Understand How to Export Search Results in Office 365

“While trying to export data from a content search, I was getting an error message as “Office 365 You can’t export search results as you are not assigned the Export role. If you are the member of the Organization Management role group, then go to Permissions page and add yourself as a member of the eDiscovery Manager role group. Otherwise, contact your admin.” I was astonished to see this error message, as I have been given the permission of both the manager and admin of the eDiscovery Manager group. I also ensured that “export” has included as a role. Is there some other configurations which need to be done? Please explain why am I not able to export search results in Office 365. Looking forward for a quick response, thank you!”

There are similar such queries and issues faced by most of the users. Taking this point forward, this article will let you understand why you cannot export search results in an Office 365 account.

Once the search results are successfully executed, the user can export the search result in the local computer. To export email results, they are downloaded as PST files in the computer. In the case of exporting content from Sharepoint and OneDrive for business sites, then replica’s of native Office documents are exported.

Points to be Noted While Exporting Search Results in Outlook 365

• A user must be assigned as a member of Export Management in Office 365 Security and Compliance Center.
• The computer system should meet the below requirements,
• Windows 7 and later versions of 32 or 64 bit
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7
• Any supported browser like Microsoft Edge or MS Internet Explorer 10 and its later versions
• To increase downloading speed, configure to Windows Registry settings on the computer
• Before downloading the search results data in the computer, it is temporarily stored in a unique MS Azure location. Hence, ensure that the organization can connect to the termination point in Azure i.e., *.blob.core.windows.net
• Define the proxy server settings, in case the organization uses it. For that, open the machine.config file from the location and add the below lines in between the machine.config file like and tags.
• For 32 bit, the machine.config file is placed in the below path

  %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\[version]\Config\machine.config

• 64 bit, the machine.config file is placed in the below path

  %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\[version]\Config\machine.config

• By default, only 10 GB PST file can be exported at a time. To change the default size, edit the Windows Registry settings from the computer

Exporting results of the content search involve preparing the results and later downloading them to the local computer.

• Prepare Content Search Results for Export
• Download the Content Search Results

Step 1: Prepare Content – Office 365 you can’t Export Search Results

Initially, we need to prepare the search results for exporting. As discussed above, the resultant searches are uploaded to Azure storage location.

• First of all, go to https://protection.office.com and sign-in to Office 365 account
• Under the Security and Compliance Center, click on the Search and investigation option and click Content search
• From the Content search page, select a search
• From Export results to a computer under details pane, click on Start export
• Now, from Include these items from the search wizard, select any one of the given options which are:

1. Export only indexed items
2. Export indexed and unindexed items
3. Export only unindexed items

• From Export Exchange content as select one of the following options,
• One PST file for each mailbox: This option exports one PST file for each user data item which contains the search results
• One PST file containing all messages: This option exports a single PST file(Exchange.PST) containing the search results of all searched mailboxes
• One PST file containing all messages: This option exports search results to a single PST file wherein all the messages are located in a single or top-level folder
• Individual messages: This option exports search results as individual emails using the MSG file format.
• Then, mark the Enable de-duplication checkbox to exclude the duplicate messages. This option is available if the source content includes Exchange mailboxes or public folders
• Now, mark Include versions for SharePoint documents checkbox to export all the versions of SharePoint files. This option is available if the source content searched includes SharePoint or OneDrive for Business sites.
• Mark the checkbox for Export files in a compressed (zipped) folder to export search results to some compressed folders. This option is available, if you choose export Exchange items as individual messages
• Click Export to start downloading the search contents where you faced cannot export search results in Office 365 (Exchange Online)

Step 2: Download the Content Search Results

In the step, we need to download the search result which was not getting exported. Now, download the search result from the Azure storage location. To do the same, follow the below steps in sequence. This is the second step, if you are not able to export search results in Outlook 365.

• From the details pane of the search where the export was started, click Download exported results under Export results to a computer
• Download exported results window contains the search results information like the number of items to be downloaded, estimated total size of the items to be downloaded and many more
• Now, from Export Key, click Copy to the clipboard which will be later used to download the search results where you faced cannot export search results in Office 365
• Then, click Download results in which the results of the content search will be downloaded
• In case, if you are prompted to install eDiscovery Export Tool, click on the Install button
• Then, paste the export key which was copied priorly
• After that, click Browse to locate the downloaded files to a folder
• Then, click Start to download the results of the content search
• By this, you can resolve the query or cannot export search results by following the above-discussed steps

Conclusion

There are many users who cannot export search results in office 365. Well, this can be due to incorrect settings are done. As discussed in the above query wherein a user fails to Office 365 you can’t Export Search Results. There are various configurations which need to be done to export the results. Therefore, it is important to understand the procedure to the followed to export the search results which is clearly mentioned in this blog.