I need a backup solution for (1) file.

[Sky-Knight]

PST file in Onedrive works fine.
PST file that's USED in Onedrive... not so much. (Outlook can't touch it)

Live PST file in non-OneDrive folder.
Script that copies it into a OneDrive folder nightly, .zip it up first to be nice.

 

[fincoder]

PST file that's USED in Onedrive... not so much. (Outlook can't touch it)

That also worked fine, until the January Windows update. Outlook opens it OK, the only issue was that OneDrive would not sync the PST file while open by Outlook. I used to tell people with that setup they should close outlook occasionally and leave the computer running for a while if they wanted their Outlook folders to be backed up to OneDrive. Same issue with free filesync utilities like syncback.

 

[Sky-Knight]

That also worked fine, until the January Windows update. Outlook opens it OK, the only issue was that OneDrive would not sync the PST file while open by Outlook. I used to tell people with that setup they should close outlook occasionally and leave the computer running for a while if they wanted their Outlook folders to be backed up to OneDrive. Same issue with free filesync utilities like syncback.

That is correct, you cannot copy the PST file if Outlook is open. use the task manager to kill outlook.exe, then copy the file, can be scripted.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

One of the ...quite a few problems....of the old way before this update that flat out stopped Outlook with it's PST in OD....is that even when you close Outlook, often it would still leave a few connections open to the file. Once in a while Outlook may not fully "let go" of its database.

Add to that....what antivirus might also be used. As some of them were horrible with PST files...adding to frequent corruption and the need for that ancient tool "scanPST".

OneDrive sync engine is a constant real time sync engine that updates all files that have any incremental changes. It is designed for standard Office files and other common flat file types. It was never designed to sync database files that are in use.

Just like decades ago...back in the days of POP or IMAP email being more common in businesses..Microsoft articles clearly stated that those files should never be mapped across a network. Yeah, we'd see some IT departments store those files on the server so they could be backed up by the servers nightly old tape backup. But the performance of the drive/volume on the server was absolutely crushed....as I mentioned above...each Outlook client sticks thousands of finders into its PST file. That's quite a load on a local hard drive. Imagine that across a network (oh lets add a TON more network traffic)...and then the load on the drive/volume of the server itself. TCQ stats of the servers drives was shoved down a deep hole dug all the way to china.

And then when some people complain about how frequently PSTs corrupt....I simply point "Well...look what you're doing!" An about face in Microsofts own words to "not do that!!!"

Sometimes reading the instructions by the vendor can help!

 

[Metanis]

2026. PST files. How quaint.

SQL Server had a live backup utility introduced 26 years ago.