How to Backup Apple Mail to External Hard Drive in Minutes

Written By Tej Pratap Shukla

Approved By Anuraag Singh

Modified On February 10th, 2026

Reading Time 9 Min Read

Apple Mail stores conversations, attachments, receipts, and important communication locally on the Mac. Most users assume iCloud or the mail provider keeps everything safe forever.

It doesn’t.

That’s why knowing how to backup Apple Mail to external hard drive is crucial, so even if your Mac crashes or the Mail app corrupts, you still have a complete copy of every mailbox.

Today, I’ll show you how to archive Mac Mail to external drive, safely and simultaneously, in minutes. So, first, let me explain the requirement for this procedure.

What is the Need to Archive Apple Mail to External Drive?

There are myriad reasons for making a replica of Apple Mail to external hard drive. Archiving the large-sized Apple Mail email data to an internal or external hard drive certainly occupies storage on your macOS. Another disadvantage is unpredictable conditions, such as hardware failure, in which there is a huge chance of data loss.

Unfortunately, it makes recovery impossible. However, it highlights the need for another portable solution, i.e. external hard drive. Interestingly, it has different storage capacities, ensuring easy backup of media files and emails.

Here are the key advantages to backup Apple Mail to external hard drive:-

This portable solution provides extra storage for managing the ample email data with attachments. Additionally, compared to the internal drive, the external drive doesn’t retain the changes due to data loss due to system crashes, malicious attacks, etc.
Another reason to archive Mac Mail to external drive is to allow professionals to achieve permanent email backup. With this, users can easily carry and share email data irrespective of any risk.
Making a replica in external drive offers data security and prevents physical data loss. Hence, users can protect crucial emails for future events without facing any challenges.
IMAP sync is not the true backup, as due to IMAP authentication failed types of error, new changes will not be reflected.
If an email is deleted from the server, it disappears from the Mac, too. Having a local archive Apple Mail to external drive ensures data continuity.

Overall, saving Mac Mail emails to an external drive offers storage management, data security, and a portable solution. Next, I’ll simply explain where you will find Apple Mail data on macOS for backup.

Where Apple Mail Stores Data on Mac

Before learning how to backup Apple Mail to external hard drive, first learn where Mac Mail stores data to export complete data. All Apple Mail messages, attachments, rules, and mailbox structure are stored inside a hidden Library path on macOS:

~/Library/Mail/

This folder contains:

All mailboxes
Attachments
Account data
Mail rules
Signatures
Index files

Backing up this single folder means backing up the entire Apple Mail.

Without any further ado! Let me explain how to archive Mac Mail to external drive.

How to Backup Apple Mail to External Hard Drive – Top 4 Methods

Saving Mac Mail to external drive is the quickest and hassle-free task when you know the right approaches and stepwise instructions. Below are the four appropriate methods that will help you to archive Apple Mail to external drive:

#Method 1. Manually Archive Mac Mail to External Drive

This is the free and quick method to create a replica of your Mac Mail to external drive in one go. Here are the steps to do so:

Connect the external HDD/SSD/USB drive to the Mac. Make sure it has enough space, as Apple Mail data can be several GBs.

- Now, open Finder
- Click Go in the top menu
- Hold the Option (⌥) key
- Click Library
- Go to:

Library > Mail

- Inside, you will see folders like:
- V8
- V9
- V10 (depends on macOS version)
Copy the entire “Mail” folder. Don’t copy subfolders. For the same:
Right-click Mail
Click Copy
Open the external hard drive
Paste it there to archive Mac Mail to external drive

That’s it. Your Apple Mail backup is complete.

What does this backup contain?

When you backup Apple Mail to external hard drive, you’ll get:

All email accounts (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, custom IMAP)
All mailboxes and folders
Attachments
Drafts, sent items, deleted items
Mail rules and signatures
Offline emails

It’s a full Apple Mail clone. But it is time-consuming, and will take days to backup if the data is in GBs. Additionally, there is no option to export only a specific mailbox. If you want to, then opt for the next section, which is dedicated to explaining to you the method to backup desired mailbox only, instead of the complete mailbox.

#Method 2. Backup Specific Mailboxes Using Export Mailbox

If you only need certain folders, instead backup Apple Mail to external hard drive, then use the Export feature. For the same:

Open Apple Mail
Right-click a mailbox
Click Export Mailbox
Save the .mbox file to an external drive

This is useful for selective backup, but not a full backup. But if you want to archive Mac Mail to external drive automatically, then use the approach mentioned below.

#Method 3. MVPs Trusted Cutting-edge Solution to Backup Apple Mail to External Hard Drive

If you want a complete Apple Mail backup without any manual intervention, and without data loss. Then, the above-mentioned solutions won’t work. For the same, you have to opt for a professional utility like SysTools IMAP Backup Software.

Download Now Purchase Now

It lets you back up the actual mailbox that Apple Mail connects to, instead of copying Apple Mail’s internal folders. Additionally, you can export only a date range, select specific folders, and run incremental backups so only new emails are added next time.

So, don’t look further, just try this now for free, and get these benefits:

Export IMAP to PST, MBOX, EML, MSG and PDF
Connects directly to any IMAP mailbox
Date filter for selective backups
Incremental backup lets you add only new emails later
Preserves folder hierarchy and attachments
Supports multiple accounts in one place
Saves backup directly to the external hard drive
Generates a detailed export report
Creates portable files readable in other clients
No dependency on ~/Library/Mail or macOS internals

If you want to see how these features work, then download this now and follow the steps to backup Apple Mail to external hard drive:

Step 1. Open the SysTools utility, and select the export file format, i.e. PST, MBOX, MSG, or PDF.

Endpoint Selection

Step 2. Select your IMAP Server as Apple Mail.

Select IMAP Server

Step 3. Now, choose the folder to save the resultant files by clicking on the Backup folder path.

Backup Folder Path

Step 4. After the permission validation hit the Start Backup button to archive Mac Mail to external drive.

Start Backup

#Method 4. How to Backup Apple Mail to External Hard Drive Via Time Machine

Always keep Time Machine enabled as a secondary safety net. This is not reliable as a manual mailbox backup, but still, adding an extra security layer is a wise choice to minimise the risk of data loss.

This is an automatic approach, so you have to set it up once, and the rest will handle itself. In simple words, Time Machine stores hourly, daily, and weekly versions.

Below are the guidelines to archive Mac Mail to external drive:

Connect your external HDD/SSD to the Mac.
If prompted, choose Use as Backup Disk.
If not prompted, follow Step 2.
Open System Settings or System Preferences on older macOS.
Go to General > Time Machine.
Click Add Backup Disk.
Select the external drive.
Click Set Up Disk to backup Apple Mail to external hard drive.

Time Machine starts backing up automatically.

Now, ensure the mail folder is not excluded:

In Time Machine settings, click Options.
Check the Excluded Items list.
Make sure this path is not listed:

~/Library/Mail

If it is, remove it from exclusions.

The first backup can take time depending on the data size. After this, backups happen automatically every hour when the drive is connected.

Now, learn how to restore only Apple Mail from Time Machine. If Apple Mail crashes or data disappears, you don’t restore the whole Mac. You can restore only the Mail folder. To do so:

Close Apple Mail.
Open Finder.
Press Cmd + Shift + G and go to:

~/Library/

Open the Mail folder location.
Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar > Enter Time Machine.
Use the timeline on the right to go to a date when Mail was fine.
Select the Mail folder.
Click Restore.

When you open Apple Mail again, all emails, folders, and attachments appear exactly as they were on that selected date.

How to Restore Apple Mail from External Hard Drive Backup

If something goes wrong, here’s how to restore:

Close Apple Mail
Go to ~/Library/
Rename the existing Mail folder to Mail_old
Copy the backed-up Mail folder from the external drive here
Open Apple Mail

Everything comes back exactly as it was.

Are There Any Common Mistakes to Avoid?

Yes, I personally found these mistakes, which you should bypass:

Relying only on IMAP sync can sometimes cause version history issues, such as IMAP server timeout
Copying only the mailbox folders instead of the full Mail folder
Backing up while Apple Mail is open
Forgetting the attachments folder
Assuming iCloud backup is enough

Author’s Verdict

After losing email data once, I stopped relying on iCloud and the mail application. I started learning how to backup Apple Mail to external hard drive, so that I can access my data locally whenever needed.

To help users like me, I created this complete walkthrough in which I explained how to archive Mac Mail to external drive. I hope you enjoyed the discussion and gained a deep insight into the same.