Import & export your mail

Your mail is yours to take with you. Download any folder as a standard mbox file, which most mail apps can read, or add the messages in .eml and .mbox files from another mail app to a folder. Both are in Mail under Settings → Import and export. To copy mail straight from Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, Fastmail or another provider, without exporting a file first, see Import mail from another account.

Export a folder

1. In the Mail sidebar, click Settings, then Import and export. The link ends with #mail-settings/portability.
2. Find the folder in the Export list. Each row shows how many messages the folder holds.
3. Click Download. The file arrives as an ordinary browser download.

An export covers one folder of the open mailbox. To take the whole mailbox, download each folder in turn. To export a different mailbox, open it first. Drafts are not listed, and Trash exports the messages that are in Trash.

What the file holds

• The messages from oldest to newest, in mbox format (mboxrd), with a name made from the address, the folder and the date.
• For each message: the sender, To and Cc, date, subject, message ID and the message it replies to, the text, the formatted version, and the attachments. An attachment over 25 MB is left out.
• Mail rebuilds each message from what the platform stored. It is not a copy of the original bytes, so raw transport headers such as the Received lines are not in the file.

Large folders download in parts

One download holds up to 3,000 messages. A bigger folder shows one button per part, labelled with the messages it covers, such as Messages 1 to 3000 and Messages 3001 to 4200. Download each one. Later parts carry part-2, part-3 and so on in the file name.

Import mail

1. Go to Settings → Import and export and scroll to Import.
2. Pick the folder the messages should go into. You can choose any folder except Drafts.
3. Click Choose files and pick one or more .eml or .mbox files.
4. Click Start import. A progress bar shows how far it has got.

An .eml file holds one message. An .mbox file holds many. When the import finishes you see a summary, such as: 120 imported, 3 already in this mailbox, 1 could not be imported, with the reason for the first few messages that failed. Click Stop to end an import early. It stops after the batch in progress, and everything already imported stays.

How imported mail behaves

Importing is not delivery, so imported mail stays quiet.

• It arrives already read. It adds nothing to your unread count.
• It sends no notification and plays no sound.
• Rules, blocked senders and the auto reply do not run on it.
• Each message keeps the date in its Date header, so it sorts where it belongs. A message with no Date header gets the time of the import.
• Replies link to the earlier messages already in the mailbox, so conversations stay together.
• Attachments come in with the message.

Importing twice does not file mail twice

Mail recognises a message by its Message-ID header. A message that is already in this mailbox is skipped and counted as already there, so you can run the same file again after a failed attempt. A message with no Message-ID header cannot be recognised, so it is filed again.

Limits

Moving from another mail app

Most mail apps can export a folder as an .mbox file or save a message as an .eml file. Check the help for your app, export, then import the files here. Unless an administrator has switched Import from account off, you can instead copy the mail straight from the provider: see Import mail from another account. Outlook and Microsoft 365 are not offered there yet, so export from Outlook and use the files. To move mail the other way, export a folder here and import the .mbox file into the other app.

If you do not see Import and export

The tab appears when the Import and export feature is on for your workspace. An administrator can check Settings → Mail → Features, where it is listed as mail.import_export.

If the Import part reads "Your administrator has not allowed importing mail in this workspace", the workspace policy limits who may import. Who may import mail from another account, under Settings → Mail → Policy, covers importing files as well as copying mail from another provider. Exporting is not affected. See Mail administration & deliverability.

For data outside Mail, such as contacts, invoices and files, see Export your data.

Related

• Import mail from another account
• Mail settings
• Read, search & organize
• Export your data
• Mail overview