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Forum Discussion
Can no longer save outlook emails to Dropbox
In the past I've copied over certain emails from my Outlook inbox into Dropbox just by using copy/paste function. These would bring attachments along with the original message text and are a backup record for my business. I can't seem to do this anymore but can open the email message attachments one at a time and copy them over to Dropbox. This takes too long, breaks up the information and I lose the original message text. Does anyone know if this fuction can still be done and how with the new changes to Dropbox.
Thanks for this. This one link shows at the bottom how to move the "Documents" folder to dropbox which moves the Outlook data and creates an auto sync. Not what I was doing as I was only backing up selective emails but it might work.
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Files-folders/Can-you-help-me-backup-my-emails/td-p/282911
What is interesting is that while playing with this I found that if I copy and past an outlook email with attachments from my Outlook inbox into the Documents folder in Windows first, I can then copy and past it into Dropbox the way I used to with no third party app.
So this is an extra step and something Dropbox has done created this inability to do the same thing directly from my email inbox. No idea why or what the fix might be but it does work now if I take this extra step. I tested it and I can open that same email from dropbox with a double click and it opens automatically with Outlook so the process break is only one way on the save side.
- Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hello Cbray - welcome to the Dropbox Community; how are you today?
As I'm not sure about this, could you clarify how exactly were you copying and pasting your emails from Outlook to Dropbox and what device were you on?
While it is possible to sync Outlook or Windows Mail .pst files using Dropbox, we believe you'll have a better experience enabling IMAP through your email provider which will automatically sync changes to your email for you, if your email provider supports that capability. IMAP is only associated with email providers and not related with Dropbox, so you'll need to check with your specific email provider for more info on how to set up or enable IMAP.
I hope this helps to some extent and I'll be waiting for your response to look further into this.
Thanks for the reply Walter. My emails are all set as IMAP. To answer your initial question I am on a laptop and was simply copying emails from my inbox list and pasting them into the appropriate Dropbox folder in order to save them as a backup. Doing it this way would capture not just the email text but also any attachments that were included with the email.
I've been doing this for years but just recently went to refresh my backup for this one business I run and that is how I found the function to no longer work.
There are two reasons I am a Dropbox user. One is the multi device access to my information as I travel and use multiple laptops as well as mobile devices. I also share information with others in a group. The second reason which is the most important is that I use Dropbox as a back up for my media but most importantly also for my critical business communications which is where the copy and paste of certain emails was being used. It was a simple and quick method that I must have to remain a Dropbox user.- Fiona
Hey Cbray. I wanted to add this Community thread that might help.
:pushpin: The Dropbox add-in to your Outlook account can:
- Replace email attachments with a shared link to any file, big or small
- Save email attachments that you receive directly to your Dropbox account
- Ensure those with access to a file see updates to it (since shared links always point to the latest version of a file, whereas attachments are just a static copy)
Read more about Dropbox for Outloook. The add-in does not save and sync the text of emails directly
Gmail +Dropbox: Note, this integration does not save or sync your Gmails text body to Dropbox automatically. )
To fully understand the issue you are facing with the emails you were saving, it will be super helpful to provide the steps you were taking and the type of device you are using to complete this process, as Waltersuggested.
Thanks for your time checking out the resources I provided.
Looking forward to more details for us to assist you the best way possible!
- I’m having the same issue with the latest update. It lets me choose the folder but then the “post” button is greyed out.
Update: after many frustrating attempts and the options changing each time I found I could copy to Dropbox. Why has this simple process become so complicated?- Fiona
Sorry to hear that kulbardi.
As explained in this discussion, saving emails from Outlook is not something Dropbox can do for you without third party app steps.
I understand you are doing something different, because you mentioned the "post" button. May I have a screenshot of the grayed out button to make sure I understand what is not working of you?
Thank you!
- I worked out how to do it but it wasn’t as straightforward as before, and different options appeared each time so quite unpredictable. A ”copy to Droppbox” option came up after a few more attempts and this worked.
