How to Download Email From Server – A Complete Guide

  Rollins Duke
Rollins Duke   
Published: March 21st, 2025 • 7 Min Read

In today’s world, managing emails plays a crucial part for both professional and personal communications. However, sometimes when a user needs to download email from server whether for offline access, data backup or migrating to another platform, downloading emails is required to prevent data loss.

Through this informative guide, we will discuss how to backup email from server and explore various methods including manual and automated approaches with a proper demonstration of steps. Additionally, till the end of this article you will get to know why it’s useful and how we can seamlessly store our data in the local system. So, let’s get started with the blog post.

Why Download Email From Server? – Benefits

Downloading emails from server offers numerous advantages to both home as well as professional users. We have listed some of the key reasons below, keep reading.

  • Offline Access- Saving emails from server allows you to read emails anytime even without internet connection or in less/ limited connectivity areas.
  • Data Security & Backup- Storing emails in the local system helps users to prevent data loss and ensures that their important messages are safe from accidental incidents.
  • Easy Email Migration- Backing up emails provides flexibility in transferring emails from one service/provider to another.
  • Free up Server Storage- Email servers have storage limits and downloading them helps in ensuring smooth performing and decluttering the inbox.
  • Fast Email Retrieval- Opening emails in server may cause delays due to unstable or slow internet speed. So, accessing them from a local device will be quicker than the server.

How to Backup Emails from a Server Manually?

There are several manual ways using which you can download email from server in your local system. Let’s look at them separately.

Backup Email using Email Clients

For Windows:

#1 Microsoft Outlook

  1. Open Outlook on your device.
  2. Go to File> Account Settings> Add Account.
  3. Click on New to add your email account for configuration.
  4. Choose IMAP to sync emails and enter the required credentials.
  5. Then click Next> Finish to start the synchronization process.
  6. Once your account has been added and emails synchronized.
  7. Open Outlook and navigate to File> Open & Export> Import/ Export.
  8. Select Export to a file option and choose .pst saving format.
  9. After that, select folders to export and browse one destination path.
  10. Lastly, click Save and it’s done.

#2 Thunderbird

  1. Open Thunderbird and go to Tools> Account Settings.
  2. Click on Add Mail Account option and fill your email details.
  3. Select between POP3 or IMAP and enter the server settings to complete setting up.
  4. Once the account has been configured.
  5. Right-click on the folder and select ImportExportTools> Export all messages in the folder option.
  6. Then, choose your preferred format and save emails locally. That’s it.
For MAC:

#1 Apple Mail

  1. Open Apple Mail on your system.
  2. Navigate to Mail> Preferences.
  3. Select the email account and go to the Account Information tab.
  4. Check Download Attachments: All to store the emails locally.
  5. After that, select the email folder which you wish to save.
  6. Click on File> Export Mailbox.
  7. Choose the destination path and save the mailbox in MBOX format.

This is how you can download email from server by performing these manual methods. While manual methods are cost-friendly but they do contain multiple drawbacks and it is necessary to read them before choosing this method. For you, we have listed some below.

Few Limitations of Manual Methods – Must Know

  • Manual Methods are time-consuming as exporting emails or configuring them takes a lot of time, especially when dealing with large datasets.
  • While performing manual methods chances of losing data becomes more that emails may get deleted if not configured properly.
  • Manually downloading multiple files requires a lot of human effort which also makes this process lengthy and tiring at the same time.
  • It does not provide any direct option to bulk download email from server as well as do not guarantee data security.
  • Home users may face difficulty as technical knowledge is required to perform this manual method.

For a faster, efficient and safe email download process and to completely overcome these drawbacks, I would suggest you to use an automated tool which will help you seamlessly backup emails without any third party tool. Let’s dive into the next section.

Simple Steps to Save Email from Server

  1. Download and launch the above mentioned tool on your device.
  2. Select an email client and enter the required login credentials. Next, click Login.download email from server
  3. After that, you can preview its folders in the file explorer view, select them accordingly.preview emails
  4. Choose the required file format from the given saving options.saving options to download email from server
  5. Thereafter, select a file naming option to rename resultant files.destination path
  6. Lastly, browse a destination path and click Backup to start downloading emails.start downloading emails

Core Features of the Expert-Trusted Solution

  • It is a 100% safe and reliable software to download email from server seamlessly.
  • Its user-friendly interface makes this tool suitable for all types of users including tech-savvy and non-technical.
  • Batch Mode option allows users to bulk download emails without any data loss, saving time.
  • Preserves all email attributes during and after the email download process so that data should remain intact.
  • Support advanced algorithms and work independently without requiring installation of any other solution.
  • Offer users multiple saving options as well as file naming options to download files more precisely and conveniently.
  • Compatible with all versions of Windows and Mac OS including latest and old editions.

The End

Downloading emails from server is a great way to secure your sensitive emails and make them available in offline mode and access whenever required without any hassle. For a secure and time-saving backup we will suggest you to use the professional solution despite choosing the manual approach. The automated solution will help you download emails directly on your local system whereas using manually downloading emails will require a lot of technical knowledge. So, go ahead and enjoy the process. After reading the blog, if you have any query freely contact our support team.