Apple Mail to MBOX – here’s a tool to convert or export Apple Mail to MBOX that will surpass all your expectations in a good way. It’s called “Mail Extractor Max” and is created by USL Software, the most trusted name in email migration domain.
Not just that, we are also going to share a link for free download and you can try it out and check for yourself before any sort of commitment with fully licensed versions.
Convert Apple Mail to MBOX (Standard MBOX format)
“Mail Extractor Max” is a creative and unique software application that works in Mac OS directly. It is essentially a versatile Mac application that offers a lot of different functionality as it relates to the data in Apple Mail client. It can convert Apple Mail data (from different types of sources) to the following clients and files:
- Entourage and Outlook Mac (in the form of RGE files)
- Thunderbird and Postbox
- MBOX
- EML

This article will talk about Apple Mail to MBOX specifically.
Why You Need This?
First of all, one thought that may be around in your mind is – “Why would you need a third-party tool to export Apple Mail to MBOX?”
It’s reasonable to ask yourself that question. After all, MBOX is a file associated with ‘Mail’ client itself (formerly known as “Apple Mail”). But there is usually some confusion regarding Apple Mail and MBOX format. The fact is, MBOX is not the default file used by Apple Mail.
In the client’s very first edition, it did indeed use MBOX file to store the data. However, since then, the default file in which it saves email messages is EMLX. This was done primarily to make index searching faster along with other reasons too. These EMLX files are simple text files; each single file is for a single email message. Attachments are stored in other files that are variants of EMLX format.
All of this data is stored in *.mbox file packages that too are not standard MBOX files but are rather like folders that contain EMLX files inside them.
So, the point is, if you look inside Apple Mail database folder, you will not find MBOX file by default. But you can manually export/archive the data (including emails, contacts, calendar, notes, etc.) into a local MBOX file for the purpose of backup or to move data into other clients such as Thunderbird.
So, let’s go back to our original question – why exactly do you need a third-party application to export Apple Mail to MBOX?
The reason being that the native and in-built option in Apple Mail to back up or export emails into a local MBOX file is not flexible or even efficient. The main motive of the in-built option is to backup data, but not for migrating data to other MBOX supporting email clients. It’s also not surprising, considering no company offering email client software offer a proper way to migrate data to other software tools.
However, if you want a lot of flexibility and customizations when exporting Apple Mail to MBOX, but more importantly, you wan to migrate the data to other MBOX supporting clients, you would need a professional, accurate, and dedicated software utility for this task, such as “Mail Extractor Max.” Using this utility, you can not only export emails to MBOX relatively much quicker than you can from within the Apple Mail itself, you can also do it in a more flexible and efficient manner.
It’s also very common for users to report many different types of errors and issues when archiving mail data to MBOX file without the help of any dedicated app. The most common type of error is when the folders come up empty with no content inside them. This can happen when Apple Mail has certain incomplete processes with the folder while the data exporting was being done.
All these errors and unexpected issues are not present when you use “Mail Extractor Max” to export data to MBOX files. You get a much quicker, safer, and more efficient way of doing the same task that otherwise has a lot of problems when done in a traditional way.
Auto-Load Mailbox for Conversion
Another important feature of the tool as an email migration app is that it can auto-load Apple Mail default database. Unlike other generic converters and data exporters, this one doesn’t require any sort of manual inputs or efforts from the users. If it’s the primary Apple Mail database you need to export to MBOX, you can simply do it in one click. Click on ‘Add’ and then select ‘Auto-load’ to let the tool detect and select the main Profile/Identity for Apple Mail on your computer.
The other options to load the data is to manually browse to the folder inside your Mac and select any database folder. This can be done in case there are backups or exported mailboxes that you wish to save in more practical format of MBOX. With the help of “Mail Extractor Max,” you can do it in just a few clicks, without first having to import the same backup Profile into the Mail client, as is the case with other less efficient tools and methods.
Here are some more aspects that you may find interesting and useful:
- It doesn’t skip Unicode content, not even from email headers, a common issue faced by many users while migrating email data
- The tool keeps the folders intact in their original configuration
- It also keeps the unread emails intact with their ‘unread’ status
- It retains all the details from the database, like images, attachments, headers info, metadata, links, formatting of text, and so on.
- Supports large Apple Mail databases without affecting stability or performance

And if all the features above didn’t convince you, you can get the free trial version, available to download using the link below. USL Software provides a 24 x 7 technical support that can be quite convenient in scenarios where you need help.