• What is Mbexport365?

Mbexport365 is a software utility that allows exporting Exchange Online (part of Microsoft Office 365 suite) data to local .pst files.

• What are the System Requirements?

Windows 7 or higher, Dot Net Framework 4.5.2 or higher; Microsoft Outlook (version supported by Office 365).

• How it works?

Office 32 bit: download/copy and extract 32 bit version of the program (MBExport365-x.y.w.z-x86.zip) to local folder (ex: c:\mbexport365).
Office 64 bit: download/copy and extract 64 bit version of the program (MBExport365-x.y.w.z-x64.zip) to local folder (ex: c:\mbexport365).
Configure and initialize Outlook profiles as needed.
Customize configuration file, starting from the most suitable template.
Schedule exporting Tasks

• How Mbexport365 interacts with Outlook?

Completely: Mbexport365 works on configured Outlook profiles.
As first step, configure them. As it is possible to export more accounts in the same profile, bring together the accounts that will be processed by the same configuration file (those with same policy).
Choose remember password.
Pay attention to Outlook parameters, especially the management of the cache mode.

• How to manage user’s password change, in server scenario?

Depending on company policy, account can be stored with its own credential, or an admin can generate a dedicated Office365 account with permission on each account (delegation), so no user change password may affect export.

• What type of Exchange accounts are supported?

Primary and Public Folders accounts, not secondary. If you have to export multiple accounts in a profile, add them as primary account.

• What about Archive Mailbox?

Archive Mailboxes are secondary account, so they won’t be processed.

• Why separate setting for All Public Folders and Favorite Public Folders?

Because they are different: All Public Folders always contain all folders and are always online (non-cached even in cached-configured profiles);
Favorite Public Folders are selectable and can be cached (in cached-configured profiles);
This separation, can help building .cfg files well-suited for any situation.

• How can affect cache mode to exported data?

Cache mode is a key-concept in order to successfully export data.
If you disable cache mode, Outlook works in Exchange online mode: data are certainly updated, but exporting speed vill result very low.
If you enable cache mode, Outlook works in Exchange cached mode: exporting speed will be high, but data are taken from local cache file (.ost) so may be not updated.

• What is the best way to configure cache mode?

It depends on where Mbexport365 is located.
If it is located on a client machine, where the user works with Outlook every day, we can assume that Outlook is in cache mode, and will be updated.
So, in this case, we can safely launch manually or schedule Mbexport365 with a configuration file that call user’s Outlook profile and export all data in fast (cached) mode (provided example: client.cfg).
If it is located on a server machine, that export more users, you may think to configure one profile with all accounts without cache mode (online mode). This will be scheduled every work day, selecting only non-email folders (like tasks, calendar, contacts and notes) that are not very heavy, but very critical. Speed is not so important as it is the certainty of having updated data (provided example: server-pim.cfg).
On the same server, you may think to configure another profile with the same accounts in cache mode (pay attention to period of synchronization (default 1 year), you may want to select “All”), schedule export once a week and select all folders. In this case Outlook has to be opened for some seconds to leave it synchronize the data before exporting; log messages are inverted: alert if non-cached run and ok for cached run. Do first, long time synchronization manually (provided example: server-full.cfg).

• How con I manage cache mode in report’s e-mail?

As the cache mode may or may not be wanted, depending on the situation, in the configuration file there is a dedicated setting to manage this condition. It is possible to send normal or warning e-mail.

• Why mail color body is customizable?

Because if the situation requires enabled cache, a green color may be assigned to this condition and yellow to the online condition; conversely, if the situation requires online mode, colors may be inverted. Another situation: if we are exporting public folders, and we don’t have permissions on some of them, a warning message will be logged; but if this is a normal condition, we can assign it a green message (instead of the default yellow message). In all situations, for the error condition, it is recommended to leave the red color (this condition always means exporting failed).

• Why is caution needed to send the report through outlook?

Sending the final report through outlook has one big advantage and one big disadvantage.
Pros: credentials are stored and maintained by the outlook profile; no need to write them and keep updated in the configuration file.
Cons: as it is an in-band method (while all other are out-of-band methods), if some problem occurs to the export, it is likely that the report itself could not be sent.
For this reason, it is suggested only in a client deployment.

• How should I schedule export operations?

It depends mainly from the selected cache mode. In online mode (non-cached mode), any scheduled mode works well (“run only when user is logged on” or “run whether user is logged on or not”) and it doesn’t matter if Windows user is logged on or not.
In cached mode, only one combination takes advantage of full speed: scheduled task set to “run only when user is logged on” and Windows account logged in (consider setting registry autoadminlogon to 1 to be sure of this); other combinations work, but it revert in online mode, so speed become slow.
In either case, schedule a basic task with parameters like this example (provided mbexport365.exe is placed in c:\mbexport365 folder):
Program/script: c:\mbexport365\mbexport365.exe
Add arguments: /c default.cfg
Start in: c:\mbexport365\

It is also possible to schedule a batch file (MBELauncher.bat), but remember to set the “Start in” option
Program/script: c:\mbexport365\MBELauncher.bat
Start in: c:\mbexport365\

• How exported pst files are managed?

In configuration file, 2 parameters manage exported pst files: FilePath and ExportFiles.
FilePath set the location of exported pst files (blank value, means current directory);
ExportFiles set the number (and the name) of exported pst files to retain (0 or null, means 1 only file with name format CfgFileName-AccountName.pst; 1 or higher means n files with name format CfgFileName-AccountName-YYYYMMDDHHMM.pst).
When exporting to network path, always choose to remember passwords, to avoid permission problems.

• How exported log files are managed?

Similar to pst file, with the exception that directory position is fixed to the path of the program\logs.
In this directory, another log file is created (always with the fixed name mbexport365.log) to catch errors that may occur before writing dedicated log file (ex: Outlook not installed).

• How can I test effectiveness of the configuration file?

Always configure CheckOnly parameter to true to check what Mbexport365 will do, if it is what you want, or modifications are needed. This will check also communication with license servers: UNAVAILABLE state means no communication with servers.

• Which IP and port must be opened at firewall level?

3 ip addresses: licensing1.mbexport365.com, mirror11.mbexport365.com, mirror12.mbexport365.com
1 port: tcp 15107

• The program crashes and I cannot continue. What can I do?

Mbexport365 depends heavily on Outlook. So, updating it to the latest build and fully initializing profiles that will be processed, solves almost all errors.
If you have any issues, please send us an e-mail at: [email protected]

• The program cannot access the e-mail account. What  can I do?

Make sure the Office 365 password is cached, restart computer, open Outlook to make sure of this.

• The program cannot access the shared folder. What can I do?

Make sure the Windows password is cached, restart computer, run \\server\shared-folder to make sure of this.

• LICENSING
  The program is always in full mode. When it first run with a new account, a trial of 30 days starts. FULL version can be purchased at http://www.mbexport365.com
  If you buy n licenses and, after some time, you decide to buy more, the site recalculate the new expiration of all the accounts (old and new).
  It is also possible to change email address that is bound to license many times, but is not possible to reassign already used address to the same license.