EML stand for Electronic Mail File and it is an email file format used to save a single email in your machine. It appears with .eml file extension and requires an EML file compatible application to open and view. Nowadays, a lot of free EML file viewers are available to open and view .eml files independently.
A lot of users demand to extract various emails in .eml file format to further analyze it in some forensics tool or to open it in any EML file support applications like Windows Mail, Windows Live mail, Lotus Notes, Thunderbird etc. All these emailing clients supports .eml file format and saves there emails as .eml in your device.
Preview of an Orphan EML File
Whether an email file is actually an EML file or not can be easily judged by looking at its properties. Here is the sample of an EML file structure for better understanding.
If an EML file is genuine then it must preserve all Meta properties as shown in the image above or if any tempering is done to the EML file then one can easily compare it to analyse the difference. An EML file header reveals everything related to an email message. Thus, even if you are unable to open and view the .eml file due to lack of EML compatible application then simply open it in Notepad and you can see everything associated with the email.
How to Save Emails as EML File Format?
Depending on situations, a lot of users need to convert emails in MS Outlook, Lotus Notes, Zimbra, and OST to EML file format. Some of the requirement could be:
- You have to import emails into Thunderbird or any EML support application
- You want to analyze the email header in a notepad file to understand its structure
- You simply want to back up the emails in a widely acceptable email file format
- For moving the emails from your office computer to home PC
Besides these scenarios, there could be many possibilities where conversion to EML can be needed and for this you can either convert emails into EML file format manually or use any appropriate tool.
Manual conversion of emails into EML file format depends upon the source type. This means, if you have to export emails from Thunderbird, Outlook Express, Lotus Notes, Windows Mails, Windows Live Mail, Seamonkey, etc. into EML format then simple drag and drop method will work. But in case of PST to EML or OST to EML conversion, one has to go for some appropriate paid solutions.
Paid solutions not just help you in simplifying the conversion but save your time which you can further utilize to improve your work productivity. Since EML is a widely used file format it can be easily imported or exported into plethora of emailing applications; which makes .eml a versatile emailing file format.
