Guides · 17 articles
Email backup
How to back up a Gmail or Outlook mailbox and keep the copy up to date. Some guides show how to close an account without losing your mail.
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
Email backup software copies messages out of a mail service so you have a separate copy if messages are deleted or your account becomes unavailable.
How to Download and Back Up Yahoo Mail
To keep a copy of Yahoo Mail on your computer, download messages and save them separately from the mailbox.
How to Back Up an IMAP Mailbox
If your email is on Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, or another mail service, IMAP, or Internet Message Access Protocol, is a standard that lets mail apps read…
How to Back Up GoDaddy Email
GoDaddy offers Microsoft 365 and Professional Email powered by Titan, along with hosting-based email.
How to Back Up Gmail to an External Hard Drive
To back up Gmail, copy your messages out of Google’s mailbox and keep that copy on a drive you control.
How to Back Up Your Email Automatically on a Schedule
If your email lives in Gmail, Outlook, or another mail service, a scheduled backup keeps a separate copy on your computer in case messages disappear from…
How to Back Up Email on Linux
If your email lives in Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, or another mail service, a local copy protects you when you lose access to the account or delete messages you…
How to Back Up Several Email Accounts into One Archive
If you use several email accounts, one organized archive keeps their messages together and shows which account each message came from.
How to Back Up a Very Large Mailbox Without Starting Over
Copying a large mailbox can take a long time. If a backup stops, you do not have to repeat the work.
How to Back Up iCloud Mail
iCloud Mail stores messages on Apple’s servers and keeps connected devices in sync. When devices sync, deleting a message on one device also deletes it on…
How to Back Up AOL Mail
AOL Mail stores your messages online, so losing access to an account or deleting a message can put important email at risk.
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.