How to Export a Gmail Mailbox to a .Mbox File

Quick and easy-to-follow guide for Google account users

You can export all or some mail from your Google Workspace mailbox to a .mbox file, and save it on your computer, Google Drive, or some third-party storage services.

All Google Workspace users can do this by default unless an admin disables their ability to do so by turning off the Google Takeout service, as shown here.

You can also export and backup Gmail automatically with our recommended backup services.

What is a mbox file

A .mbox file is a standard file that the stores messages of an email mailbox.

When to consider exporting to mbox

You may want to export a user’s mailbox to a .mbox file when you want to create a backup of a user’s emails before deleting their account.

Exporting a large mailbox

Downloaded zip files over 2GB get compressed in zip64. Then you receive multiple files instead of a single .mbox file containing all your mail.
Some older systems may not be able to open this format. In such a case, look for software that can decompress zip64 files.

Other ways to export emails from Gmail

There are alternative solutions:

Transfer emails to another Gmail account – instead of downloading a file, you can move email messages to another Gmail mailbox.
Transfer emails to another Google Workspace user
Sync your emails to Outlook, creating a .pst file on your computer, that can be uploaded to a Gmail or Outlook account.
If you are a Google Workspace admin, you can export a mailbox with Google Vault.

How to export your Gmail mailbox to a mbox file step-by-step with images

Step 1

Go to Google Takeout https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout.

Under Products, click Deselect all.

Step 2

Find Mail in the list of products and check the box to its right to enable it.

You can click All Mail data included to select specific labels (folders) from which to export data.

Step 3

Choose which labels you want to export

Uncheck the Include all messages in Mail box and then select only the labels you want to export.

Step 4

Click Next step at the bottom.

Step 5

Your data will be made available as an archive file.

First, choose the delivery method. We usually go with receiving a download link by email. With this option, you will receive an email when your data is ready for download.

The Frequency setting lets you choose if you want only to do a single export or repeat this automatically.

File type – .zip is the most common.

Make sure the size is enough to fit your data.

Finally, click Create export.

Step 6

Your export is in progress. It may take some time, even up to a few days, if you have lots of data to download. You get notified when the link to download your data is ready.

You can also click Cancel export to cancel or Create another export in the meantime.

Step 7

If you go to the Google Takeout https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout home page and click Manage exports, you will see that the export is in progress. Once it’s ready, you can click Download.

Step 8

When the export is ready, you will also receive this email notification. Click Download archive to download your data.

Step 9

How to open mbox files

The archived data gets downloaded to your computer in a .zip file. Open this file or extract it somewhere on your computer to access your data.

Step 10

Right-click and select Extract Here to extract the files to the same folder where you downloaded the .zip.

Step 11

You get the Takeout folder. Click to open it.

Step 12

Inside it is the Mail folder. Click to open it.

Inside the Mail folder is your .mbox file. This file contains the mail you exported.

You can open this file with Mozilla Thunderbird, which can be downloaded free at https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/. You can find other software capable of opening .mbox files on Google Search, but Mozilla Thunderbird is free and very straightforward.

You can also import the .mbox file to another Google Workspace account using Thunderbird, as shown here.