How to export your Gmail
- Google Takeout makes a downloadable copy of your Gmail without removing any email.
- Your export can take a few minutes to a few days, and you'll have about a week to download it.
- Your mail arrives in an MBOX file that you can open in Apple Mail or a browser-based viewer.
- Gmail lets you download a single email as an EML file.
How to export all your Gmail with Google Takeout
Google Takeout is Google's tool for downloading a copy of your Google data, and exporting doesn't remove anything from Gmail.
Choose Gmail as the data to export.
Go to Google Takeout while signed in to the Gmail account you want to copy.
Click Deselect all to clear the selected Google products.
Tick Mail to select Gmail.
If you want to export only certain labels, choose them before moving on.
Click All Mail data included.
Untick Include all messages in Mail to choose individual labels.
Untick Archived, Chat, Drafts, Inbox, Sent, and Starred, the labels Takeout leaves selected.
Tick the labels for the emails you want to export.
Choose where the export goes and whether it repeats.
Click Next step to open Choose file type, frequency & destination on Takeout's second page.
Under Transfer to, select Send download link via email if you want to download the files yourself. If you want them placed in cloud storage, select Add to Drive, Add to Dropbox, or Add to Box instead.
Under Frequency, select Export once for a single copy. If you want repeating exports, select Export every month for 1 year or Export every 2 months for 1 year instead.
Choose the download format and start the export.
Under File type, keep the preset .zip or select .tgz as the export format.
Under File size, choose a part size of 1, 2, 4, 10, or 50 GB. The preset is 2 GB. If you'll open the export on an older computer, keep parts at 2 GB or smaller because larger .zip parts use zip64, which older operating systems may not open.
Click Create export.
After you start the export
- Allow time for Google to prepare the export. It can take a few minutes to a few days, although most people get their link the same day.
- Watch for the email from Google. It arrives when the export is ready and includes a download link, so you don't need to keep waiting on the page.
- Download the files promptly because you have about a week after the export is ready. Keep the files on your computer so you can open them after the link expires.
- You can download each export file five times, and after that you'll need a new export.
- Download every part if the export arrives as several files. Google splits an export when it exceeds the file size you chose, so one part might not contain all your mail.
- Have your account password and verification method available. Google may ask for your password again and a second check if you use 2-Step Verification.
- Open Manage exports to see each file, its download count, and the expiration date. Use that list to check that you've saved every part before the deadline.
If you started an export by mistake, look for Cancel export, which appears while Takeout prepares the export.
If the export fails, try a new export with less data or one Google product at a time. If the download keeps failing, choose smaller file parts or send the export to cloud storage.
How to open your Gmail export
If you downloaded a .zip export, unzip it and open the Takeout folder, then its Mail folder, to find the .mbox file containing your email. MBOX is a standard file format for email. Each message keeps its Gmail labels, and a file exported for a label is named after that label.
If you're on a Mac and want to read the export in Apple Mail, import the MBOX file.
Open Apple Mail's File menu.
Click Import Mailboxes.
Select Files in mbox format.
Click Continue to proceed with the MBOX import.
Choose the .mbox file from your downloaded export.
Find the imported messages in the Import mailbox.
If you want to look through the export without installing an app, dreamif.ai's free MBOX viewer opens a Gmail Takeout .mbox file in your web browser. You can search the mail by sender, subject, label, or date.
If you use Outlook for Mac, choose Apple Mail or the browser viewer for this export. Outlook's import instructions cover PST and OLM files, not MBOX.
How to export one email or a few
Use these options in Gmail on a computer when you only need selected messages.
Save one email as a file
If you want the email itself as a file, download the individual message. This fits a receipt or agreement you want to keep separately.
Open the email you want to save.
Click More.
Click Download message to download that email.
Gmail saves the message as an .eml file that opens in an email app. If you don't want to use an email app, dreamif.ai's free EML viewer opens the saved file in your web browser.
Save an email or a conversation as a PDF
If you want a document someone can open without an email app, save a PDF. You can keep one email or the whole back-and-forth.
Save a single email as a PDF:
Open the email you want to save.
Click More.
Click Print.
In your browser's print window, choose to save the email as a PDF.
Save the whole conversation as a PDF:
Open the conversation you want to save.
Click Print all.
In your browser's print window, choose to save the conversation as a PDF.
Send several emails to another address
If you have a handful of emails to keep at another address or give to someone, forward them together as attachments in one new email.
Select the emails you want to include.
Click More.
Click Forward as attachment.
Enter the email address you want to send them to.
Click Send.
Each selected email becomes an .eml attachment, so the person receiving the new message gets the emails as separate files.
Keeping your mail in a mail app or another account
In a mail app
If you want to read and search Gmail in Apple Mail, Outlook, or Thunderbird, you can connect the app to your account. That connection uses IMAP, which keeps messages and labels in sync with Gmail.
Syncing alone isn't a separate backup unless your mail app keeps its own local copies. You can export your mail to keep a copy that doesn't change with Gmail.
When adding your Gmail account to the app, select Sign in with Google to connect the way Google recommends.
In a second Gmail account
Advice to copy your mail into a second Gmail account relies on Check mail from other accounts, a Gmail feature that pulled mail from another account into Gmail and is ending. A Takeout export gives you a copy of the mail you already have as a file you keep outside Gmail, but it doesn't add that mail to your second account.
The feature no longer accepts new users. If you already use it, it stops working in January 2027, but mail it already copied stays in Gmail.
Automatic forwarding won't copy your existing mailbox either. It sends only new mail arriving after you set it up, so it doesn't replace an export of older messages.
How to export Gmail automatically
If you choose a repeating export, the first export is made right away, and later exports follow your chosen schedule for a year.
An export saved to Drive uses the Google storage shared by Gmail, Drive, and Photos, which matters if your storage is nearly full and you're cleaning up Gmail. Select Send download link via email if you want to keep repeated exports out of that storage.
If it's a work or school account
If Takeout won't export mail from your work or school account, ask your IT administrator. Your administrator controls whether you can download your data, and that setting is the likely reason if mail is missing from Takeout.
If your organization needs everyone's mail exported together, your IT administrator handles that too. A whole-organization export uses Data Export in the Google Admin console, so it isn't an export you run as an employee.
dreamif.ai
Label new mail as it arrives with dreamif.ai
To export a particular group of emails later, you'll need Gmail labels on them. After you connect Gmail and turn labels on, dreamif.ai labels new incoming email. They're ordinary Gmail labels, so you can export those emails by label in Takeout.
Questions about exporting Gmail
Yes, export the mail you want to keep before deleting your account. If you saved the export to Drive, move it somewhere else first because it goes with the account.