Yahoo Mail Backup Tool for Windows: Export Mail to PST, MBOX, EML

How to download and use the Yahoo Mail Backup Tool

Install the program and choose Yahoo Mail

Download the Yahoo Mail Backup tool and run the installer. It works on Windows 10 and 11, and the program that opens is called Email Backup Software. On its start screen click Connect a mailbox, open the Email service list and choose Yahoo Mail near the top. You can skip the list and just type your address into Email address: for an address at yahoo.com the service switches to Yahoo Mail when the cursor leaves the field.

Create a Yahoo app password and sign in

The password field is labeled App password, and your regular Yahoo password will not work in it. Click How to create one to open Yahoo's help article, generate the password in your Yahoo account and paste it here. Test checks the connection in 4 stages, and the last two are Sign-in and Folders. Then click Connect.

Tick the Yahoo folders you want

Once you are connected, your Yahoo folders show up under Folders to back up, and each one has its number of emails next to it. You see which folder is the huge one before anything starts. Untick what you do not need, for example the junk folder if it came ticked, and click Next: format.

Pick a format and start the backup

The Save as screen has 3 cards, one per format. Choose one, for example PST if you read mail in Outlook, check the path in Save to and press Start backup. During the run you watch the Saved, Already in the backup and Errors counters. When the title changes to Backup complete, the Open backup folder button takes you to the files.

When one Yahoo folder holds 100,000 emails

Yahoo's help on downloading mail into an app warns that a folder with 100 thousand or more emails may have issues downloading all the messages. That restriction is on Yahoo's side and applies to any program that downloads over IMAP, ours as well. The same help page notes that an app may bring down only previews unless its settings are changed, and a person who was leaving Yahoo wrote on a forum that the mail app pulled in only recent unread messages. Yahoo Mail Backup Tool runs such a folder as one long job with a counter and a time estimate. For a folder past that size Yahoo's advice holds here too, which is to move part of the mail into a new folder first. We do not promise a speed, because it depends on Yahoo's servers and on your connection.

A lost connection is retried up to 5 times in a row.
A stopped run continues from the point it reached, with no duplicates.
You see the speed and the minutes left.

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What this Yahoo Mail backup software does

App password sign-in, with directions

Yahoo Mail Backup Tool has a ready Yahoo Mail template and connects over IMAP with a Yahoo app password. A Sign in with Yahoo window does not exist here, and you approve nothing in a browser. The IMAP server, port and encryption come prefilled. If you have never made an app password, the link under the password field leads to the Yahoo help article about them. The password is not kept by the program, so you paste it again in the next session.

Folder-by-folder download

You back up Yahoo Mail in pieces that you choose. The list shows every folder of the account, and only the ticked ones are downloaded. Sign in to the same mailbox later and the previous set of ticks is restored. Filters by date or by sender do not exist, so a folder is the smallest unit you can take. Only email is saved, so Yahoo contacts and the calendar are not included.

PST, MBOX or EML on output

One run writes one format. EML makes a file per email, kept exactly as it came from the server with attachments inside. MBOX makes one file for each folder, and Thunderbird reads it. PST is one Outlook data file, and going from Yahoo Mail to PST does not require Outlook on this PC because the program builds the file itself. The read mark is carried into PST only, and Yahoo stars are not carried into any format.

Later runs take only new mail

Open the Yahoo mailbox in the program a month later and sign in again. The main window then reports how many emails arrived after the previous run. Download new emails brings those only. Just keep saving to the same folder as before. With PST the fresh mail is added to the existing file. You start each run yourself, a scheduler is not included.

Four situations that call for a Yahoo Mail backup

An overstuffed mail sack with envelopes spilling out of it.

Your Yahoo storage is almost full

Yahoo warns that the limit is close, and you plan to clear old mail to get room. Get the heaviest folder onto your PC before you delete, then look through several of the results. The cleanup in Yahoo comes afterwards and is your own task.

A laptop with a frozen progress bar and a cup of cold coffee beside it.

Your mail app is stuck on syncing

Your desktop mail app has been syncing Yahoo since morning and the bar does not move. Here you can run the big folder separately and watch the count grow. If you need the PC for something else, stop for the night and go on tomorrow. What is saved stays.

A person walking out of a house with a box of letters under the arm.

You are switching to a new address

The new address already works, but fifteen years of mail still sit in Yahoo. Make the backup before you touch anything. If something is lost during the switch, it is still on your PC.

A single paper folder pulled from a full filing cabinet.

You need one folder as records

Tax papers, letters from a landlord, a dispute with a seller. Tick that folder only and save it message by message. Every message turns into a separate file with its headers and original date, which you can attach to a letter or give to an accountant.

Who needs Yahoo Mail Backup Tool

Owners of a Yahoo mailbox from the 2000s

You opened the account twenty years ago and never sorted the mail, so the Inbox is one giant folder. Start with the Inbox only and let it run. Do you also have an AOL mailbox from that time? It has a page of its own, the AOL backup tool.

People with ymail.com and rocketmail.com addresses

You do not have to know which service such an address belongs to. Type the address and Yahoo Mail gets selected automatically. Country domains such as yahoo.co.uk or yahoo.fr are recognized as well.

Anyone leaving Yahoo for another mail service

You want the whole mailbox in your hands first. A forum post from someone in the same spot asked for a permanent record that does not change. Files on your disk are that record. Keep in mind that the program does not upload mail into the new mailbox.

On your Yahoo mailbox	Trial	With a license
Emails saved per Yahoo folder	25, the most recent	All of them
PST, MBOX and EML	✓	✓
Period of use	Unlimited	Unlimited
After you enter a key, start the backup once more. The program fetches what is left in each Yahoo folder and does not repeat the 25 emails it already has. The key is tied to one PC.	Download	Buy now From $ 4.99

Email Backup Software & Mail Archiving Tool to PST and MBOX

Price

from $ 4.99 / month

Version

3.3

File Size

67.7 Mb

Last updated on

21/08/26

Trial: 25 most recent emails per folder, all three formats, no end date

System Requirements

Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 (32/64 bit)
Intel i3, AMD Ryzen 5 or above
4 GB of RAM or above
NVIDIA® GeForce® series 8 and 8M, Intel® HD Graphics 2000, Quadro FX 4800, Quadro FX 5600, AMD Radeon™ R600, Mobility Radeon™ HD 4330, Mobility FirePro™ series, Radeon™ R5 M230 or higher graphics card with up-to-date drivers
1280 × 768 screen resolution, 32-bit color
1 GB of free hard disk space or above

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I get my old Yahoo emails back?

Short answer: no backup tool can return mail that Yahoo has already deleted. Long answer: the program downloads what is in the mailbox today. Yahoo's help says a mailbox becomes inactive after 12 months without access. Its emails and folders are then permanently deleted and can't be restored, even if you sign in again. Yahoo describes its paid plan, Yahoo Mail Plus, as a way to avoid that while the subscription is active. The same page notes that the plan is not offered in every region. If the old emails are still there when you sign in, save them to your PC now.

How to save emails from Yahoo to a flash drive?

There are two ways. Plug the stick in and choose a folder on it with Browse in the Save as step, or back up to the PC and copy the result to the stick afterwards. For carrying around, MBOX or PST is handier than EML. A mailbox in EML means thousands of small files, while PST is one file in total. Look at the free space shown under the path before you start. When the stick gets full halfway, the run halts and you see why. To add new mail later, plug in that USB stick again and keep the folder unchanged.

Does Yahoo Mail have drive storage?

Short answer: Yahoo's help does not offer one as a place for a mailbox backup. Long answer: the help page on backup options names four things you can do. A storage drive on Yahoo's side is not among them. So the drive has to be yours, and the disk in your PC is the simplest choice. An external disk or a USB stick works too.

How do I move my Yahoo email to my desktop?

Choose EML when you reach Save as. You get ordinary Windows folders named like your Yahoo folders, with one .eml file per email. Each file is named by date and subject. By default they land in Documents, inside Email Backup and then a folder with your address as its name. Click Browse if you want them on the Desktop. Move is not quite the right word, though. The emails are copied, and the originals stay in Yahoo. This is the plain way to save Yahoo emails to your computer, and our guide shows how to open an EML file on Windows afterwards.

Can I transfer all my emails from Yahoo to Gmail?

Short answer: not with this program alone. Long answer: the program has no function that puts mail into another account. It reads the Yahoo mailbox over IMAP and writes files. What it gives you for the move is a complete copy on your PC, taken before anything changes. How Gmail brings in old mail is a question for Google's help. The program itself is not tied to Yahoo. After the move you can use it as email backup software for Gmail and other mailboxes, so the new mailbox gets its copies too.

How do I get a Yahoo app password?

You create it in your Yahoo account, on the Account Security page. Yahoo's help describes app passwords as randomly generated codes for email apps that do not use Yahoo's sign-in page. Two details from that article save time. Create the password in a browser you have used to sign in to Yahoo for several days, not in an Incognito window. An app password also keeps working after you change your main password, until you delete it. If the server rejected the sign-in 2 times in a row, stop and check what you pasted. The program warns that more failed attempts can get your IP address blocked by the mail server for up to 24 hours.

How long does it take to back up a big Yahoo folder?

Nobody can give you an honest figure in advance. Yahoo's help says that downloading a big account into an app over IMAP can take several days or longer, and that is true of any app. What this Yahoo backup tool gives you is a view of the progress, with the size of the archive so far against the expected total. Leave the PC on. A folder that keeps failing is a reason to split it into smaller folders in Yahoo Mail, which is what Yahoo itself advises for very large ones.

Does the backup change anything in my Yahoo mailbox?

No. The IMAP connection opens the mailbox in read-only mode. The program does not delete emails or move them between folders, and unread ones stay unread. Yahoo's help warns that a mail app can remove messages from the server unless it is told to leave them there. That risk is absent here, since the program has no delete command at all. Freeing space in Yahoo after the backup stays your own manual step.

Download Yahoo Mail Backup Tool to Export Your Mailbox to Files

One email at a time or the whole mailbox in one run

Forward or print each message

Every chosen folder in one pass