How to Backup Hotmail Email with Attachments?
Hotmail accounts often hold decades of personal mail and irreplaceable attachments like tax records and family photos. With Microsoft pushing users toward outlook.com and consolidating accounts, an offline backup is the safest way to keep those messages forever. This guide explains every reliable Hotmail backup method, from free IMAP sync to dedicated backup tools. Each approach keeps every attachment, folder name, and timestamp exactly as it was on the server.
Have you finally decided to change your Hotmail account? If so, you must first protect the email for the future purpose. So before switching the account, you need to backup Hotmail email first, So that you can view your emails even when you are not set up with the account.
Scenario Causing People to Backup Hotmail Email
It has been a long time since the Hotmail account was closed, but users are still using this email address with the Hotmail.com domain even if it is out of date. Such things cause people to take a final decision and move on from such account.
If you want to access Hotmail email locally on the device without accessing the Outlook cloud account. Such a situation occurs when you are struggling with network problems and as a result you were unable to access the old emails in a timely manner.
Or if your account storage is almost full. And you want to free up some space by backing up the Hotmail emails first.
These are some of the main reasons that result in users backup Hotmail email. Now let’s directly find the appropriate solution for this, which is more convenient.
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A suitable solution to backup Hotmail account emails
What you need to know If you are trying to find a manual solution for this, the account you are accessing Hotmail in is primarily intended for sending and receiving emails, it does not have such a backup feature. So it may be a waste of time if you are trying to find any import / export function.
One possibility is to configure a Hotmail account for Outlook. This method allows you to create Hotmail emails locally in PST file format as the account supports such a file format. However, if you are not configured with the account or do not want to, this method is not useful to use.
Now there is a third and final way to quickly backup Hotmail email with attachments. So let’s get to know this solution as well.
Professional Approach for Backing up Hotmail Emails
This solution may turn out to be one of the best. The 4n6 EmailBakup is the most reliable and easy-to-operate software. The application is able to protect all the account data with attachments at once with just a few steps. One of the great qualities of the tool is that it offers you many file formats as an export option for easy access.
Let us give you some insights so that you can know the capacity of the tool.
With this software you can backup Hotmail emails in,
- Other account: You can export your data to some other IMAP-compliant account. This is beneficial if you need to access the account from any device.
- Document Files: This file format is personally my favourite as they are easily accessible. You can backup emails in HTML, CSV, Text and also PDF.
- Email Files: You can choose this option if you are also configured with the desktop email service. This section provides you with MBOX, EML and also PST.
We have only talked about the option to save files, but that is not the only thing that the tool provides, this application is packed with features that make your task more enjoyable.
Now let’s take a look at the process to accomplish the task. We provide you the step-by-step guide by which you can backup Hotmail emails.
Process to backup Hotmail Account Email
- Click on the link below to download the application on Windows compatible system.
- Now get ready to install the application by accepting the casual agreement and then click finish to complete the setup, and after this launch the application
- Click the Open tab and then click Add Account from the drop-down menu
- Now enter the details of the Hotmail email account in the tool and then hit the Add button. Also fill IMAP server for Hotmail.
- After the account has been added successfully, you can see all the data will be uploaded in the left pane, if you want to preview the emails, you can click on them
- Now go to Export and then select the desired format to backup Hotmail emails. Let’s take an example of the PDF format as an option to save
- Click the Browse button to choose the location for the resultant files on your device, and then click Save.
Once you hit the Save button, the process will begin, which in a few moments will save your data to the selected location. The tool will also offer you a tab after completing the process whereby you can directly access the location of your resulting emails.
In Conclusion
The e-mail client in which you access the Hotmail does not allow you to backup the Hotmail e-mails at once. In this situation you need to use an alternative solution. Here you can opt for the Hotmail email backup tool to do the task more pleasantly.
1. Hotmail IMAP refuses to connect: Microsoft requires an app password when two-step verification is enabled. Generate one at account.microsoft.com under Security and use it in your mail client.
2. Some folders show up empty after sync: IMAP folder subscriptions are off by default for less-used folders. Right-click the account, choose Subscribe, and tick every folder you need.
3. PST file grows too large for old Outlook: Backups above 50 GB exceed Outlook’s PST cap. Use the backup tool’s “split by size” option or break the export into folder-level chunks.
4. Attachments above 25 MB are missing: Hotmail stores larger files in OneDrive instead of the message envelope. Download those files separately from OneDrive and attach them to your archive manually.
Q1. Can I back up Hotmail for free?
Yes. Connect via IMAP in Thunderbird, sync your folders, then use the ImportExportTools NG add-on to export each folder as MBOX.
Q2. Will the backup include calendar and contacts?
Standard mail clients back up email only. Export calendars to ICS and contacts to CSV separately through the outlook.com web interface.
Q3. How big can a Hotmail mailbox be?
Free Microsoft accounts cap at 15 GB. Paid Microsoft 365 personal subscriptions go up to 50 GB. Full backup time scales with mailbox size.
Q4. Does backup remove emails from the server?
No. IMAP and dedicated backup tools copy without deletion. Manually delete from Hotmail later if you want to free space.
Q5. How long does a full Hotmail backup take?
Around 1 hour per 5 GB on a typical broadband connection. Backups slow down if Microsoft throttles new connections.