How to Save Yahoo Emails to Computer or Hard Drive?

Jamie Kaler ~ November 17, 2024 ~ 8 Minutes Reading

Are you looking for a way to save Yahoo emails to your computer?If so, this guide provides step-by-step solutions. In this guide, we’ll explain the most effective methods to save Yahoo emails to your computer, both manually and using automated tools.
Yahoo Mail is a widely-used email service provider globally. It enables users to send and receive emails while offering 1 TB of free storage to hold mailbox data such as emails, attachments, photos, videos, and other important content.

Why Do You Need to Save Yahoo Emails to Hard Drive?

  • Emails often contain important data stored in the cloud, making them susceptible to risks such as cyberattacks, hacking, and unexpected loss.. Having a local copy of your mailbox data allows users to access it easily if anything goes wrong with your Yahoo Mail account.
  • Connectivity or downtime issues prevent you from accessing your mailbox data online. Exporting Yahoo emails to flash drives allows users to access them offline.
  • In the situation of a forgotten password, account deletion, or lock due to any suspicious activity, Saving Yahoo messages to your desktop allows you to retain access to your emails.
  • If you have decided to switch to another email service provider, then having backup offers you to prevent any loss of data during the migration. A local copy of mailbox data is also helpful to easily import into another email service provider.
  • Yahoo crucial emails like important emails, long-term records, legal documents, or personal correspondence may need to be preserved for a long time. Saving Yahoo emails to computers ensures long-term archiving beyond the storage policies or limit of online services.

Method 1. How to Export Yahoo Emails to Flash Drive Via Expert Tested Software?

If you want to export complete or any specific mailbox data from Yahoo Mail, then we recommend you opt for Jagware Yahoo Backup Wizard, as it allows export into various file formats such as PDF, PST, TXT, EML, MBOX, and many more export features. With this software, you can also take advantage of the filter option to convert necessary data and also exclude any specific folder to export.

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  1. Open Yahoo Mail, click on “Settings,” and enable two-step verification.
  2. Generate an app password for configuring the Yahoo Mail account in the software.
  3. Select Mail and Generate App password as you are used to configure Yahoo Mail account.
  4. Download and run automated software on your computer.launch software
  5. Enter your Yahoo email address and app password to connect.Enter Yahoo mail login credentials
  6. Preview Yahoo folders to select Yahoo mailbox data as you want to export.Choose Yahoo mailbox data
  7. Select file format in the various options of the select saving feature.select saving options
  8. Browse destination and Click on ‘Backup’ to initiate and complete the process.Press backup button

Exemplifying Traits of the Professional Solution

  • This application also allows migrating Yahoo to Gmail, Outlook.com, Office 365, and all IMAP-supported media platforms.
  • It offers a user-friendly interface to easily operate without depending on any technical experts.
  • You can also take advantage of destination freedom to export any storage devices, such as a hard drive, desktop, computer, flash drive, or any more.
  • It generates log reports to know the performance of software and needs time to complete export.
  • It also offers to export a single or multiple Yahoo email accounts at one shot with a maintained mailbox data structure.

Method 2. How to Save Yahoo Emails to Hard Drive Via Print Button?

If you want to export a few Yahoo emails to a flash drive, then you can take advantage of the print button. So, without wasting your time, let’s move to the process:

  1. Open Yahoo and enter an email address and password to login.
  2. Now, click on email as you wish to save.
  3. After that, tap on three dot icons and click on the print button.
  4. Then select Microsoft Print as PDF and press save email as PDF.

Limitations of using the Print Button

  • You need to repeat the whole process to download each email from Yahoo Mail.
  • This manual approach is not capable of exporting a high volume of emails.
  • It sometimes works and some doesn’t work as the Yahoo Mail print button is not working.

Method 3. How to Move Yahoo Messages to Desktop Via Copy and Paste?

If you want to move a few Yahoo messages to desktop, then you can follow the copy and paste feature:

  1. First, open the browser and visit Yahoo Mail’s official website.
  2. Enter your Yahoo email address and password to sign in.
  3. Open the email you wish to export.
  4. After that, copy the entire email data of the email.
  5. Launch Microsoft Word and paste email into it.
  6. Click on save and choose location as desktop.
  7. Press on save to move Yahoo messages to desktop.

Drawbacks of Copy and Paste Method

  • This copy and paste method only allows exporting a few emails from Yahoo Mail. If you have a batch number of emails, then this process becomes tedious and time-consuming.
  • It may not preserve all formatting or attachments correctly. Complex layout or attachment embedded may not transfer properly.
  • This approach doesn’t maintain sender information, time stamps, or email headers, which could be too crucial for long-term records.

Method 4. How to Save Yahoo Emails to Computers Using Microsoft Outlook?

If you installed Microsoft Outlook on your machine, then this approach may be beneficial for you. Follow these steps to configure Yahoo Mail with Outlook
Part 1. Configure Yahoo Mail with Outlook

  1. First, run the Microsoft Outlook application and enter the Yahoo email address.
  2. Select Manual server setups and press next to select POP or IMAP.
  3. After clicking on the next button, enter the Yahoo Mail username, email address, and app password.
  4. Then, fill out IMAP Configuration Information:
  5. Incoming Mail Server: imap.mail.yahoo.com
  6. Port: 993
  7. Encryption: SSL
  8. Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
  9. Port: 465
  10. Encryption: SSL
  11. Tap on the test account and wait to synchronize the Yahoo email account with Outlook.

Part 2. Export Yahoo Emails to Flash Drive

  1. First, run Microsoft Outlook and then click on the file.
  2. Now, tap on open and export, and next hit on import/export.
  3. Choose Export to a file and click on the next button to continue.
  4. Select the Outlook PST file in the list and press next to proceed.
  5. Preview to select Outlook mailbox folders as you want to download.
  6. Finally, browse destination and press on finish to get results quickly.

Challenges of Using a Manual Approach

  • Configuring Yahoo Mail with Outlook, especially with manual server setups, can be time-consuming and complex, particularly for beginner users. Any wrong steps can prevent accounts from synchronization.
  • This process only allows you to export a single Yahoo email account; if you need to export multiple, then you need to repeat the whole process to export each Yahoo mailbox data.
  • If the Outlook PST file size is too large or is improperly handled, it can become corrupt.
  • It only offers to export Outlook mailbox data in PST format if you want; in others you need another conversion to other file formats such as PDF, TXT, HTML, MBOX, EML, and many more.
  • This method requires some technical expertise to perform configuration with Outlook.
Final Thoughts

In this guide, This guide outlined four approaches for saving Yahoo emails to a computer or hard drive, including both manual and automated options. A manual approach is not a good choice to export Yahoo emails in bulk. So, we recommend you to export single or bulk Yahoo emails with the same maintained structure as the Yahoo Mail structure of email.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q. How to Save Yahoo Emails to External Hard Drives?

  1. Download automated software, then launch it.
  2. Fill in the Yahoo email address and app password to login.
  3. Preview to select Yahoo mailbox data as you want to save.
  4. Select file format in the list of select saving features.
  5. Browse the path as an external hard drive and press on backup to complete it.

Q. How do I Archive Thousands of Emails in Yahoo?
To archive thousands of emails in Yahoo, select the emails by using filters or manually, then click the “Archive” button to move them out of your inbox for storage.


Q. How do I Clean out Thousands of Emails in Yahoo?
To clean out thousands of emails in Yahoo, use the search bar to filter specific emails, select all, and delete them in bulk. Empty the trash to permanently remove them.