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Hotmail, a free webmail service launched in 1996, was acquired by Microsoft in 1997. After a series of upgrades and updates, Hotmail has now become Outlook.com. It is a web-based application that provides services such as email, calendaring, contacts, tasks, collaboration apps, real-time chat with Skype, etc. Outlook.com is a free personal email client with free access to Microsoft Online applications. It is known for its security features like data encryption, automatic deactivation of unsafe links, ransomware detection, and so on.
Though Hotmail or Outlook.com has multiple security features integrated with it, its data is not entirely secure, and one should have a backup of emails to avoid any data loss. Let’s check out some popular and effective ways to backup Hotmail emails to your computer.
Reduce the large-sized mailboxes of Hotmail by taking a safe backup using Kernel IMAP Backup software.
Why download Hotmail emails to computer?
Before starting with the procedures, it is essential to know the root cause behind why backup Hotmail emails to your computer:
- Switch to a different email service: If you’re planning to switch to a different email client, such as Thunderbird, Yahoo, etc., having a backup allows you to directly move the data. You will not have to rely on the Hotmail or Outlook applications to move the data.
- Secure mailbox data: Backup helps you save your email data with all the attachments, including .zip files, PDF, spreadsheets, photos, etc.
- Prevent data loss to cyber breaches: Backups help you avoid losing data to cyber breaches, such as malware, ransomware, or phishing attacks.
- Provide offline access: With Hotmail emails to a hard drive backup, you can get access to emails even when there is weak internet connectivity.
- Swift data recovery: Sometimes due to human errors, there can be accidental data loss. Backup helps you with easy point-in-time recovery against such situations.
- Effective storage management: When the storage of your email account gets full, backup Hotmail emails to a hard drive to save storage.
How to manually save Hotmail emails on the computer?
Solution 1: Download Hotmail emails as PDF
In this method, we will save the desired emails from your Hotmail account to PDF files. Here are the steps to follow:
Step 1: Open Hotmail/ Outlook.com on your browser and sign in.
Step 2: Select all the desired emails to backup.
Step 3: Click on the ellipsis icon (…) and then select Print.
Step 4: Select Save as PDF from the Print Settings.
Step 5: Provide the destination to your system’s hard drive and click Save.
Solution 2: Save Hotmail emails to a hard drive using Outlook
Outlook allows you to access your Hotmail emails, therefore you can backup Hotmail emails to hard drive using the following process:
Step 1: Launch Outlook application and go to File.
Step 2: Click Add Account and use your Hotmail account to log in.
Step 3: After syncing the emails, again go to File.
Step 4: Click Open & Export and then Import/Export.
Step 5: Select the option Export to a file and then Next.
Step 6: Click on Outlook Data File (.pst) and select the mailbox folder to backup.
Step 7: Provide the location to save the PST file. Click Finish.
Solution 3: Save Hotmail emails as EML files
In the manual attempt, you can save individual emails on the computer in EML format. The EML file saves an email body ultimately.
Step 1: Open Hotmail.com or outlook.com and open a message you want to save on your computer in a web browser.
Step 2: Click the three dots present in the email for More Actions.
Step 3: In View mode, choose View Source Code of selected email.
Step 4: In the email’s source code, click Ctrl + A and copy the whole body.
Step 5: You can paste the selected part into a file and save it as an EML file. You can choose an alternative option also.
Step 6: If the web browser asks you to save an HTML file, use the .eml extension as a saving option.
Step 7: Save the file in any folder on your computer.
Limitation of manual process
- It can save only the message body, excluding attachments.
- Only a single email can be saved in EML format.
- Tables, images, and other animations will not be saved in the EML file.
- Email messages might undergo changes during the saving process.
- Some methods may impose size limitations on the number/ size of emails.
- High risk of losing important data during the process.
Backup is recommended– Why?
Web-based email services like Hotmail can be handled from any geographical location with an Internet connection. These services are regarded as very secure. Still, backup of the Hotmail and other such email services is suggested due to these two main reasons.
- Email hacking, security breaches, and data loss situations
- Use of a desktop-based email client to manage Hotmail
So, now how to take the backup of Hotmail emails? When talking about manual solutions, such as backup IMAP Emails Using MS Outlook, all ways are indirect, lengthy, and are complex. Therefore, native methods can be ignored.
To carry out an effortless backup of Hotmail emails, go directly for the reliable IMAP Backup.
Kernel IMAP Backup and Restore – Best Hotmail backup tool
We suggest Kernel IMAP Backup to take backup from all IMAP Server account data to the local drives. It allows easy and error-free backup of Hotmail emails to your computer. This recommendation is based on the intelligent features integrated within the software and its user-friendly interface.
The important features of Kernel IMAP Backup software are:
- Allows backup of single as well multiple IMAP mailboxes
- Supports bulk migration of mailboxes with a CSV file
- Filters and options for easy selection of mailboxes data
- Provision of incremental backup to avoid duplication
- Backup to different file formats – PST, EML, MSG, MHT, HTML, DOC, DOCX, PDF
- Works on all Windows Operating System versions
- A free trial version which backup 10 items per folder
How to Download Hotmail Emails to Hard Drive with Kernel IMAP Backup tool
Go to the software website and download the trial version on your Windows system. Then install the application. Further, follow these steps to carry out the backup of emails from the Hotmail (now Outlook.com) web-based client easily.
- Open the Kernel IMAP Backup tool on your system. Click on the Add button on the home screen to add the source Hotmail or Outlook.com IMAP account.
- Next, on the Connect to IMAP Mailbox page, provide Server Name (for details, check the left panel for Outlook.com), user email address, and password information. The Port Number will be automatically selected. Hit Add to continue.
- The source Hotmail account will get added. To continue the backup process, hit on Set Filter and Migrate option.
- All the mailbox folders will get retrieved. You can select the desired folders, apply filters like item type, date range, or use other options to move only required data as per your choice. Then click I am OK, Start Migration.
- Choose any file format in which you want to save the emails. Click OK.
- Now, choose the destination folder on your system to store the Hotmail emails. You can create a new folder at the desired drive location using the Make New Folder option to save all selected emails to it. Then click on, OK.
- The emails will be exported to the specified destination. One can view the live progress of the export.
- Once the export process is completed, the status for all the moved items will be Success, and a confirmation message will be displayed. Click OK.
- On the final screen of the software interface, users can view Migration Logs and save the backup process details to a CSV file using the Save report to CSV option.
- Hence, the backup of Hotmail emails is very quick and direct without any hassles. There are many other supported IMAP Server accounts that users can easily back up using this software.
Conclusion
When you backup Hotmail emails to hard drive, you’re actually preparing yourself against the potential data loss that can happen in unexpected circumstances. You can use the above-discussed manual methods as explained in this article, or use a recommended IMAP backup solution for a 100% error-free process. The software will help you backup data from more than 20 IMAP servers, including Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, and others.
