How mbox / EML import works

This tool does the opposite of a backup: it takes message files you have on your computer and puts them back into a mailbox. It's what you need to bring in a Google Takeout export, or to restore an archive made here. The original folders and labels are recreated on the destination side.

Step by step

  1. 1 You pick your .mbox or .eml files on your computer.
  2. 2 You enter the credentials for the mailbox that will receive them.
  3. 3 Your files are uploaded, then each message is placed in the mailbox, in the folder matching its original label.
  4. 4 Your files are deleted from our servers as soon as the import finishes, whether it succeeded or not.

What to put in each field

  • .mbox or .eml files *
  • Destination folder for messages with no label **
  • Email address and password ***

* The .mbox is inside the archive Google sends you after a Takeout export, under “Mail”. An .eml is a single message: most mail software can produce them, and our backup tool generates one per message.

** Where to put messages that had no label in the export. Leave “INBOX” so they land in the inbox.

*** Those of the mailbox receiving the messages. As elsewhere, an app password is needed with Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo.

Good to know

  • The import adds messages, it removes none.
  • Take care not to run the same import twice into the same folder: messages would be added twice over. Our deduplicator can repair that.

Use this tool