Back up email messages locally using Apple Mail


Introduction

Before removing your email account from Apple Mail you can back up your messages.

Backup mailbox

  1. Create a folder for your mailbox backup.
  2. Open Apple Mail.
  3. Select the mailbox you wish to back up. Hold down the Control key and click on the mailbox you wish to back up.
  4. Select Export Mailbox.
    Inbox right click menu.
     
  5. In the window that opens, select the mailbox backup folder you created in step 1 and click Choose.
  6. Follow steps 3 to 5 for all the folders you wish to back up. We recommend backing up Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Archive and any On My Mac folders you may have.
  7. Confirm that there is a .mbox file associated with each folder and that they are located in your mailbox backup folder. The filename should look like Folder Name.mbox (i.e. Inbox.mbox). If you see the file name appearing Folder Name.partial.mbox that means that the export has not finished.
    mbox file icon

Once you have backed up all the folders, you can remove your UTmail+ account from Mac Mail.

Restore backed-up mailbox

You can restore your backed-up folders from your local drive.

  1. In Apple Mail choose Import Mailboxes from the File menu.
    Apple mail file menu dropdown
     
  2. In the Import window, select to Files in mbox format and click Continue.
    Import data from
     
  3. In the Finder window, navigate to your backup folder, hold the Command key and select all of your folder backups. Click Choose.
  4. A list of the files you have selected should appear. Click Continue.
  5. Apple Mail will begin importing messages.
  6. Once importing is complete you can find the backed up mailboxes in the folder named Import. Click Done.
    Apple mail sidebar
     
  7. You can then drag these folders to a location of your choice within Apple Mail.