---
title: "Export your email"
description: "Download your whole workspace as one zip from Settings → Export: every message as mbox, plus contacts, calendar, rules and templates, and a manifest of anything left out."
url: "https://openemail.uk/features/export"
---

[Privacy & ownership](https://openemail.uk/features.md#trust)

# Take your mail with you One download, everything in it.

Settings → Export prepares your workspace as one zip in the background: every message rebuilt into mbox files another mail app opens, plus contacts, calendar, labels, rules, templates and settings.

[Open mail](https://openemail.uk/mail/inbox) [Get Started](https://openemail.uk/signup.md)[All features](https://openemail.uk/features.md)

In short

## What is an email export?

An email export copies a mailbox into files another mail app can open, usually mbox or .eml. A full one also carries the folders, contacts and calendar.

How it works

## A rebuild, labelled as one

The mailbox keeps each message as parsed parts, not the bytes that arrived. The archive carries text, HTML, attachments, addresses, dates and threading headers, marks every message as rebuilt, and has no DKIM signature.

## Sealed mail leaves sealed

Encrypted mail is decrypted in your browser and never on our side, so the archive carries the ciphertext as stored, marks each sealed message and lists it in the manifest. The key stays with you.

## Gaps are named, not skipped

A deleted file is listed in the manifest by name and date instead of being promised. Anything that could not be read is listed there too, with the reason.

What you get

## In the product today

An mbox per folder

Inbox, Sent, Archive and the rest, each message once with its attachments inside.

Contacts and calendar

A vCard file for any address book and an .ics file for any calendar.

A manifest of gaps

Sealed messages, deleted files and anything unreadable, each listed by name.

Your key stays yours

Only public keys go in. Back up the private one from the Encryption tab.

Good practice

## Getting the most out of it

1. 01
   
   Back up your key first
   
   Sealed mail leaves the archive as ciphertext, and only your private key opens it.
2. 02
   
   Keep the passphrase too
   
   The file needs your passphrase to open, so keep both in a password manager.
3. 03
   
   Export before you delete
   
   Deleting a workspace erases its mail for good, so download the archive first.

Where it stands

## Good to know

Questions

## Asked often

Keep going

## Works well with

Bring your old mailbox

Bring the mail you already have: a Google Takeout export from Gmail, or an .mbox file from Apple Mail, Thunderbird and most desktop apps, threaded and dated as it was.

End-to-end encryption

OpenPGP keys made in your browser. Mail you send to another OpenEmail address can be sealed before it leaves the tab, and sealed mail addressed to you opens in the reading pane, decrypted on your machine. The keys are never ours to hand over.

Files

Every attachment this mailbox holds, in one place you can search, download and clear out.

Start

## Your domain, your mail.

Point a domain at OpenEmail and read it in a mailbox built around it. The free plan covers one domain.

[Open mail](https://openemail.uk/mail/inbox) [Get Started](https://openemail.uk/signup.md)[Read the reference](https://openemail.uk/docs/knowledge/trust/export.md)