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Guide: How to Export Your GMAIL Inbox to mbox in

An Easy Step-by-Step Tutorial using Google Takeout tool

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.

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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 you an email notification when your archive is ready to download. This process can take anywhere from a few hours to a couple days, depending on the size of your mailbox.

The email will look like the one below:

Gmail export ready to Download

Step 4 - Download your mbox

Click on the blue buttons to initiate the download of your mailbox file(s). In my case, my entire mailbox archive was included in Part 2 of 2 (5.22 GB), and the filename is "All Mail Including Spam and Trash-002.mbox".

But if you happen to have a super large mailbox, Google Takeout may create a compressed archive consisting of 1 or many zip files. If that's your situation, just make sure to download all the zip files and unzip them to get access to your mbox file(s).

Download Gmail export

That's it! Now you should have a mbox file with your entire mailbox history.

Step 5 - Declutter your inbox with GoodByEmail

You can now scan your mbox mailbox in GoodByEmail - a unique tool on the market that helps you easily clean your inbox without requiring access to your passwords, logins, or OAuth tokens.

Easy, right?

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