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Guide: How to Export Your GMAIL Inbox to mbox in

An Easy Step-by-Step Tutorial.

Alex's avatar
By Alex
How to Export Gmail Inbox to mbox format

For GoodByEmail to work its magic and identify your biggest inbox offenders, we'll need you to export an archive of your GMAIL inbox first. Here's a simple step-by-step guide to creating and downloading this archive. You'll end up with an mbox file, ready to be used by the GoodByEmail app.

Step 1 - Create an archive of your GMAIL Inbox using Google Takeout

Head over to the Google Takeout page. Keep the default settings as they are ("All Mail data included") and hit the "Next Step" button:

Select Data to Include in Gmail export

Step 2 - File Type, Frequency, and Destination Settings

There's no need for any changes here. Just click on "Create Export".

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Step 3 - Waiting for Your Archive Email

The system will send an email with your archive. This could take anywhere from an hour to a day. You'll receive an email like the one below:

Gmail export ready to Download

Step 4 - Download all the zip files

Click on the “Download 1 of X“ button. This will take you back to Google Takeout. From here, you just need to download all the files. Depending on your inbox size, this might mean downloading more than just one file:

Download Gmail export

Step 5 - Unzip all the files

Once you've downloaded all the zip files to your computer, use your preferred method to unzip everything. You'll end up with one or more mbox files.

Easy, right?

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