Email backup you can actually open and search
A one-off export from a webmail account gives you a zip file you will probably never open. Syncing the account to a desktop mail app gives you a copy that disappears when you delete the message on the server. Email backup, done properly, sits between the two: a copy that grows each time you run it, stays put when the server changes, and can still be searched years later.
Email Offline Backup Tool works that way. Add an account under Email Accounts, click the archive box, and it downloads every folder, from Inbox and Sent to Drafts, Archive and any you created. Spam and Trash are skipped unless you switch them on. Before it starts, the headline tells you how many messages are waiting, such as 18,402 messages · ready for the first backup.
The first pass takes as long as your mailbox needs. After that, each run asks the server only for messages newer than the previous run, so a routine backup is usually over in seconds. Click the box mid-run to stop; whatever was already written stays, and the following run resumes.
How to back up Gmail and other IMAP email to your computer
Six common providers are preset, including Gmail, iCloud Mail and Yahoo Mail; pick Another provider (IMAP) for anything else and fill in the IMAP server, Port and Security (SSL/TLS or STARTTLS).
- Create an app password with your provider. The add-account dialog has a How to make one link for each preset.
- Click Create New, enter the Email address and App password, and press Save.
- Choose a Backup location with Browse... and a Save format: a separate .eml for each message, or a single .mbox for each folder.
- Turn off Download attachments if you only need the text and want a smaller archive.
- Click the box, or Back up now, and repeat whenever you want the copy brought up to date.
Search archived emails offline by sender, subject or folder
The archive is listed under the box, newest first, and the search field matches words anywhere in a message, from the sender, recipients and subject to attachment names, the folder, the date and the body text. Add from:, to:, subject:, folder: or has:attachment to narrow it, or click a folder chip to see only that folder.
Open a message to read it with its From, To, Cc, Date and Folder, save any attachment, or hand it to your default mail app with Open in mail app. Messages saved in the latest run are marked, so it is easy to see what a backup brought in.
An EML, MSG and MBOX viewer for mail already on your PC
Old mail rarely lives in one place. Drop loose .eml files, .msg files, .mbox mailboxes or a folder left by Windows Live Mail onto the window, or use Open files, and every message is indexed for search. Folders are read all the way down, and the files themselves are left exactly as they were.
If Windows Live Mail data is still on the machine, the app finds it and offers to open it. Anything opened this way appears under Opened from this PC, where Save a copy adds it to your backups and Export MBOX writes the current folder or search out as one mailbox file for another mail program.
