How do I open an MBOX file in email?

There are many reasons you might want to back up your Gmail account, such as: It’s good to have a copy of your most-important data; you’re about to be fired from your job and you want to save everything you did; you’d just like a little extra protection in case someone hacks your account and takes it over (or deletes it).

While most of us probably trust that our Gmail accounts will be there forever—since it’s Google’s problem to manage, not ours—it’s always worth having a backup of your emails. Worst case? You’ll never need the backup. Best case? You’ll prevent a mental breakdown when disaster strikes. That, and you’ll get your data back.

Download everything from Google

The easiest method for backing up your Gmail happens to come from Google itself. Go to the “Download your data” portion of your Google account settings, uncheck everything via the “Select None” box (or else this process will take much longer than it should), and scroll down until you see the option for Mail. Select that. If you don’t want to back up all of your Gmail, and only want emails with particular labels, you can also click the down-arrow to get more specific about what Google saves.

Once you’ve made your selection—”Include all of your mail” should be good enough for most people—scroll to the bottom of the page and click Next. I tend to leave all the options as their defaults on the next screen, but you can always change the archival size if you think you have a lot of email and attachments to back up and want to deal with fewer files. You can also direct Google to dump your backup to your Google Drive automatically—or Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box. I usually just have Google email me a download link, so I can then store my backup on my PC, NAS box, or other portable storage.

Click “Create Archive” when you’re ready, and take some time to relax while Google backs up your stuff.

What do I do with this .MBOX file?

Once you unzip Google’s archive, you’ll see one (or a few) .MBOX files. Viewing their contents—your emails—can be a cumbersome process. First, grab Thunderbird—Mozilla’s not-quite-dead email client. If you just need a quick and easy version for viewing archival .MBOX files, I recommend downloading a portable version of Thunderbird instead of the full Thunderbird client. Your call.

Once you’re in Thunderbird, click on Tools, and then Add-ons. Click on Get Add-ons at the top of the left sidebar and search for ImportExportTools. Install that.

Head back to the Local Folders tab. Click on Tools again, scroll down to ImportExportTools, and select “Import mbox file.” Pick which option makes the most sense for you—importing a single .MBOX file or multiple—and then go find the .MBOX file(s) you downloaded from Google.

It might take the add-on a bit of time to dump your emails into Thunderbird, depending on how many it has to go through, but you should see them all pop up as a folder (or folders) within Thunderbird. You’ll now be able to click through them (and re-save attachments) as you see fit.

This is also part of the process you’ll use to restore your messages to your Gmail account—or to copy them over to a new Gmail account, if everything hit the fan with your old one.

If you don’t want to fuss with Thunderbird and an add-on, you can try the app CutePieSMPT Daemon, which also makes it incredibly easy to view the contents of an .MBOX file. The app felt a little laggy—and crashed once—when I used it, but if you just need to quickly check something in your downloaded Gmail archive, it’s a fine alternative. I also love its name.

If you’re on a Mac, you can use Apple’s Mail app to import .MBOX files. Open the app, click on File, and click on “Import Mailboxes.” Make sure “Files in mbox format” is selected, and then find your .MBOX file(s). Anything you import will get dropped into the “On My Mac” section of Mail as a subfolder of a new “Import” folder.

When it comes to the email clients, everyone wants a feature-rich and versatile email application to manage the personal as well as business chores. Talking about email clients, then every email client is compatible with a particular file format. Sometimes, the user needs to open the file of one email client by using another email client. This comes out to be a challenging task as the user has to carry out the conversion process. So, know how to open MBOX file with Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013 version on Windows OS.

Now, considering the situation in which the user has to open MBOX file with Outlook. This is a very complicated task for the user as MBOX file is not compatible with the Outlook email client. Ultimately, the user has to convert MBOX file into Outlook compatible file format i.e. PST. It becomes difficult for the user to open MBOX files with Outlook as they are unable to find a smart and instant way to extract mailbox files into PST file format. Thus, in this blog, we are going to explain a reliable way to import MBOX files into Outlook.

Let Us Take A Look At Queries Faced By Users:

  • How to Open MBOX File in Outlook 2016?
  • How to Open MBOX File in Outlook 2007?
  • How to Import MBOX File into Outlook?
  • How to Open MBOX File with Outlook 2013 on Windows 7?
  • How to Open Entourage MBOX File with Outlook 2010?
  • Import MBOX File in Outlook 2019?
  • How to Open MBOX Files in Outlook 2013?
  • How to Open MBOX File in Microsoft Outlook Windows?
  • How do I Open an MBOX File in Microsoft Outlook on Windows 10?
  • How to Import MBOX in Outlook on Windows 8?
  • How to Open an MBOX File using Outlook 2013?

Some common queries which users face while dealing with MBOX files are listed above. One can resolve all the issues related to open MBOX files in Microsoft Outlook with the help of an efficient and reliable solution explained below.

Free Method to Open MBOX File without any Email Clients Environment

SysTools MBOX Viewer is a reliable and efficient tool for opening MBOX / MBS / MBX files associated with many email clients. The software is integrated with advanced algorithms, allowing email users to view emails without relying on email clients.

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What is the Need to Open MBOX File In Outlook?

  • A client shared an MBOX file and the user has to import that MBOX file into Outlook as no MBOX supporting email client is installed on the user’s system.
  • Switch from email client which support MBOX file format such as Thunderbird, Entourage, Eudora etc. to the Outlook email client. One has to convert mailbox data into PST and then import PST to Outlook.

How to Open MBOX File with Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013?

One can rely on SysTools MBOX to PST Converter to open MBOX file with Outlook. The software permits the user to import MBOX emails into Outlook along with attachments. One can easily convert the mailbox data into PST file format via the software without any email client dependency. Moreover, the user interface of the utility is very easy-to-understand, the user can easily work with it.

The software is also integrated with the auto-detect feature in which it automatically detects the MBOX files of various email clients. One can work with the utility on Windows Operating system different versions such as Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 and all the below version. Next, how to open MBOX file with Outlook using this software? Both the brief and elaborate steps are given below:

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Open MBOX in Outlook with following steps:

  • Step 1: Open the software and click “Add File”.
  • Step 2: Browse the MBOX files to open in Outlook.
  • Step 3: View the emails in tool interface
  • Step 4: Click on “Export”.
  • Step 5: Now open the PST file in Outlook.

To take a look at all the advanced features along with screenshots, follow the below given step by step guide:

1. First of all, you need to download and install SysTools Converter on your system and launch it

How do I open an MBOX file in email?

2. Now, click on the Add File button to load the MBOX file which you want to open in Outlook

How do I open an MBOX file in email?

3. In the Selection Option, you need to select the Default Profile Configured option or Select file(s)/folder from the file system option as per your needs. Here, Select file(s)/folder from the file system option is selected for orphan MBOX file

How do I open an MBOX file in email?

4. After the selection of the MBOX file, click on the Next button. The software will show all the MBOX emails in the software’s interface

How do I open an MBOX file in email?

5. Click on the Export button. In the Export Option, you can select Export All Folders or Export Selected Folders option as per your choice. After that, select PST file format

How do I open an MBOX file in email?

6. Click on the Change button, to select the location to save the resultant file according to requirements

How do I open an MBOX file in email?

7. Finally, click on the Export button to begin importing MBOX to Outlook PST file.

How do I open an MBOX file in email?

8. Once the process is completed, you can navigate to the destination location where you saved resultant PST file to verify the results.

How do I open an MBOX file in email?

After the process completion, import resultant PST file into Outlook version such as 2019, 2016, 2013.

Go to Open & Export -> Import/Export -> Import from another program or file -> Next -> Outlook Data File (.pst) -> Next -> File to import -> Browse PST file -> Next -> Finish.

Open & Import MBOX File With Outlook via SysTools Converter!

There can many users who need to know how to open MBOX file with Outlook email client. However, they are not able to find a simple yet smart way to do it. Thus, in the above section, we have explained a versatile and all-rounder utility using which the user can easily open MBOX files with Outlook without any hassle.

Answering Some Common Queries:

Can I open MBOX file with Outlook?

Direct opening is not possible. However, you can use an intermediate specialist to import MBOX in Outlook application.

Which MBOX variation does Outlook support?

Outlook does not support any form of MBOX file. Its Import feature has no option to do so. However, you can still open mailboxes with the help of the steps provided in this article.

Can I carry out the given steps on Windows 10 PC?

Yes, you can carry out the steps on all the latest Windows versions including Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, etc.