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How to save an email as a .eml file

A .eml file is the email itself, headers, routing record, body, and attachments, exactly as it arrived. Forwarding a message destroys its evidence; saving it as .eml preserves it. Whether you're checking a suspicious message, preserving proof for a dispute, or sending something to IT, the .eml is the format that keeps the email's testimony intact. Here's how to get one from each major client.

Gmail

Open the message. Click the three-dot menu at the top right of the message (not the page) and choose Download message. Gmail saves a .eml file directly. Alternative: Show original from the same menu displays the full source with a download option, useful when you also want to glance at the headers yourself.

Outlook

New Outlook and Outlook on the web: open the message, click the three-dot menu, and choose Save as (or Download); the result is a .eml. Classic desktop Outlook saves its own .msg format via File, Save As; .msg preserves the same evidence in Microsoft's container, but when a .eml is needed, drag the message from classic Outlook into a folder window on some versions, or use Outlook on the web for a clean .eml export.

Apple Mail

Select the message, then File, Save As, and choose Raw Message Source as the format. The saved file is the complete original; if it lands with a .txt extension, renaming it to .eml is safe and changes nothing inside. Dragging a message from the message list to the desktop also produces a .eml on most versions.

Phones

Mobile mail apps mostly can't export .eml directly. The dependable path is to open the same mailbox on a computer and export there; the message and its headers live on the server, identical from both. For preservation in a pinch, forwarding as attachment, offered by some mobile clients, wraps the original intact, unlike a normal forward.

FAQ

Does saving as .eml change the email?

No. It writes the message as received, byte for byte, including the routing headers. That's the entire point: it's the preservation format.

Why does forwarding ruin the evidence?

A forward is a new email from you. The original's routing record is replaced by the forward's, and clients commonly rewrite or trim what's quoted. Forward-as-attachment is the exception, since it carries the original message whole.

Is .msg as good as .eml?

For evidence, effectively yes; it's the same message in Microsoft's container format. Tools vary in which they accept, so .eml is the safer interchange format when you have the choice.