Tips to Export Gmail backup to EML and MBOX

Approved By Aswin Vijayan

Published On September 6th, 2017

Reading Time 4 Minutes Reading

Do you think backing up and restoring of Gmail in a local account is an easier game? Backing up the Gmail account and restoring is easy when we do it with the help of an another cloud. One can take backup of all the stuff like emails, calendar, contacts and documents from Gmail account and export Gmail backup to EML and MBOX formats.

Reasons behind Exporting Gmail backup to EML and MBOX:

Sometimes backing up data from Gmail to EML and MBOX becomes important when someone wants to access the data from any other format.
If someone is shifting from one company or organization, conversion can play an important role.

Consider a scenario, to understand it better:

“Hello Folks,
I have multiple Gmail Accounts (around 7 of them), I operate them daily as I receive emails for queries. I run support/solution providing firm. My email accounts are running out of space, every time new emails arrive, I receive the message that I have no space. I have to delete previous emails in order to view the new ones. I am looking for a solution to backup all my emails so that in future if I need them I can recover them back. I am looking for a quick solution, not those manual ones, in order to save time.
Thanks”

Procedure to Export Gmail backup to EML and MBOX? (For MAC users)

EML

Select an incoming mail message title (Click to select and it will be highlighted in blue).
Go to Mail toolbar and click Mail>File>Save As….
Click the blue Save and the resulting .eml will be placed on the desktop.
The easiest and the fastest way is to just click on incoming Mail message notification to select it – (it’s then identified with a blue background). Then just click and hold the selected blue message into the box and drag the resulting .eml file off to the desktop.

MBOX

Select one or more mailboxes, then choose Mailbox> Export Mailbox.
Choose a folder or create a new folder, then click Choose.
Mail exports the mailboxes as .mbox packages.

Procedure to Export Gmail backup to EML and MBOX? (For WIN users)

MBOX

Log In to your Gmail account.
Go to Privacy and click on create Archives.
Select the Mail option only.
Click on Next and Archive it.
We need to enable IMAP in Gmail so Thunderbird could connect.
In Settings, click on “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab to see all the available options. Here select the option “Enable IMAP” located next to “IMAP Access”.
Now, go the bottom of the page and click on “Save Changes” to save all the changes.
The destination where you have to copy the “MBOX” file is below:
C: > Users > UserName > AppData > Roaming > Thunderbird > Profiles > (random words).default > Mail > Local Folders
Go to the above-mentioned directory and paste the “MBOX” file. Now restart the Thunderbird client again and you will see your “MBOX” file under“Local Folders” option located in the left panel menu. You can click on it to see all your backed up emails.

EML

Open the message in Gmail.
Click the downward-pointing arrow head (▾) next to Reply in the header area of the email you want to save.
Select Show original from the menu that comes up.
Press Ctrl-A (Windows, Linux) or Command-A (Mac) to highlight all the text in the window or tab that opens with the message’s source code.
Press Ctrl-C (Windows, Linux) or Command-C(Mac) to copy the code.
Open any plain text editor (such as TextEdit, Notepad or Vim).
Create a new text-only document.
Press Ctrl-V(Windows, Linux) or Command-V(Mac) to paste the message source.
Save the document as a plain text file on your Desktop or Downloads folder, for example, with the extension “.eml”.

An alternative solution to Export Gmail Backup for MAC and WIN users:

If users want to move, the data directly into EML and MBOX from Gmail, then they can go with a professional tool which Export Gmail Backup to EML and MBOX easily. This is the simplest method to execute complete migration of mailbox from Gmail to EML, MBOX, MSG and even PST. In addition, it keeps the entire data safe and secure, maintains the folder hierarchy, and even provides the option of selective migration. It can perform the shifting task with some few clicks and without any limitations.

Synopsis:

As we all know, Gmail is a part of daily routine. So it’s backup plays important role in order to ensure that our data is safe and is available at any point of time. Exportation of Gmail backup is also vital so that if we shift our systems at any point in time, we can access our data without any shortage.