Check here How to save Emails as an EML File in Gmail

Save your Gmail messages as an EML File to read them offline.

There isn’t any doubt that Gmail is a very safe email service where you can store and access your Emails easily. However, we all know the Gmail is a web-based email service which requires internet to fetch your emails. What if you have to access your Gmail messages at a place where you don’t have internet connectivity?

Well, for such situations you can save your important emails as an EML file in your PC’s hard disk. The EML files can be accessed by any open source email clients such as Mozilla Thunderbird, Claws Mail etc. So, you can open your saved EML files using any open email client even without an internet connection. In this tutorial, we are sharing the best methods to save a Gmail message as an .EML file.

How to Export Email as an EML file in Gmail?

It is quite easy to save email messages as an EML file in Gmail. All you have to do is follow the steps given below:

  1. First of all, sign in to Gmail account of yours.
  2. Open the email message you want to save as an EML File.
  3. Click on three horizontal icons (Next to reply) available at the top right corner of the message/email.
  4. Select “Show original” from the drop-down menu.
  5. A new tab will open with the original email. Now, you have two methods to save this original email as an EML file.

Method: 1

  1. Select “Download Original” from the new tab.
  2. Here, you will be asked how to save it. You just need to select “All files” from the “save as type” menu instead of a Text file/ Document.
  3. Don’t forget to add .eml at the end of the file.
  4. Finally, save the file to your desired location.

Method: 2

If you find it difficult to save Eml file from Gmail using the above-mentioned method, then you can save the file using an alternate method as given below.

  1. Open the original email as mentioned above in this post.
  2. Scroll down to find the source code of the original message.
  3. Select and copy the source code of the message. You can do it simply by pressing “Ctrl +A” (select all) followed by “Ctrl + C” button from your keyboard.
  4. Paste the copied text to a text editor program such as Notepad.
  5. Finally, Save the file with “.eml” extension.

Whatever, the method you have used to save the Eml file in Gmail, you can readily import these file in open source email clients such as Outlook Express or  Mozilla Thunderbird etc. In addition to saving emails, you should also export Gmail contacts for use in email clients. 

Points to Remember

  • If the email you are saving has an attachment then Gmail might not include it in the original message or save it as a link. So, it is recommended to save attachment separately in case you are not going to have internet access otherwise you might have to face Gmail attachment issue.
  • The methods we have discussed in this post are manual. Alternatively, you can also use automatic tools to export email to an .Eml file in bulk. You can find these tools easily available on the internet.

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