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Export Email Messages from Yahoo Mail

Last Updated: January 27, 2014

In this tutorial we will look at how you can export email from Yahoo mail.

Unlike many desktop email clients the Yahoo web mail client doesn’t offer any email export options.

Therefore it isn’t possible to use the webmail client  to export individual email messages or email folders etc.

However if you use an email client like Windows Live Mail you can easily export individual messages or bulk export all of your email.

Email Export Considerations

Before you start you need to be aware of you current email configuration, and your final email requirements. You need to consider:

  • Will you continue to use the Yahoo email account after the export/move?
  • Are You exporting to your Computer?
  • Are you exporting to a new email provider e,g. Gmail, outlook.com.
  • How many email messages do you need to export/move ?

Exporting Email to Your Computer

The export procedure we will use is quite straightforward, and is as follows

  • Configure an email client to connect to your current Yahoo Mailbox using IMAP4. See Setup windows Live Mail to access Yahoo Mail
  • Configure the Sync Settings to synchronise all messages in all folders that you want to export This copies the email from Yahoo to your computer.

Sync-folder

You will need to so this for each folder that you want to export.

An Alternative option is to connect to Yahoo using POP3.

The default behaviour of POP3 is to move email from the sever to the client.

This means that when finished there will be no email left on the Yahoo server.

You should also be aware that POP3 only accesses the inbox which means that if you want email from other folders you will need to copy them into folders under the inbox.

Exporting Email to Another Email Account

Notes: Use CTRL+A to select all messages

Export Alternatives

If you only have small number of emails that you want to export, then it is sometimes easier to forward them to your new email account.

Questions:

Q- Can I use POP3 instead of IMAP4?

A- Yes but this will only export your inbox

Q- What Happens to the email messages on Yahoo.

A- They are still there and you can still use your Yahoo account as normal.

Q- Will the export take along time?

A- It all depends on the size of the mailbox/folders. I recently moved a 700MB inbox from one host to another host in less than 15 minutes using this technique.

Q- Are there export tools I can use instead?

A- Yes there a online providers like Yippie Move and desktop tools like imapsync

Q- Will email attachments be exported?

A- Yes as they are part of the message

Summary

Moving email messages to and from Yahoo is quite straightforward using a desktop based email client. You should also note that the procedure can also be used to move messages from any email provider that supports IMAP4 access.

If you need to export/move more than one mailbox or the mailbox is very large then consider using a migration tool

Resources:

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