Backups have different priorities than migrations — you care less about speed and more about reliability, completeness, and being able to restore cleanly if something goes wrong. Worth keeping that in mind before picking a method.
Native options like eDiscovery Content Search can technically get you there, but they weren't built with backup routines in mind. There's no scheduling, no easy way to run recurring exports, and licensing requirements (E3/E5) add friction if you just want a straightforward backup process running in the background.
For actual backup use cases, a few things matter more than raw speed:Consistency — the export should capture the full mailbox reliably every time, not partial data due to throttling
Repeatability — you'll likely be doing this weekly or monthly, not once
Verification — knowing the PST is intact and complete matters more here than in a one-time migration
Handling for mailboxes tied to deleted or disabled accounts, since backups often need to cover former employees too
This is where dedicated export tools tend to outperform native methods, since they're designed for exactly this kind of recurring, reliable export rather than a one-off search-and-export job.
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DRS Softech Office 365 to PST export tool handles this well — bulk export with filtering and reporting, so you know exactly what got backed up and can catch gaps before they become a problem.
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