Google provides many effective tools and utilities for data migration and conversion. One such tool is the Google Vault. It safeguards user’s mailbox data in a separate location for Google Apps Mail. It is a very powerful method to export and same email messages in Gmail with attachments. Often users need to access their conversations through a workplace Outlook application. To export Gmail emails to PST format, they need to be first converted to a MBOX file format. The Google Vault emails can be archived to a MBOX file format, which can then be converted to Outlook PST file. This post describes the methods to convert Google Vault to Outlook PST Format.

What is Google Vault?

It is an add-on provided by Google Apps with Enterprise, education or business license. It is a web browser-based utility that can archive, hold and search through email messages. All email messages route through Vault servers before being displayed to Google Apps Mail user. Google Vault captures all edits, changes or deletion made to emails. The administrator has rights to access these changes and undo them.

Some of the Features provided by Google Vault

• Advanced Searching Capability: An administrator can search throughout the domain and retrieve results within seconds of typing in a keyword.
• Archive all Gmail Messages: It provides a facility to back up all emails with attachments. If there is a deletion made by mistake in the original mailbox, it can be recovered within the next 48-72 hours.
• Export into Multiple File Formats: The Gmail messages can be moved to a single separate file and saved locally on the user machine. The Google Apps backup for emails can be taken in multiple different formats. This can be useful to export data from Google Vault to PST file.
• Safe and Secure Way to Safeguard Emails: For many legal authorities, it is important to preserve their conversations on a safe location. Many customers just contact through Gmail email or through the phone. Google Vault can be used to save those messages in a secure manner.
• Efficient Audit Reports: An administrator can view all the changes made by other Google Apps users. Audit reports can be generated for all edits made under a certain period of time.

What is the Purpose of using MBOX File Format?

There is no direct way to move emails from Google Vault to PST file format. The only way is to create a MBOX file for all email messages in Google Vault. And then, upload this .mbox file to Outlook. To migrate Google Apps Mail in Outlook, it is necessary to have Google Vault subscription. The cost of the license for this is an additional $5 per user, per month. Through this, users can export entire mailbox or selected emails to a single file. This file can be imported to any desktop-based email client to view Google Apps email in Outlook.

Steps to Convert Google Vault to Outlook PST Format

As discussed earlier, to move emails from Google Vault to Outlook they need to be first exported to a MBOX file. Following are the steps to export emails from Google Vault to MBOX file format. Then, convert this MBOX file to PST format and upload it to Outlook.

1.      Search the Emails to Export

• First, search emails based on a keyword or phrase.
• Next, click on Exported Results from the search results.
• Then, give a name to the exported email files.
• Finally, click on Begin Export to start moving emails to Google Apps Vault MBOX file.

2.      Download the Converted Emails

•     Now, click on the View Completed Files link.
•     And then, click on the Download option to start downloading the Gmail emails.

Note: This link is available for 15 days after which the emails are not available for download.

Best Way to Read Google Apps Mail in Outlook

After the emails are exported to a MBOX file, they need to be converted to a .pst file format to be read in Outlook application. One such suitable way to move emails from Google Vault to PST file format is to use the MBOX to PST Converter. It is a highly effective tool that can directly migrate the output .mbox file from Google Vault to PST file format. There is no need for licensing Outlook and installing it on the migration machine as the tool can work without it. It supports moving all emails with attachments to Outlook PST, EML or MSG format. The tool is compatible with all versions of Windows 2010 and below.

Final Words

The only way to Convert Google Vault to Outlook PST Format is through a MBOX file format. A .mbox file is created for all searched emails from the Google Apps Vault application. Then, this file can be converted to PST file format to read Google Apps Mail in Outlook. One effective tool has also been discussed in this post.