Overview
This article provides several options to consider when backing up email to your computer.
Prerequisites
You will need to configure an email client of your choice to download email to your computer.
The Webmail interface is a read-only interface for mail, so it is not possible to download using this service.
Backing up email
The following sections describe three options to back up your email.
Option one — Backing up your email using a POP connection
If you configure your email address within your client as a POP account, your email is automatically downloaded to your computer. This is how a POP configuration is meant to function. See this article to learn more about how to configure your address as a POP connection.
Emails removed from the server
Since the POP connection pulls emails off the server, you will no longer see messages in webmail (since it uses IMAP).
Once you’ve downloaded your email, make sure you keep the backups until you upload them to a new mail server.
Inbox folder
The POP configuration only downloads mail from the user’s Inbox folder. All other folders and contents within them must be moved to the Inbox when you’re ready to download them. This includes folders such as old-messages, Sent, Drafts, and any other folders outside of the Inbox folder.
Backing up email example
Here's a general workflow you can follow:
- Configure your email to use a POP connection.
- Download email only from the Inbox.
- On your computer, locate the directory where your mail client downloaded the emails.
- Create a folder on your computer called Inbox, and drag those emails into that folder.
- For subfolders, move their content into the Inbox. For example, if you have a folder called Sent, move email from this folder into the Inbox so they are downloaded to your computer. You can then create another folder on your computer called Sent and drag them into it.
- Create each subfolder one at a time to avoid confusion.
The point to remember is that the POP configuration only downloads email from the Inbox directory, not any subdirectories.
Option two — Exporting email within Mac Mail
Mac Mail includes an option to quickly download all email under a single address to your computer. See this article for more information.
Option three — Backing up your emails at another host
The process of backing up mail with another host may vary from host to host. The mail host you have now may have another solution to backing up emails from their servers. You'll need to contact your current mail host for details on how to back up the emails from their servers so you can import them to DreamHost.