I have an email account which is only available using Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync protocol (EAS). A recent discussion about EageFiler got me thinking again about how to export/archive messages from this email account. The problem is that only a small number of email clients support EAS (the default Mail app in iOS and iPadOS and mobile Outlook are the only apps I am aware of which run on Apple hardware). In fact, in an internal FAQ provided by my organization, we find this tidbit:
Can I use the Microsoft Outlook desktop application?
No, this is not supported because the Outlook desktop application does not support Exchange ActiveSync protocol (EAS). If you are a desktop user, then you can use Outlook on the Web (OWA) or the Microsoft Windows 10 Mail app.
In other words, no desktop email clients support EAS at all (except for Windows 10 Mail app). That includes desktop Outlook and Apple Mail.app. Which leaves me with either OWA or mobile apps on my iPad. However, as far as I am aware, neither the mobile Mail app or mobile Outlook can export email files (like mbox or similar). Yes, I can generate PDFs for messages on my iPad, which I could archive, but I would prefer a native email format. I would also prefer to do everything from my Mac, but am willing to try an iPad solution if it is the only possible solution.
I’m hoping there is something I’m missing and this is possible. Any ideas how I can export emails from this account for archive purposes?
Good question. Unfortunately, no. The server will only send and receive between accounts internally. There is no way to send messages outside of the system. Internal privacy policy prohibits anything from being sent through third party servers.
I could start an email forward from within mail app and change the from to my personal account, but that would break the policy. I just want to save a local copy, which does not break the policy. In fact, messages often suggest that we save them as the system autodeletes all messages in 3 months and we occasionally need to keep info longer than that. Other than copy/paste or print to PDF, I haven’t found a better way to do that.
And then wondered if you can you download/export your messages to a .PST file?
If so there are programs (see above link) that will let you convert the .PST to an MBOX file that most/all mail clients can import.
Thanks @WayneG but that appears to apply to desktop applications. As I can only access the account from mobile I don’t think that is helpful. However, if anyone knows of a way to export from mobile, then that link could be invaluable in converting/importing files.
I figured it out. Just drag a message from the Mail app to the Files app on iPadOS and an .eml file of the message will be created.
The key was in the Importing from iOS section of EageFiler’s documentation (emphasis added):
Importing Files
If your EagleFiler library is not stored in the cloud, you can use your iOS device to save files to a folder in iCloud Drive and then import those files either manually or via a script.
If your EagleFiler library is stored in the cloud, there are a variety of apps you can use to create new files. If you save them in your library’s Files folder or To Import folder, they will be automatically imported to the library back on your Mac.
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The iOS Mail app does not have a Share button, but you can import mail messages by using the Print command to save them as PDF files or (on iPad) by dragging ang dropping the message to the Files app to save them in one of EagleFiler’s folders.
Technically, EaglerFiler does not need to be used at all for this to work. Just dropping it into any location in Files will create the .eml file, which I did not know until now. Now that I have the file, I can store/index it with whatever tool I prefer.