Best Ways to Backup Apple Mail to Hard Drive on Mac & Windows

Advantages to Locally Save Apple Mail on Hard Drive

Due to advancements in technology, emails have become a crucial part of communication for organisations. Therefore, it is essential to create a local backup of Apple Mail on your system. While there may be several reasons to back up Apple Mail, in this section, we will explore the most prominent advantages of creating a copy of Apple Mail.

• Data Security: Protects against accidental deletion, corruption, and online threats by providing an offline backup.
• Accessibility: Allows for easy retrieval and cross-platform access without needing an internet connection.
• Control Over Data: Ensures full ownership of data with the ability to set custom backup schedules.
• Cost-Effective: Avoids recurring subscription fees and utilises existing hardware for storage.
• Large Storage Capacity: Supports large volumes of emails and attachments without storage limitations.
• Portability: Provides physical access to data, making it easy to carry and transfer between devices.
• Redundancy: Enables multiple backups on different drives, offering comprehensive data protection.
• Compatibility with Backup Software: Offers advanced features like encryption, automation, and simplified management.
• Long-Term Archiving: Ideal for preserving important communications with reduced risk of automatic data deletion.

Methods to Backup Apple Mail to Hard Drive

There are many methods available on the internet to copy your Apple Mail to a hard drive. However, after thorough testing by our team, we found the easiest and most practical approaches to back up Apple Mail. The manual process to back up Apple Mail on Mac is quite simple but becomes inefficient when dealing with large or multiple mailboxes. Additionally, on Windows, backing up Apple Mail can be a lengthy task. Therefore, our IT team suggests using the iCloud Backup Tool, which works perfectly on both Mac and Windows.

Method 1: Save Apple Mail on Mac

One of the simplest ways to back up your Apple Mail is to manually export your mailboxes. This method works exclusively on macOS. The steps to create a local copy of your Apple Mail on Mac are as follows:

1. Launch the Apple Mail application on your Mac.
2. In the sidebar, choose the mailbox you want to back up.
3. Go to Mailbox in the top menu and select Export Mailbox.
4. Choose the destination on your hard drive where you want to save the mailbox. The mailbox will be saved as an .mbox file.
5. Repeat the process for each mailbox you wish to back up.

After following these steps, you can easily back up Apple Mail on Mac. As we discussed earlier, emails are crucial for communication. Therefore, many users may want to back up the email client of their choice. For this, we recommend the Aryson Email Backup Tool, which can back up 99+ email clients to different file formats.

Method 2: Backup Apple Mail on Windows

The process to back up Apple Mail on Windows is quite lengthy. If you need to back up Apple Mail on a Windows machine, one effective method is to first sync your Apple Mail with an IMAP account, then access and back up that account on a Windows-based email client. The steps to copy Apple Mail on Windows are as follows:

1. Sync Apple Mail with IMAP Account: Ensure your Apple Mail is configured with an IMAP account. This will sync your emails to the server.
2. Access IMAP on Windows: Use an email client like Thunderbird or Outlook on Windows to connect to the same IMAP account.
3. Export Emails: Once synced, you can export your emails from the Windows email client to your hard drive.

Method 3: Instantly Backup Apple Mail to Hard Drive on Mac & Windows

The manual method to back up Apple Mail on Mac is quite easy but cannot be relied upon for large mailboxes. Additionally, on Windows, you need to follow a lengthy procedure to save Apple Mail. Therefore, we recommend the Aryson iCloud Backup Tool, which is a one-stop solution to back up Apple Mail on both Windows and Mac. This tool uses an advanced algorithm to quickly save all Apple Mail items in the file format of your choice. It also offers advanced features and filters that allow users to perform selective backups of items. The steps to save Apple Mail using this tool are as follows:

1. Install and launch the iCloud Backup Tool with administrative privileges. 
2. Enter the Username & Password and then click on the Sign In button.
3. Select the Apple Mailbox items from the tree structure and then click on the Next button.
4. Now, choose the Saving Format as MBOX and apply the features/filters.
5. Finally, click on the Convert button to initiate the backup process. 

Conclusion

Backing up Apple Mail is essential for protecting your emails against data loss, whether you are on macOS or need a cross-platform solution. The best method depends on your needs—manual exports offer simplicity and the automated tool offers advanced features. Whichever method you choose, regularly updating your backups ensures that your data is always safe.

About The Author:

Mithilesh Tata

Mithilesh Tata is dedicated to making the lives of his customers as simple as possible. He enjoys learning about new applications and utilities that can help people protect their data. Mithilesh also has a strong grasp on email migration & data recovery. He enjoys validating every component of the software, technical materials, and anything else that has to do with his working life.

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