# Backup4Mail > Backup4Mail backs up whole IMAP mailboxes on your Mac, external drive or NAS – as EML or MBOX, incremental, with time travel, restore and export. Status: in development, being tested; not available in the App Store yet. Coming to the Mac App Store. No release date. Backup4Mail backs up complete IMAP mailboxes from your mail server into a folder you choose – on your Mac, an external drive or a NAS. After the first run it only fetches what has changed. Every backup becomes a point in time you can travel back to, restore and export. For Mac · macOS 26 or later ## Links - Website (English): https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/ - Website (German): https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/de/ - Website (French): https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/fr/ - Website (Spanish): https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/es/ - Website (Italian): https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/it/ - Privacy policy: https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/privacy (German: https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/de/privacy, French: https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/fr/privacy, Spanish: https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/es/privacy, Italian: https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/it/privacy) - Imprint: https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/imprint (German: https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/de/impressum, French: https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/fr/mentions-legales, Spanish: https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/es/aviso-legal, Italian: https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/it/note-legali) - Support: support@robspace.de - Full text for LLMs (home page and privacy policy, Markdown): https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/llms-full.txt - robspace, all apps by Robert Poetzsch: https://robspace.de/ - Developer: Robert Poetzsch (robspace), Hofheim am Taunus, Germany ## From the cloud, along the arc, into the drawer. - Your mailbox: Backup4Mail connects directly to your mail server, always encrypted, and only reads. Backing up marks nothing as read and moves or deletes nothing. - One turn per backup: The first backup copies everything. Every later one fetches only what is new, gone or changed – folders run side by side over up to three connections. - Your vault: A folder on your Mac, an external drive or a NAS. Mails are stored as EML (one file per mail) or MBOX (one file per folder), with a README that explains the layout. What you delete on the server stays in the vault unless you switch on thinning. ## Everything a mail backup needs, nothing it doesn’t. - Time travel: Every backup is a point in time. Turn the time ring and see your mailbox exactly as it was then: folders, mails, read and flagged status. New mails, mails deleted since and moved mails are marked. The search finds subject, sender, recipients and preview across all points in time. - Back up – then only the changes: Add an account with its email address: for well-known providers Backup4Mail fills in the server itself, otherwise it asks your provider’s domain. Microsoft accounts (Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, Microsoft 365) connect with “Sign in with Microsoft”. The password or sign-in token goes into the keychain of this Mac. The first backup copies everything, every later one only the changes. The orbit shows how far it is: mails, size, rate and the folder being backed up. - Restore without duplicates: Restore a whole point in time, single folders or single mails – into the original account or another one, into the original folders or a separate folder. A dry run shows first how many mails are already there and how many will be uploaded. Flags and received dates are kept. - Export into open formats: Export any point in time as MBOX, MBOX for Apple Mail, EML folders, Maildir, PST (Beta) or HTML archive – a searchable offline website that any browser can open, no mail app needed. - Backup jobs with their own schedule: Every account at a destination is a backup job: every hour, daily at a set time, weekly or only manually. With the window closed, Backup4Mail keeps working from the menu bar, and if you switch it on, it opens at login. Missed backups are caught up a minute after the Mac wakes; a sleeping Mac it cannot wake. - Built for network drives: NAS asleep or Wi-Fi gone: mails wait in a buffer on your Mac until the destination answers again. Files are written completely or not at all, and a backup only counts as finished once all its mails are on the destination. - Import: Bring old mail back – from MBOX, EML folders, Maildir, PST (Beta) or Apple Mail folders, straight into an IMAP account or into a vault. - Verify: Checks every mail in a vault against its SHA-256 fingerprint and shows a report. - Thin out (optional): Off by default: every point in time is kept. Switched on, Backup4Mail keeps hourly points for 24 hours, daily points for 30 days and weekly points after that, like Time Machine. - Notifications: Backup4Mail stays quiet when everything works. It tells you when a backup failed, when the destination has been away for a day or when unusually many mails disappeared from the server. - Menu bar: The menu bar icon shows at a glance whether a backup is running, waiting for the NAS, paused or needs your attention. Its window shows the progress and your other backup jobs. - Five languages: English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. ## Your mail stays readable – with or without Backup4Mail. - EML: One file per mail in a folder tree. Drag into any mail app, open with Quick Look. - MBOX: One file per folder. Thunderbird, mutt and most mail apps import it. - MBOX for Apple Mail: Mailbox packages that Apple Mail opens via File › Import Mailboxes. - Maildir: The server standard of Dovecot and mutt; flags are kept in the file names. - PST (Beta): Outlook data file for Outlook on Windows and Mac. - HTML archive: A searchable offline website. Readable in any browser in 30 years, no mail app needed. - Apple Mail: Mail folders from Apple Mail (.mbox packages with .emlx). ## Your mail is never held hostage. - 30 days free: Try everything, without payment details. - Then Backup4Mail Pro: Monthly, yearly or once for a lifetime – through the Mac App Store. - Always free: Restore and export stay free, also after the trial – your mail never gets locked away. New backups and time travel need Pro. ## Between your mail server and your vault there is nobody. - No server of our own. Your mail goes only from your mail server to the destination you choose. robspace cannot see it. - No analytics, no tracking. No third-party SDKs, no ads, no advertising ID. - Passwords in the keychain. In the keychain of this Mac only, not in iCloud. - Purchases through Apple. robspace receives no payment or account data. ## FAQ ### Can I buy Backup4Mail yet? Not yet. Backup4Mail is in development and is being tested. This page describes the current test version. ### Which mail accounts work? IMAP accounts, for example iCloud Mail, Fastmail, GMX, web.de, Posteo, mailbox.org or a mailbox at your own domain. Gmail works with an app password. Microsoft accounts (Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, Microsoft 365) work with “Sign in with Microsoft”. ### Do I need a NAS? No. A vault can be any folder you can choose on your Mac: the internal drive, an external drive or a network share (SMB, AFP, NFS). ### Can I read my backups without Backup4Mail? Yes. The mails are EML or MBOX files that Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Outlook and many other programs read. A README in every vault explains the layout. ### Does a backup change anything on my mail server? No. Backing up only reads: nothing is marked as read, moved or deleted. Only a restore adds mails, and only the ones that are missing. ### What happens when the trial ends? Your vaults stay as they are. Restore and export remain free; new backups and time travel need Backup4Mail Pro. ### What does “Beta” mean for PST? Backup4Mail reads and writes Outlook’s PST format with its own implementation. Until it has been checked against many real Outlook files, it is marked as Beta.