Google Takeout lets you export and download an archive of your Gmail email messages, but then what? Emailchemy can help you get your Gmail takeout imported into nearly any email app.
The takeout file is usually a zip, but can be a tgz (tarred gzip), but you can usually use the same unzip tool on both. Once you unzip it, you’ll find a folder called Takeout, and inside that, a folder called Mail.
This Mail folder has your Gmail messages in standard MBOX files. You should be able to import these files directly into many email apps, but often its better to import messages in other formats, and that’s where Emailchemy comes in.
For example, if you want to import your Gmail Takeout data into Outlook for Mac, you would need to convert your Takeout mbox files to the Outlook OLM format first. So, you would use Emailchemy’s MBOX converter to convert your Takeout MBOX files to Outlook OLM format.
To convert your Google Takeout email files, in Emailchemy:
- unzip the takeout-xxxxxx.zip file you downloaded from Google. This will create a folder called Takeout
- in Emailchemy, select MBOX file, click Next
- drag the Mail folder found inside the Takeout folder into the file box in Emailchemy (or you can use the Browse button to select it too), click Next
- add some filters (if you want) and click Convert
You can convert the Google Takeout mbox files to any other format that Emailchemy supports, too.