Archive or backup email that is in my MIT account

On this page:

This article applies to members of the MIT community who are looking for a way to archive or backup all of their MIT email. This can be useful to ensure that you always have a copy of messages in case you accidentally delete one or more or if you're leaving MIT and want to have an archive before your email account is deactivated.

Not responsible for lost email if messages don't archive correctly Once mail leaves the MIT servers, the messages/attachments will live locally on the computer that you archive it to. Please make sure you have a backup of your computer so that if the database that holds local mail has any issues, you have a recovery point.

What you'll need:

• A desktop email client like Outlook, Apple Mail, or Mozilla Thunderbird.
  • All MIT students, faculty, and staff can download MS Office from the IS&T software download page for Office
  • It is possible to use any IMAP-capable desktop email client instead of Microsoft Outlook. This can be useful if you're already using Apple Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird or are not a current student, faculty, or staff member and cannot download Microsoft Office.

Download a desktop email client

Outlook

• Go to the IS&T software download page for Office and download Office 365.

• Install MS Office

Install the application per the instructions on those pages

• Setup Outlook

Follow the instructions to set up Outlook: Set up and use Outlook (Microsoft Knowledge Base).

Once you have your account setup, you can use the following resources:

• Archive email with Outlook on Windows (Microsoft Knowledge Base)

• Archive email with Outlook on macOS (Microsoft Knowledge Base)

• Backup your email (Microsoft Knowledge Base)

• Restore information into Outlook (Microsoft Knowledge Base)

Mozilla Thunderbird

You can download the latest version of Mozilla Thunderbird from Mozilla.

Once you have your account setup, you can use the following resources:

• Archive email to local folders with Thunderbird

• How do I configure Thunderbird to connect to MIT Microsoft 365 Mailboxes?

Apple Mail

Apple Mail is included in all modern macOS versions and can be found in the Applications folder.

If you do not have your email set up in Apple Mail, you can follow the instructions below depending on the version of macOS you are running: (if you are not sure what version of the macOS you are running, please see this article (Apple Support Knowledge Base)

Add email accounts in Mail on Mac (Apple User Guide)

Once you have your account setup, you can use the following resources:

• Archive email to local folders with Apple Mail