Google Takeout is a blessing to numerous clients worldwide as this program gives them an opportunity to extract their Gmail data in one session. However, in the pre-Google Takeout time, people used to do it manually mail by mail, and that was fine, but only as long as the number of emails was not small. Over time, Google Takeout has been launched and now users can get their letters in a single MBOX doc. As soon as you have downloaded it, the question still remains, “How will you open the Google Takeout MBOX file?” No pre-installed Windows application will allow you to open it directly.
How to Open a Mbox file?
Extracting mailing data from Google Takeout is a fast and smooth process. The tricky part comes when you can’t view the Google Takeout MBOX file through standard Windows OS applications.
If you have already downloaded the archive from Google, perhaps you are wondering how to open mbox file. In this situation, it is recommended to use the additional application since it will allow you to open the doc from Google Takeout without any obstacles. Let’s call it the MBOX viewer. Similar viewers usually work under the same principles:
- Launch the toolkit and click on “Add File” to view your preferred email;
- Select file(s)/folder from the system;
- After adding the relevant doc(s) you will be able to preview Gmail emails.
If you are not going to install any third-party application, you can use your Thunderbird email client for this purpose.
How to Open an MBOX File Using Mozilla Thunderbird?
If you have decided to use this method of viewing MBOX files, you should start by tapping “Menu – Account Settings”. On the Account Settings screen, click “Local Folders”. In the Message Storage section, click the Browse button to the right of the Local directory. Navigate to the folder containing your MBOX file and click “Select Folder”. Thunderbird will ask you to restart the program, so click “Restart”.
You can now view the contents of your emails in Thunderbird. The name of the MBOX doc will be available in the Local Folders. Click it and you can view the letters as if you were viewing another mailbox.
Remember that Thunderbird views your MBOX file wherever it is on the PC. So, whether you transfer the archive to another folder, it will be necessary to go back to your Account settings and indicate the new location of the archive.
If for some reason the above options did not suit you, you can use paid online converters to help you view your emails in PDF. Just upload the MBOX file and the service will convert it to PDF.
