Everything you need to know about email backups
Whether you're considering transferring your hosting service to us, or just concerned about security or compliance, it's important to know how to back up your emails.
Before you can make an effective plan, you'll need to understand a few important points about email hosting. This guide will take you step by step through the process of identifying how your email accounts are set up, creating your first local backup, configuring your mail client (email program) to use the best settings for your needs, and setting up secure encrypted cloud backups.
Contents
Mail clients
A 'mail client' is the program you use to send and receive emails. The most popular choices are Microsoft's Outlook, and Mozilla's Thunderbird. Account settings are very similar in all mail clients, but the exact phrasing of settings might differ. The first step in backing up your emails in determining which version of your mail client you're using.
Outlook
Take a look at Which version of Outlook am I using to determine which Version of Outlook you're using.
Thunderbird
Click the main menu button, then go to the Help menu and choose Troubleshooting Information.
A new tab will open with information about your setup.
Under Application Basics, refer to the number beside 'Version'. That is the version of Thunderbird you are using.
Apple Mail
Open the Mail, click the Mail menu, and choose About Mail to see the version you're using.
Current account configuration
This is the most important step.
Your mail account could be configured as POP3 or IMAP, and this will determine how you'll need to proceed.
To find out which you're using, you'll need to check your email account settings.
In Outlook
- In Outlook 2010 or 2013, go to File, then Account Settings. Accounts are on the Email tab.
- In Outlook 2016or 2019 click File, then Account Settings and then click the new Account settings option that appears. You'll see a list of your email accounts with 'Name' and 'Type'.
Take note of the Type, whic will be listed as IMAP/SMTP or POP3/SMTP.
In Thunderbird
Click on the Menu Button located in the top right corner.
