Home » Blog » MBOX » How to Extract Attachments from MBOX File? – Get Best Solution

How to Extract Attachments from MBOX File? – Get Best Solution

  author
Published By Jamie Kaler 
Rollins Duke
Approved By Rollins Duke
Published On April 8th, 2024
Reading Time 6 Min Read

This article is useful for users who are looking for an easy and better way to extract attachments from MBOX files. A user can extract attachments in a separate folder. It will help to organize & manage user mailbox information.

We all know that there are a large number of e-mail clients and services that export or store e-mails in the MBOX file format. The reason for choosing these files as the preferred mailbox storage location is its simplified messaging structure.

One MBOX file can contain thousands of e-mail messages separated by the from_ keyword. It is flexible and portable, that is; you can easily share and access it on different platforms and devices. Because e-mail is sent and received continuously, the file size of the MBOX is getting bigger and bigger. The attached files embedded in e-mails are a major factor in increasing size.

The attached files may contain information that is sure to take up space. In the next section, we will understand the benefits of extracting attachments from MBOX files and downloading them to a separate folder.

An attachment file may be an Image, Picture, Text file, Word Document, Excel Sheet, Presentation, Workbook, PDF file, Zip or RAR archive, EML file, MSG File, PST file, OST file, OLM file, etc.

These attached files may contain information that is sure to take up space. In the next section, we will understand the benefits of extracting all MBOX attachments and downloading them to a separate folder.

How to Extract Attachments from MBOX Files Manually?

The Attachment Extractor add-on makes it easier to extract attachments from MBOX files. Here’s how to use it:

  1. Open Thunderbird and go to the Add-ons Manager.
  2. Search and install the ImportExportTools NG add-on.
  3. Import the MBOX file in this email client using this add-on.
  4. Again, open Thunderbird and go to the Add-ons Manager.
  5. Search for the Attachment Extractor add-on and click “Add to Thunderbird”.
  6. Restart Thunderbird to complete the installation.
  7. Select the emails that contain the attachments you want to extract.
  8. Right-click on the selection and choose “Extract attachments”.
  9. Choose the destination folder for the extracted attachments.
  10. Click the “Extract” button.

The Attachment Extractor add-on will selectively extract attachments from MBOX files and save them to the specified folder. Note that you must have the add-on installed in Thunderbird to use it.

Why are Manual Methods Not Preferred?

  • Compatibility Issues: The add-on may not work with all Thunderbird versions or stop working after a software update.
  • Inconsistent Performance: The add-on may not always work as expected. It has been reported to fail when working with a large number of emails.
  • Data Loss: There have been many cases where users lose their attachments and the add-on still hasn’t extracted anything.
  • User-Unfriendly Interface: The interface of the Attachment Extractor add-on may not be user-friendly, and may not provide an intuitive experience for all users.

Best and Advanced MBOX Attachment Extractor

RecoveryTools MBOX Attachment Extractor comes with all kinds of features to extract attachments from MBOX files, regardless of their origin. You can easily extract the data from any kind of MBOX file, whether from Apple Mail, Google Takeout, Thunderbird, or any other MBOX-supported applications. It has a plethora of features.

Steps to Extract Attachments from MBOX

  • Step 1: Download and install the tool.
  • Step 2: Upload your MBOX Files/Folders.
  • Step 3: Select the needed folders/subfolders.
  • Step 4: Choose the needed location.
  • Step 5: Check the advanced modes as needed.
  • Step 6: Next button to extract attachments from MBOX files.

Complete Working Steps to Export MBOX File Attachments

Therefore, to extract attachments from MBOX files of all types created with any email client or service. This is one of the most recommended software. It allows the users to extract from the first 25 emails completely free of cost in the trial version. The working of software is very easy & simple.

  1. Install & Run the mentioned utility.

    MBOX attachment extractor

  2. Select *.MBOX files or folders having (*.MBOX) files using the Select Files and Select Folders button.

    MBOX files or folders

  3. Select Mailbox Folders to export attachments as per your choice.

    Mailbox Folders

  4. Choose Destination Path to save attachment files using the Browse (Folders) button.

    Destination Path

  5. Enable the required advanced modes as per your choice i.e., maintain email labels, Remove Attachments and Attachment Extraction, etc.

    required advanced modes

  6. Hit on the Next button to extract attachments from MBOX files.

    extract attachments from MBOX files

  7. After the complete process, a confirmation message will appear, and click on the OK button.

    confirmation message

  8. A SavingLog report is generated that includes all information.

    SavingLog report

Why Advanced MBOX Attachment Extractor?

  • Support for MBOX, MBX, MBS, and without extension MBOX files.
  • Extract attachments from MBOX files created using any email client.
  • Provided support for multiple files at once.
  • Maintains Email Meta properties while extracting the data.
  • Possible for users to easily do the selective extraction of files or folders.
  • Create a single folder for all attachments.
  • Separate option to Remove attachment files.

Requirements to Save Attachments from MBOX File

In the previous sections, we discussed how attachments cause the actual mailbox file size to grow rapidly. As in the technical world, the larger the file in the mailbox, the greater the likelihood of damage.

When an application is added to an MBOX file and gets all of its mailbox entries when launched from that MBOX file. This increases mailbox item startup and recovery times and sometimes results in email client corruption.

It becomes a problem for users to share large MBOX files. The efficiency and operation of the email client have also decreased due to this large MBOX file.

When your MBOX-supported email, the client is running slowly before attachments are removed from it. The application starts up much faster.

Also, the MBOX file is less likely to get corrupted. In this online world, it is also possible for the user to receive important documents or necessary elements such as attached files.

It becomes a very important task for users to extract attachments from MBOX files separately from each email. Instead of looking for attachments and keeping them locally after one of the emails.

It is better to use an advanced approach that allows them to extract MBOX attachments from all emails at once.

Hence it is the need of the hour to save attachments from emails stored in an MBOX file.

The Verge

Hence, by performing the entire solution mentioned above you can easily extract attachments from MBOX file. It is difficult for users as there is no direct solution for this, so we have come up with one of the best and most effortless ways to carry out the extraction. Moreover, the attachments will be extracted in the actual original format without any kind of loss of data.