You may wish to export an .MBOX file (which is really just a standalone file of your email outside of an email program) for various reason. For example:
- If you are transferring to a personal email account, but your Carleton email account size exceeds the capacity of your preferred Personal account
- To create a backup or archived copy of your email
Note: If you only want to export certain emails, you can place
labels on select emails and choose that those specific labels for exporting.
Select which Data to Export
- Go to takeout.google.com and log in with your Carleton Google account
- Scroll down to Mail in the list of Google services
- Click All Mail data included and either choose which labels you want to export or choose Select all
- Click Next at the bottom of the page
Choose File Type, Frequency & Destination
- Ensure Delivery method is set to Send download link via email
- Set the Frequency to Export once
- In the File Type & Size section select the .zip file type
- Choose a size between 1 - 50 GB
- Click Create Export
Downloading the .MBOX file
When your file(s) is ready, Google will email you a link where you can download that file.
After creating and downloading your export, .MBOX files can be opened through Apple Mail on Mac or Thunderbird on either Mac or Windows. Other 3rd party MBOX viewer application also exist, but these are the easiest and most common.
Opening the .MBOX File
For Mac
Please refer to these instructions from Apple if using Mail.
For Windows
- In Thunderbird, click on the Thunderbird settings icon > Add-ons
- In the search bar, type ImportExportTools NG
- Click Install next to the ImportExportTools NG
- continue...
*Steps for opening .MBOX files using Thunderbird are cumulated from Installing an Add-on in Thunderbird and I want to import a MBOX file.