Spanning Backup offers the ability to export your backed up Gmail data to a .mbox file, to be imported into an email client on your local computer. To export your backed up Gmail data, and open that file locally, please follow the steps in the video below. These steps are also written below:
1. Log into your Spanning Backup for Google Workspace.
2. If you are the admin user, locate the user whose data you want to back up. Click the user's ellipses icon and select Impersonate. If you are not an admin user, skip to step 3.
3. Select the Restore tab.
4. Select all of the emails that you want to export, and then click the Export button.
5. Once the export has finished, you will receive an email informing you that the exported data is available to download. For detailed instructions on how to download your export file, see this Knowledge Base article
6. Download and unzip the file. The .mbox file will be in the un-archived folder.
7. Download Mozilla Thunderbird and open the program. You can download Thunderbird here
8. Create a new account in the main panel.
9. Enter your Gmail credentials.
10. If prompted to select either the IMAP or POP3 email type, select IMAP.
11. Download the "ImportExportTools" add-on for Thunderbird. You can download this add-on feature here.
12. In Thunderbird, go to Tools > Add Ons.
13. Select the Gear icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.
14. Select the Install Add-On From File option.
15. Select the .xpi file that you just downloaded from the Thunderbird Add-Ons page.
16. Restart the Thunderbird application, which will activate this Add-On feature.
17. Right Click (or Ctrl+Click) on the Local Folders icon in the left-side menu bar.
18. Select ImportExportTools > Import mbox file.
19. Select the .mbox file that you previously downloaded from Spanning Backup and then unzipped.
20. A folder displays in this Local Folders section with all of your selected exported emails.
If you want to then re-import these emails back into an active Gmail account so that they are visible in the Gmail web UI, follow these steps:
21. Expand the Local Folders folder and then select the name of the label that you want to import back into Gmail.
22. Select all of the emails in this label, right click the selection, and then select the Copy to link for the correct Gmail account and label that you want to import all of the emails into.
All of the selected emails are then imported into the selected Gmail account. If you have any additional questions, please contact support@spanning.com