How to Take Backup of Emails from cPanel via Export & File Manager
Data Backup is one of the major concerns of any user dealing with important email messages. The same holds true for cPanel mailboxes. Whether its to archive the old messages, save emails for future use or restore them on different server, it is important to backup cPanel emails.
In this article, you will know how to take backup of emails from cPanel via File manager and Export built-in feature of your cPanel.
How to Backup Emails from cPanel
While it is possible to use the in-built Backup Wizard of cPanel to create a complete cPanel backup file, it is not entirely necessary. You can also backup only the emails and even necessary mailbox by going for other features.
Before starting, access your cPanel account and then follow the step-by-step instructions given for each method below:
- Backup cPanel Emails Via File Manager
- Backup cPanel Mailbox via Export
Detailed instructions are given ahead.
I. Backup cPanel Emails Via File Manager
Sign in to your cPanel account.
Look for the Files tab and click on the File Manager option.
In the home directory of your account, look for the Mail folder and select it.
Now, right-click on this Mail folder and select the Compress option. You will see following types in the corresponding window:
- .zip – it is a standard compression format generally used in Windows and Mac.
- .tar – it simply encompasses your backup file without actually compressing the data.
- .tar.gz – this will compress the mail files with gzip algorithm. It is generally used in Linux systems.
- .tar.bz2 – this is a better compression standard compares to .tar.gz but is a bit on the slower side.
Choose any of the provided compression technique as per your requirement.
Important Tip:
The Mail folder contains all the information and data of all cPanel email accounts. If you wish to take backup of emails from cPanel specific account, open the Mail folder and compress the folder with same name as your account.
Leave the name as it is if you wish to restore data later. Now, click on Compress File(s) button to initiate the compression process.
The compressed email files now visible are store on your hosting account server. So, now right-click on the compressed file (eg- mail.zip archive file) and select the Download option.
Your backup file is successfully downloaded to your machine.
II. Backup cPanel Mailbox via Export
The files backup generated with File Manager are in the original format and are only helpful if you wish to restore data on another server.
But, if you wish to access the cPanel emails on your local system, you will need to take backup of emails from cPanel via the Export feature. This saves the emails in standard MBOX format that is supported by free and popular email clients like Mozilla Thunderbird. Thus, making the emails easily readable on your machine.
The steps to do so are as follows:
Log in to your cPanel account.
Look for the Emails tab and click on the Email Accounts option.
Now, click on the Check Email button corresponding to the email account from which you wish to backup cPanel emails.
Pro Tip:
If there are more than one email account and you want to take backup of all cPanel mail accounts, simply repeat these steps for each of them.
Click on Horde and hit the Open button to open the webmail interface for viewing emails.
Right-click on the mailboxes one at a time and choose the Export option.
Select any of the download option and click the OK button.
The backup file will be successfully downloaded on your machine.
You can easily open MBOX files using Mozilla Thunderbird and other free applications.
What to do If I want to Backup cPanel Emails in Formats Other than MBOX?
There are various situations where users require to take backup of emails from cPanel into preferred format like PST, PDF, etc. This is done to either access the data in email clients that do not support MBOX format or simply to save the emails in documents for easier sharing and OS-independence.
Most of these concerns can be easily solved by using a conversion tool like SysTools MBOX Converter. This software wizard converts the cPanel files exported via the IInd method into different file formats: PST, PDF, EML, MSG, HTML, etc.
It is available for both Windows and Mac OS.
You can read the articles to know the exact step by step instructions to backup emails from cPanel to your preferred format: