help.

2. If you have a lot of email, the process to download emails can take a long time.

3. Once all emails are downloaded, copy over your email in batches (200-300 at a time) from your netid@wisc.edu account to your personal email account.

UW-Madison DoIT Help Desk can only provide limited best-effort support to Thunderbird clients.

Apple Mail

Apple Mail is the native email client on Apple products, like Macs and iPhones. It needs to be configured with modern authentication: Microsoft 365 (Apple Mail / Calendar) - Configure Apple Mail / Calendar.

1. Configure Apple Mail using IMAP with both your netid@wisc.edu email account and your personal email account. For directions, reference Add email accounts in Mail on Mac - Apple Support.

2. If you have a lot of email, the process to download emails can take a long time.

3. Once all emails are downloaded, copy over your email in batches (200-300 at a time) from your netid@wisc.edu account to your personal email account.

UW-Madison DoIT Help Desk can only provide limited best-effort support to Apple Mail clients.

Third-Party Apps

MailStore Home is a free third-party tool for email archiving across platforms. For more information, visit MailStore Home - Free Email Archiving & Backup for Home Users.

Please note: the DoIT Help Desk does not provide support for third-party applications. Questions should be directed to the vendor directly.