If you’re reading an article on restoring Apple mail, you probably understand the importance of having backups. Because you can only restore data if you have something to restore it from.

Emails are not merely daily greetings or offers from some company you have never heard of. In our current environment, and particularly after COVID where the remote work is quite common, our e-mail data amount to something quite significant.

So today,we’ll discuss how to back up Mac mail using this tool called Mail Backup X. It’s an excellent solution for securing emails, with the features it has to offer also make restoring Mac mail straightforward and effective.

Apple Mail, also known as ‘Mail.app’ these days, is the default email client on macOS. Emails in Apple Mail are stored locally on your Mac in the Mail folder within the ‘Library’ directory. This local storage includes not just the emails themselves but also attachments and the organizational structure you’ve set up (like mailboxes and folders). This means that a significant amount of personal or professional information can accumulate over time, making the data valuable and sometimes sensitive.

Given the critical nature of the data managed by Apple Mail, backing up this information becomes important and even urgent. Several factors justify the need for smart Mac Mail backup and restoration solutions:

• Local Storage Vulnerabilities: Since the data is stored locally on your Mac, it’s susceptible to local risks.
• Migration and Accessibility: If you decide to upgrade to a new Mac or need to reinstall macOS, having a backup of your Apple Mail data simplifies the process of restoring your email environment.
• Data Corruption: Software bugs, macOS updates, or compatibility issues can sometimes lead to corruption of the Apple Mail database. Backups provide a recovery point so you can restore your Mac email data to a state before the corruption occurs.
• Archiving Purposes: Apple Mail, like any email client, can become cluttered over time with large volumes of emails.

Given these considerations, while Apple Mail does an excellent job at managing and storing email data, the nature of this data’s importance often necessitates the use of third-party backup and Mac Mail restoration solutions.

‘Mail Backup X’ offers a promising solution. It is developed by InventPure to bridge the gap across different email clients and platforms, including Apple Mail, bringing a new level of security and ease to data management strategies. A professional solution like Mail Backup X complements the email software by providing additional safeguards, and keeping emails and attachments protected against loss and recoverable in various scenarios.

The process of backing up and restoring your Mac Mail is remarkably simple. Ready to get started? Here’s a breakdown of the steps:

Step 1: Open the tool and from the main Dashboard, you can view a snapshot of your existing backups and their status. You’ll use this screen to manage all your backup activities.Since you are just starting out and there are no existing profiles yet, you will not see anything here.

Step 2: Start the process of backing up your Mac Mail by selecting “Create New Backup Profile” and then choose “Apple Mail” to designate your desired email client.

Step 3: If you see an error about disk permissions, don’t worry! To fix this, open “System Preferences” on your Mac. Go to “Security & Privacy”, and within the “Privacy” tab, ensure “Mail Backup X” has the necessary permissions to access your files.

Step 4: Choose which specific mail folders from Apple Mail you’d like to be included in this backup. You have the flexibility to select individual folders or go for a complete backup. Note that if you want to restore Mac Mail from these backups, you will have the choice to restore selective folders.

So, generally, it’s a good idea to take a complete and thorough backup of your database, and then restore specific Mac Mail folders as needed.

Step 5: Time to customize your backup! Here’s how:

• Choose a descriptive name for your profile in the “Backup Profile Name” box.
• Select a location to save the backups – either to a local drive like an external hard drive with enough storage, or to a reliable cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox. If using cloud storage, you may need to connect your account within the backup software first. And the most ideal strategy is to use both local and online/remote.
• Enable encryption for an extra layer of security by creating a strong password that you won’t forget.
• Pick a backup schedule that suits your needs, whether daily, weekly or manual backups done on-demand.
• Optionally, set up automatic backups to a USB drive whenever it’s plugged in by choosing the drive and enabling this feature.

Step 6: Track the progress of your backup in the “Activities” section. This screen gives you real-time updates on the status of your backup job.

Step 7: Once your backup is finished, you can view the profile and modify its preferences.

Once your profile has been successfully created, you can begin to explore a variety of operations to manage and interact with your data. Here’s what you can do:

1. If you chose “Manual” over “automatic,” use the ‘Backup Now’ button located at the top right corner of each profile card to immediately start backing up the data associated with that profile.
2. The ‘Settings’ button allows you to modify various profile settings. This includes the profile name, backup locations, backup schedule, and configurations for USB snapshot registrations. While many settings are covered earlier in the guide, you’ll also find additional options that can help fine-tune your backup routine.
3. In case of backups from email providers like Gmail or any IMAP based servers, you’ll have a ‘Server Settings’ button to update crucial settings such as host, port, password, and timeout.
4. When you click the ‘Delete’ button, you can either archive the profile and data or remove it fully from Mail Backup X. Archiving switches the profile to an inactive state but keeps the backed up data accessible for viewing or exporting later. This is handy if you want to pause backups but still access the data. Deleting takes the profile out of the app itself, however the backup files (with .mbs extension) stay in the storage location you chose. You’ll need to manually manage those files yourself if deleting the profile. Archiving allows you to retain access to backup data without continuing active backups, while deletion removes the profile but leaves backup files needing separate management.
5. If you’ve set up ‘Auto-snapshot’ on a USB drive, you can use the ‘Copy To USB’ button to copy your profile’s backup snapshot to the drive whenever it’s detected.
6. The ‘View Data’ feature opens a viewer where you can browse, view, and search through emails, contacts, and calendar items that are part of the profile’s backup.
7. Finally, for restoring Apple Mail or to any other platform, you have the ability to export your backed-up data into different formats for additional use cases or storage solutions.

These operations provide comprehensive control over your profiles, allowing you to manage your data effectively and with ease. Whether you need to quickly adapt to new backup requirements or ensure the security of your data, Mail Backup X offers the flexibility and tools needed to maintain a reliable backup system. If you wish to back up and restore Apple Mail in the most efficient and flexible way, try out the free version of Mail Backup X, available to download from the official website.