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Archive or backup email that is in my MIT account

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This article applies to members of the MIT community that are looking for a way to archive or backup all of their MIT email. This can be useful to make sure 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 to do 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 if the database that holds local mail has any issues, you have a recovery point.

What you'll need:

  • A desktop email client, such as 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 desktop email client that is IMAP-capable in lieu of Microsoft Outlook. This can be useful if you're already using Apple Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird, or if you are not a current student, faculty or staff member and are unable to download Microsoft Office.

Download a desktop email client

Outlook

  • Go to the IS&T software download page for Office and download Office 2013 / 2016 / 2019 if you're a Windows user (NOTE: the version of office you would use depends on the version of Windows you are running) or Office 2016 / 2019 for Mac if you're on an Apple computer.
  • Install MS Office

Install the application per the instructions on those pages. If you're on a PC, be sure to completely extract the ZIP file to a new folder before trying to install Office.

  • Setup Outlook.

To find out how to setup Outlook, you can follow the instructions on this depending on what version of Office you are using: Configure Your Exchange Email.

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

Mozilla Thunderbird

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

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

Apple Mail

Apple Mail comes included in all modern versions of Mac OS X. It 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 from Apple's Support Knowledge Base)

Setup Mail, Calendars, Contacts, and Notes macOS 10.12 (Sierra), 10.13 (High. Sierra) and 10.14 (Mojave)

Setup OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) Mail, Calendars, Contacts, and notes for MIT's Exchange Environment

Setup OS X 10.10 Yosemite Mail, Calendars, Contacts and Notes for MIT's Exchange Environment 

Once you have your account all set up, you can use the following resources:

IS&T Contributions

Documentation and information provided by IS&T staff members


Last Modified:

March 12, 2024

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