If you are a student or staff member leaving Imperial, you can back up your email in one of the following ways:

  • Archive your mailbox to a .pst file using Microsoft Outlook. You will need Microsoft Outlook or another program that can read a .pst file to open your archive.
  • Configure an alternate email client to download your email to a personal computer, e.g. Gmail.

Find out more about archiving emails by on our archiving emails webpage.

ICT is unable to backup emails for users. Please ensure you leave sufficient time to archive your emails before you leave Imperial.

Archive your mailbox to a .pst file (Outlook)

Outlook's default setting is to download your emails from the past year. If you want to export all your email, please follow these steps in your Outlook client: 

  1. Click File.
  2. Select Account settings.
  3. Select Account name and sync settings.
  4. Move the slider to your desired timeframe.
  5. Ensure “Use Cached Exchange Mode to download email to an Outlook data file” is ticked.

Then, to export your emails, in your Outlook client go to:

  1. Click File.
  2. Select Open & Export.
  3. Select Import/Export.
  4. Select Export to a file.
  5. Select Outlook Data File (.pst).
  6. Select the name of the email account to export.
  7. Tick include subfolders if you wish to export all folders within the account (Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks).
  8. Browse to where you would like to save the exported file, enter a name and select OK.
  9. Select Finish.

For additional information, visit Microsoft's export emails support page. 

Recover a deleted email

You will need these instructions if you:

  • have tried to set up a new email client and now your mailbox is empty;
  • have accidentally deleted an email or folder from your Deleted Items folder and now you need it back;
  • used the Shift+Delete key combination in Outlook to delete a message;
  • archived your emails in an email client and they are removed from your mailbox.

Please be aware that these items can only be retrieved for 30 days, so you must act swiftly.

recover deleted items accordion

Microsoft Outlook
  1. Open Outlook.
  2. Click on the Folder tab.
  3. Click Recover Deleted Items.
  4. Click the item you wish to recover. If you want to recover multiple items, you can hold the Shift key down and click to select contiguous items or hold the Ctrl key down and click to select non-contiguous items. Click select all to recover the entire list.
  5. Click the Recover Selected Items button. The items will be returned to your Deleted Items folder, and then you can move them to other folders.
Outlook on the web
  1. Go to Outlook on the web
  2. Enter your College username followed by @ic.ac.uk and your password and click Sign in.
  3. Right click on the Deleted Items folder icon from the folder list.
  4. Select the Recover Deleted Items option.
  5. Select the items to be recovered in the Recover Deleted Items pop up window and click the Recover Deleted Items icon on the left hand side above the seach box.

Items in Recover Deleted Items are only available for 30 days before being permanently deleted.