How to Export Emails from Tuta (Backup Without IMAP)

If you want to know how to export emails from Tuta, the short version is that you cannot do it the way you would with almost any other provider. There is no IMAP, no POP, and no third-party backup tool that can log in on your behalf. The export lives inside Tuta's own desktop client, and that is a consequence of the encryption model rather than a missing feature.

Tuta stores your mail encrypted on its servers and holds no key that can read it. Decryption happens on your device, inside a signed-in client. So any backup has to run in a place that already has your keys — which means the desktop app, not a script, not a web service, and not a mail client you point at a server.

This guide covers backup mechanics only: getting a faithful copy of your mail onto disk, checking it is complete, and storing it so it is still readable in five years. Moving to a different provider is a separate job with separate failure modes.

What actually moves, and what doesn't#

An export is not a clone of your account. It is a copy of message content in a standard file format, and a number of things that feel like part of your mailbox are not inside those files.

Knowing the difference up front is what stops the disappointment later, when someone opens the archive expecting to find a contact list or a calendar and finds neither.

• Moves: message headers, body text, HTML, and attachments, written as .eml files — one file per message.
• Moves: your folder structure, mirrored as directories on disk, so an archived thread stays where you filed it.
• Does not move: labels or search state that only exist inside Tuta's interface.
• Does not move: contacts and calendar entries. Those are separate exports in their own parts of the app — check Tuta's current docs for where, because that UI moves.
• Does not move: your encryption. Exported .eml files are plain files. Anything that was end-to-end encrypted in transit is written out readable, because the client decrypted it to show it to you.

Do you need a backup if Tuta already stores your mail?#

Yes, and the reason is specific to zero-knowledge providers. With a conventional mailbox, a lost password is an inconvenience — support resets it and your mail is still there. With Tuta, the password is part of what derives your keys. Lose it and the recovery code, and the ciphertext on the server is unreadable by anyone, including Tuta.

That design is exactly why people choose it, and it is also why an offline copy matters more here than elsewhere. A backup is not a vote of no confidence in the provider. It is the thing that makes the provider's strictness survivable.

The second reason is portability. A mailbox you cannot get out of is a mailbox you cannot leave, and an .eml archive is the most widely readable email format there is.

Before you export: a short checklist#

Most failed exports fail for boring reasons — no disk space, the laptop slept, the wrong account was signed in. Ten minutes here saves a re-run that takes hours.

1. 1

   Check your mailbox size

   Find your current storage usage in Tuta's settings. Plan for the export folder to need roughly that much space again, plus headroom — .eml files carry base64-encoded attachments, which are larger on disk than the raw file.

2. 2

   Free up disk, and pick the destination now

   Choose a real folder on a local disk. Do not export straight into a synced folder such as Dropbox, iCloud Drive or OneDrive — the sync client will fight the export for file handles and upload thousands of small files while they are still being written.

3. 3

   Write down your recovery code

   If you do not have it, generate a new one before you start. An export takes a long session with an authenticated client; that is the worst possible moment to discover you cannot sign in on a second device.

4. 4

   Disable sleep and stay on power

   The export runs while the client is open. A laptop that suspends mid-run will pause it, and while the client is built to resume, a run that completes in one sitting is a run you can verify in one sitting.

5. 5

   Note which account you are exporting

   If you use several Tuta addresses or aliases, the export covers the mailbox you are signed into. Aliases deliver into the same mailbox; separate accounts do not.

How to export emails from Tuta, step by step#

The export tool ships in the free desktop clients for Windows, macOS and Linux. It is not in the web app and not in the mobile apps, and that is deliberate: writing thousands of decrypted files to a filesystem is something a browser tab cannot do well.

1. 1

   Download the desktop client

   Get it from Tuta's own download page for your platform. The desktop clients are free on every plan — the export feature is not gated behind a paid tier, though import in the other direction has been.

2. 2

   Sign in and let the client sync

   On first launch the client downloads and decrypts your mailbox locally. On a large account this takes a while. Let it settle before you start the export, or the export will be racing the initial sync.

3. 3

   Open the mailbox export tool

   It lives in the client's settings, under the mail or account section depending on version. Tuta reorganises this menu between releases, so look for the wording 'export' rather than a fixed path.

4. 4

   Choose the mailbox and the destination folder

   Point it at the empty folder you prepared. The client writes .eml files there and mirrors your folder hierarchy as subdirectories.

5. 5

   Start it and leave it alone

   Run state is tracked, so an interrupted export can pick back up rather than starting from zero. Even so, treat it as a single long operation — do not sign out, switch accounts, or quit the client mid-run.

6. 6

   Export a few messages by hand as a spot check

   Open a message with a large attachment, use the three-dot menu, and export just that one. Compare it against the same message in the bulk archive. If the attachment is intact in both, your run is trustworthy.

What breaks, and what to do about it#

How to verify the archive is actually complete#

An export that ran to completion and an export that captured everything are not the same claim. Verify before you rely on it, because the moment you need this archive is the worst moment to find a gap.

Count files per folder and compare against the message counts in the client. They will not match perfectly — drafts and system folders behave differently — but a directory holding a tenth of what the folder shows is a failed run, not a rounding difference.

• Open five random .eml files in a mail client to confirm they render, not just that they exist.
• Check one message that had a large attachment, and one that was end-to-end encrypted to another Tuta user.
• Confirm the oldest message you know of is present — truncation shows up at the far end of the timeline first.
• Record the total size and file count in a text file inside the archive, so next quarter's run has something to compare against.

If the export goes wrong: the rollback#

The good news is that this operation is non-destructive. Nothing is deleted from your mailbox, nothing is moved, and no setting changes. A failed export costs you time and disk, not mail — so rollback is mostly about cleaning up and trying again properly.

Delete the partial output folder rather than exporting on top of it. Mixing two runs in one directory gives you an archive you cannot count, and counting is the only verification you have.

If the client stalls repeatedly on the same mailbox, export folder by folder instead of all at once. A single message with an unusual attachment can wedge a run, and narrowing the scope finds it in minutes.

Only after the archive is verified should you consider deleting anything from the account. Verify first, delete second, and never in the same sitting.

Doing this without downtime#

You do not need to stop using your mailbox while an export runs. Mail keeps arriving, and the export simply will not contain anything that lands after it starts — which is fine for a backup and a problem only if you were treating it as a migration cutover.

If you are exporting ahead of a move, run the bulk export first, keep using Tuta normally, then export just the new mail the day you actually switch. Two runs, no frozen week.

For an ongoing archive, quarterly is a reasonable cadence for most personal mailboxes, with an extra run before you change your password, change devices, or close anything.

Where AI Emaily fits, and where it doesn't#

We build AI Emaily, an AI email client, so here is the honest limit first: we cannot connect to Tuta. Nobody can. Without IMAP there is no protocol for an outside client to speak, and we are not going to imply otherwise. If you are exporting because you want AI triage on top of your Tuta mail, the export does not get you there.

Where we are relevant is the other side of a move. If your export is a step toward a provider that does expose IMAP, or toward Gmail or Outlook, that is the mail we work on — one inbox across accounts, a Personal Context brain and per-client profiles you set yourself rather than anything inferred from your old messages, and drafts that need your approval before they send, with undo and an audit trail behind every action.

Pricing is a 7-day free trial on Pro and Autopilot, card required, and nothing charged if you cancel inside the seven days. Verify current details on our pricing page before you decide.