How to Save Multiple Emails to One File in Mac OS X Mail

OS X Mail inbox

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by Heinz Tschabitscher
An independent writer who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997.
Updated March 04, 2019

Emails come in threads and conversations; months and years and folders full. What if you want some of them to go together, too, into a single text file?

Mac OS X Mail not only keeps and manages your emails, but it also lets you save them flexibly as well.

Save Multiple Emails to One File in Mac OS X Mail

To save more than one message from Mac OS X Mail to a consolidated text file that contains them all:

  1. Open the folder containing the messages you want to save in Mac OS X Mail.

  2. Highlight the emails you want to save to a single file.

    • Hold down Shift to select a contiguous region.
    • Hold down Command to select disparate emails.
    • You can combine these two methods, too.

  3. Select File | Save As… from the menu.

  4. If you want a file name different than the subject line of the first selected messages, type it under Save As:

  5. Pick a folder for saving under Where:

  6. Select either Rich Text Format (fully formatted email text) or Plain Text (plain text versions of the email messages) under Format:

  7. Click Save.

The text files will include the sender, subject, and recipients as they also appear when you read the messages in Mac OS X Mail.

Saving multiple emails tested with Mac OS X Mail 4 and macOS Mail 10