"How to move an Outlook folder to the Windows desktop, and save the emails as .eml?"

The title of this post says it all. Sometimes when we are reviewing our server logs, we get a glimpse into exactly what people are searching for when they arrive at this blog. This particular person (we don't know who you, only what you searched for in Google) is trying to accomplish a very specific task; "how to copy an entire Outlook folder to a location on their Windows desktop while simultaneously converting the emails to EML format."

MessageExport add-in for Microsoft Outlook by Encryptomatic LLC was built specifically for people like this. Here is a step by step guide for using the MessageExport add-in for Outlook to accomplish this.

First, you must be running Microsoft Outlook (2010, 2013, 2016, or 365) and have MessageExport installed. You can download a free trial from the MessageExport home page.

MessageExport is tightly integrated with Outlook, and installs as an add-in.  The MessageExport toolbar will appear in Outlook.

MessageExport toolbar shown in MS Outlook 2010

A drop down list on the toolbar shows the wide variety of target formats that can be selected. You can also export and convert entire Outlook folders, or individual messages. The selections from the drop down list, which are titled in the manner of "Export to PDF" and "Export to EML," are known as Export Profiles.  These are sets of instructions that tell MessageExport what you want to accomplish.

MessageExport ships with with many basic export profiles, but sadly there is not a specific profile that would move an entire Outlook folder to the Windows desktop while converting the messages into EML format. That might be the end of this article if the developers had not included the ability for you to create your own custom profiles, which is what we will do right now.

To create our own Export Profile, first click the "Options" button from the toolbar.

Options button in the MessageExport toolbar

This will open the MessageExport options window.  There are many things we can do from this window, but for now, just click "New Profile" to start the process of setting up our custom profile.

Click New Profile

The profile editor opens, and we can now instruct MessageExport as to what it should do when we call this profile from the toolbar.

First, in the "Profile Name" field, enter "Export Folder to EML."  This is the name that will appear in the drop down list. We can name it anything we want so long as it makes sense to us.

Next, in the "Export From" field, choose "Selected folders with subfolders."   This setting will allow us to choose our folder in Outlook by clicking on it.  Other options for this field include "selected items," "incoming email," and others. Make a mental note of these options, because you may want to come back later and create other profiles that behave differently.

Export Profile Editor

To tell MessageExport that we want to convert the messages in the folder to EML format, select "EML" from the "Export format" field.

Notice the "Outlook folder"  field.  If we always want to export email from the same folder, then you can use this field to select that folder. For now, lets leave that field blank so MessageExport will work on the folder we select in Outlook.

Also notice the "Turn on Export History" option. Check this button if you want MessageExport to remember which emails it has already exported with this profile.  Doing so will prevent exporting messages that have already been exported.

Also also notice the tab along the top of this window called "Output Folder." Use this if you always want MessageExport to save your EML files to the same folder or network location.   For now, lets leave "Output Folder" untouched so that MessageExport will ask us for a target folder.

Click Ok. The "Export Folder to EML" option will now appear in our MessageExport drop down list and is ready to use.

Using Our New Export Profile to Convert Email in an Outlook Folder to EML Files

Now that we have create our new export profile, lets put it to work. There are only a few simple steps we need to perform.

First, click on the Outlook folder that you want to export. In my example, I will export my "Sent Items" folder.

Outlook 2010 folder list

Next, select our new "Export Folder to EML" profile from MessageExport's drop down list, then click the "Export" button to begin the process.

MessageExport toolbar

MessageExport will begin processing messages, and will then ask you for the target location where it should save your EML files.

Select a target folder

If you want to save your EML files to a folder on your Windows desktop, as the visitor to our website wanted to do, then simply select a folder in that location when MessageExport "Browse for Folder" dialog box appears.

And that's it! If you have any questions or comments, please add them below.

We are here if you need us. Feel free to email us at supportline at encryptomatic dot com, or call us: 1-651-851-4902 x2. Thank you for reading.

[Updated 2019]

Saving Outlook Email as .EML Files

.EML files are email files that conform to an open format specified in a document called RFC-822. Although Outlook cannot directly convert email to .eml format,  this ability can be added to Outlook after installing MessageExport.

MessageExport is an add-in for Microsoft Outlook. It integrates tightly with Outlook through the Outlook toolbar.

Outlook toolbar for exporting email to .eml files

To use MessageExport, select the email messages in the Outlook maillist that you want to export to eml format.  You can select a range of email messages by holding down the Shift-key. To select multiple emails individually, hold down the Control-key while you click on email messages. To select all messages in the list, type Control-A.

Select messages to export to .eml from Outlook's maillist

After your messages are selected, go to the MessageExport toolbar. Select "Export to EML" and then click the blue Export button to start the process.

Toolbar closeup

MessageExport will begin processing your messages, and then the export process will start.

Export status message during .eml export operation

You will be prompted to select a target folder for the .EML files s if a folder has not been specified in the "export to eml" profile. If you are exporting a large number of Outlook messages to .eml, you may want to make a few a folder to hold all of your messages. It's not a good idea to export a large number of emails directly to your Windows desktop, as it will clutter your desktop and slow Microsoft Windows.

Select target folder where .eml files will be stored

The export process will continue until all of the Outlook emails have been exported to .eml format. The amount of time required to complete the export depends on a few factors.  Text formatted emails are converted very quickly.  HTML emails that have graphics hosted on an internet server require additional time to download those elements.   Speed is also affected by the resources on your computer. More memory, a fast hard disk drive, and a fast processor will help speed the job along.

MessageExport status during eml file export operation

As the export continues, you will be able to track MessageExport's progress with the status bar.

Custom naming of .eml files

The MessageExport "Export to EML" export format is a set of instructions that can be edited by the user, giving lots of control over how MessageExport performs its functions. For example, if you want to change how MessageExport names the .eml files, click the settings button and go to the Naming tab.

Naming .eml files

MessageExport is a versatile add-in for Microsoft Outlook that expands Outlook's ability to export email to many different formats, including .eml format.  Encryptomatic LLC is the developer of MessageExport, and they offer a free 15 day trial.  After the full trial, you can continue to use MessageExport to export messages individually, and can activate the full version at any time.

Download a free trial of MessageExport.

[updated 2019]

Automating Email To PDF Conversion Using MessageExport Add-In For Microsoft Outlook

MessageExport is an add-in for Microsoft Outlook (2010/2013/2016/365) that extends Outlook's ability to manipulate email. Among MessageExport's many capabilities is the automation of Outlook email to PDF. You can use MessageExport to automatically convert Outlook email into PDF files, with options to convert email file attachments into PDF as well.

The basic method of using MessageExport is to select the emails you want to convert in the Outlook mail list, choose the export profile (that's the target format selected from the drop down list, such as pdf, msg, csv, etc), and then click the "Export" button.


MessageExport Toolbar in Outlook 2010

MessageExport's "Export Profiles" give you a lot of control over how they function. You can create your own export profiles or edit the existing profiles. Let's talk about how we can set MessageExport to automatically export email messages to PDF.

Once MessageExport is installed on your computer (a free 15 day trial is available for testing), consider how you want message to flow. For example, do you want to export only certain messages to PDF format?  If so, you should begin with an Outlook rule that will place a copy of specific messages into an Outlook folder. MessageExport can then be setup to monitor that folder and export any emails that are copied to that folder into PDF files.

Next, ask yourself how you want to handle email file attachments. Should MessageExport ignore attachments?  Embed them as separate files within the PDF?  Should it extract the files to disk? Or should it try to convert the file attachments into the PDF document image?

Once you've come to a decision on the above items, let's proceed. 

In our example today, I am going to have MessageExport convert all email messages that are copied to a specific folder into PDF files.

First, right click on your Outlook folder structure and select "new folder." 
Next, setup an Outlook rule that will copy email that meet your specific criteria to this new folder.
Third, go the MessageExport settings and edit the Export Profile to process new email messages that arrive in this folder. Here's how to accomplish step three in detail.

First, go to the MessageExport toolbar and select the profile called "Export to PDF - attachmetns converted/included."  Then click the Edit Profile button.

Click Edit Profile will cause the profile settings window to appear. Next, change the "Export From" field to "Predefined Folder with Subfolders."  This will cause a folder window to popup. Select the Outlook folder where your Outlook rule will be copying emails. This folder will contain the emails that MessageExport will process.

To have MesageExport only save new email messages, check the box that says, "Turn on Export History."  Now it will only export an email one time and prevent duplicates.

From here, click the tab called "Scheduler" to setup the intervals at which MessageExport will check the folder and process any new emails.  Click "Enabled" to turn on the scheduler.
You can then set the time for the first execution of the schedule, as well as an optional last date. The schedule can be set to repeat at any interval you wish. Intervals are scheduled in minutes. To repeat every hour, just type in 60 minutes.



MessageExport's Outlook Scheduler

Click Ok, and you're ready to go!  MessageExport will run this schedule at the interval you specify, will convert any new email messages to PDF that your rule places in the target folder, and will copy those PDF files to a location that you specify.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions please ask them in the comments field below.