You may have some critical email messages in your inbox, and you might want to backup or save only those messages that include vital information.

When it comes to saving or backing up email messages, you have multiple options. You can create a PDF copy of the email message or use an email backup program to backup all messages in your inbox. But what if you want to easily backup individual email messages?

Luckily, backing up or saving individual email messages is easy in Windows 10, especially if you have already added your email account to the built-in Windows 10 Mail.

The built-in Mail app in Windows 10 enables you to save individual email messages so that you can open them either using the Mail or third-party programs when required.

All email messages saved using the Mail app will have an .eml extension. As you likely know, all major email clients, including Windows Live Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird, support the .eml extension. This means that the backed up or saved email can be opened with other desktop email clients as well.

Method 1 of 2

How to back up or save individual email messages in Windows 10 using the Mail app

Step 1: Launch the built-in Mail app. Add your email account, if not already done.

Step 2: Open your email message that you want to save or back up.

Step 3: Once the email message is open, click the Actions icon (…) located upper-right of the Mail window and then click Save as option.

Step 4: Finally, enter a name for the email message before clicking the Save button. The Windows 10 Mail automatically uses the subject of the email message as the file name while saving it, but if you want to name it something else, please do so before clicking the Save button.

As said before, the email message will be saved with the .eml file. To open the saved email message, simply double-click on it to open the same in the Mail app. You can also open saved email messages in Windows Live Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, and other desktop email client programs.

Method 2 of 2

Save emails as PDFs

In addition to the above method, you can backup or save an email as a PDF file on your Windows 10 PC from any program or app. This means you can save your important emails as PDFs on your PC. Refer to our how to save emails as PDFs in Windows 10 guide for step-by-step directions.

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