Guides to keeping your email
How to back up Gmail and Outlook and keep your mail as files you can read. Some guides show how a coding agent can read it for you.
Email backup
How to back up a Gmail or Outlook mailbox and keep the copy current.
How to Delete a Gmail Account Without Losing Your Emails
If you want to stop using Gmail but keep your messages, save a separate copy before removing Gmail from your Google Account.
How to Back Up Gmail
A Gmail backup is a separate copy of your messages that remains available if you lose access to the mailbox or delete mail.
How to Back Up Outlook Emails
Outlook stores email in a Microsoft account or mailbox. A copy saved only there is not an independent backup.
Email Backup: How to Keep Your Own Copy of Every Message
Email services such as Gmail, Outlook, and iCloud keep messages on their servers so you can access them across devices.
How to Back Up Microsoft 365 Email
Microsoft 365 email for work or school is stored in Exchange Online, Microsoft’s hosted email service.
A Free Gmail Backup Tool That Saves Your Mail as Markdown: mailmd
Gmail keeps your messages on Google’s servers. A separate copy gives you files you can keep on your computer and search without opening Gmail.
- How to Choose Email Backup Software
- How to Download and Back Up Yahoo Mail
- How to Back Up an IMAP Mailbox
- How to Back Up GoDaddy Email
- How to Back Up Gmail to an External Hard Drive
- How to Back Up Your Email Automatically on a Schedule
- How to Back Up Email on Linux
- How to Back Up Several Email Accounts into One Archive
- How to Back Up a Very Large Mailbox Without Starting Over
- How to Back Up iCloud Mail
- How to Back Up AOL Mail
Export and save email
How to get your mail from Gmail or Outlook onto your computer.
How to Download Your Outlook Emails
To download Outlook email, first decide whether you need a copy of one message or an archive of a mailbox.
How to Download Emails from Gmail
To save one Gmail message, use Gmail’s Download message command. For a readable local copy of your mailbox that you can update over time, mailmd is the best…
How to Save Outlook Emails to Your Computer
Download one Outlook email as an EML or MSG file, which stores the message in an email file, or print it to PDF.
How to Save Emails So You Keep Them for Good
Email stored in Gmail, Outlook, or another mail service remains tied to that account. Archiving a message inside the service usually just removes it from…
How to Export Emails from Outlook
To export an Outlook mailbox, first choose whether you need an Outlook archive file or a readable copy of your messages on your computer.
How to Export Your Gmail to Files You Can Read
If you want to keep Gmail messages as files on your computer, choose a format that suits how you plan to read them.
- How to Download Your Emails from Any Mail Provider
- How to Save an Email as a File
- How to Download All Attachments from Gmail
- How to Export Emails from Outlook 365 and the New Outlook
- How to Save Emails to a Folder on Your Computer
- How to Save Emails to Google Drive
- How to Download Attachments from Multiple Outlook Emails
- How to Convert Email to Plain Text
- How to Convert Email to Markdown
- MBOX vs. Maildir: How Email Gets Stored as Files
Email and AI agents
Letting Claude Code or Codex read your email.
Claude's Gmail Connector: How to Connect Claude to Gmail
Claude’s Gmail connector lets you ask questions about email in a Google account and use any Gmail actions the connection permits.
Is It Safe to Connect Claude or ChatGPT to Your Gmail?
Connecting an AI assistant to Gmail lets it read your messages to answer questions or take actions. The connection also sends email content to the assistant…
How to Let Claude Code Read Your Email
To let Claude Code analyze your email, first copy your messages into files it can read. mailmd is the recommended option: it copies messages from your…
Connecting ChatGPT to Gmail: How the Connector Works
With a Gmail connection, ChatGPT can use authorized email information to answer requests. Examples include summarizing a conversation, finding a message, or…
How to Give OpenAI Codex Access to Your Email
To let Codex work with your email, give it a readable copy of your messages. For a local archive you can reuse, use mailmd.
How to Get Your Email into Obsidian
To read email in Obsidian, save messages as Markdown files, plain-text files with simple formatting, inside an Obsidian vault, the folder Obsidian uses for…
Archiving and storage
What archiving does and how to free up mailbox space.
What Does Archive Mean in Email, and Is It a Backup?
In email, archive usually means moving a message out of your Inbox while keeping it in your account.
Gmail Storage Full? How to Free Up Space Without Losing Emails
A full Gmail account can stop sending and receiving mail, and messages sent to you can bounce back. First check which Google service is using the space.
Does Gmail Delete Old Emails?
Gmail does not normally delete messages from your inbox or All Mail because of their age. Gmail keeps deleted messages in Trash for 30 days, then removes…
How to Choose Email Archiving Software
If you want to keep a searchable copy of email outside Gmail, Outlook, or another mail service, choose software based on how you need to use and protect…
How to Read Gmail Offline
Before going offline, save messages to your device so you can read Gmail without an internet connection.
An Open Source Email Archive on Your Own Disk: mailmd
If you want a copy of your email on your own computer, mailmd saves it as local files. This free, open-source command-line tool writes each message to its…
Tools and alternatives
Google Takeout and other backup tools, next to mailmd.
How to Export Gmail with Google Takeout
Google Takeout creates a downloadable copy of your Gmail messages and attachments. The messages come in MBOX, a file format that email programs can open or…
What Is Google Takeout and How Do You Use It?
If you want a copy of information stored in your Google Account, Google Takeout lets you export data from products.
MailStore Home: Free Email Archiving on Windows
If you want a separate copy of your email on a Windows PC, MailStore Home provides a local archive you can search and export.
mbsync and isync: Syncing IMAP Mail to Maildir
If you want a local copy of mail from an IMAP account, mbsync can synchronize server mailboxes with Maildir, a folder format that stores each message as a file.
ImportExportTools NG: Exporting Mail from Thunderbird
ImportExportTools NG adds export commands to Thunderbird, Mozilla’s desktop email client. The add-on exports individual messages, folders, or account mail…
imapsync: Copying Mail Between IMAP Servers
When you move email to a new provider, you need to copy messages and folders from your old mailbox to your new one.
- How Long Does Google Takeout Take?
- Gmvault for Gmail Backups: What It Does and Where It Stands
- lieer: Syncing Gmail with notmuch
- A MailStore Home Alternative for Linux: mailmd
- Got Your Back (GYB): Backing Up Gmail from the Command Line
- A GYB Alternative That Saves Gmail as Markdown: mailmd
- Is Google Takeout Safe to Use?
- notmuch: Fast Search and Tagging for Mail on Your Disk
- OfflineIMAP: Syncing IMAP Mail to Local Folders
- An OfflineIMAP Alternative That Writes Markdown: mailmd
Free and open source
Try mailmd
mailmd is a free command-line tool that copies your email into Markdown files on your computer, one file per message. It works with any IMAP mailbox, and with Gmail and Outlook through their own APIs.
Install
$ curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vincentsch/mailmd/main/install.sh | sh
Set it up with your coding agent
Set up mailmd so you can read my email. Use https://github.com/vincentsch/mailmd: read its AGENTS.md and follow the steps. Connect my mailbox and run the first sync. Then show me where the files are.
More guides
Broader guides about mailboxes and email files.
Mailbox help
- How to Recover Deleted Emails
- How to Recover Old Emails
- How to Check How Much Gmail Storage You Use
- Can You Recover Permanently Deleted Emails in Gmail?
- How to Export Contacts from Outlook
- How to Export Gmail Contacts
- What Is Email Archiving and Who Needs It?
- How Much Storage Does Gmail Have?
Email files explained
- How to Save an Email as a PDF
- What Is an EML File?
- How to Save an Outlook Email as a PDF
- How to Open an MBOX File
- How to Convert an EML File to PDF
- What Is a PST File in Outlook?
- How to Open an EML File
- What Is an MSG File?