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Know About MBOX File and Their Default MBOX Storage Locations

Admin ~ Modified: February 8th, 2018 ~ Computer, Technology ~ 4 Minutes Reading

Find out the best solution to know about MBOX file and where MBOX files are stored in Thunderbird, Mac Mail, Eudora, Entourage, and etc. It will be helpful in locating your MBOX files in different MBOX based email clients.

In today’s era, there are a wide range of email applications are available for users to manage their mailbox data. Lots of business users always prefer to use any desktop based email client instead of using any web based email application. However, due to certain unexpected reasons users need to switch their email client. In that case, they are looking to find out the MBOX file from their different email applications. By locating MBOX files from their system, users will get the complete solution to export MBOX data to another email client. Here in this blog, you will get the complete solution about MBOX file and their default storage location.

mbox file location

What is MBOX File?

MBOX basically stands for Mail Box. It is a file which contains collection of multiple email messages as 7-bit ASCII text and other data items. MBOX file contains all the concatenated email messages in a single file. MBOX stores all the mailbox messages in their original internet message format. Earlier, it was used by UNIX hosts but later on it was used by multiple clients such as Mozilla Thunderbird, Mac Mail, Eudora, Entourage, etc.

More About MBOX Family

MBOX file stores the entire email message as a long plain text file. Each email message of MBOX file starts with “From” along with white spaces and ends with blank link. Moreover, MBOX family consists of four popular file formats which are discussed below: –

  • MBOXO: – MBOXO mailbox file format is the “original” system mailbox format. And it uses a constant string “???@???” in place of sender’s email address.
  • MBOXRD: – It is a variation of MBOXO mailbox.
  • MBOXCL: – This file extension is used by UNIX “System V” mailboxes.
  • MBOXCL2: – MBOXCL2 file is similar to MBOXCL.

MBOX supported Email Applications

MBOX is a flexible file format which is widely supported by multiple email clients such as Mozilla Thunderbird, Mac Mail, Eudora, Entourage, SpiceBird, OperaMail, PocoMail, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Mail, Evolution, The Bat, and many more.

Want to export Thunderbird to Outlook? Now it’s easy to move your MBOX data.

Default Storage Locations of MBOX File

Note: – Location of MBOX file is depends on operating system. Therefore, all the standard storage location of MBOX files are described below that may vary according to email client and operating system.

Location of MBOX File: – /User/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/directory

Where Does Thunderbird Store Its MBOX File?

Default Thunderbird storage location is: – C:\Users\<Windows User Name>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile Name>\

You can also try: –

  • Press Win+R in your system.
  • Now, enter the command “%appdata%” in search bar and press enter.
  • Go to Thunderbird folder and open Profiles
  • Now select the desired Thunderbird Profile which provides the location of your Thunderbird profile.

In any case, if you are not able to see AppData folder in your system folder. For this, you need to do open Windows Explorer and click on Tools >> Folder Options >> View >> Click on “Show hidden files and folders”.

Also Read: – How to Set Up Gmail Account in Mozilla Thunderbird?

Where are Mailboxes Stored on Mac?

Mac storage location: – /User/Library/Mail/[account]/INBOX.mbox/Messages/

Follow the simple steps to extract MBOX file from Mac Mail: –

  • Open Finder App in your Mac Machine.
  • Click on Go from Main Menu and choose “Go to Folder”.
  • Type: ~/Library/Mail/V2 or ~/Library/Mail/V3 for Mac OSX Mail.

Default MBOX File Location for Other MBOX Based Email Clients

  • Entourage 2008: – C:\Users\user_name\Documents\Microsoft User Data\Office 2008 Identities\Main Identity
  • Eudora: – C:\Documents and Settings\(user name)\Application data\Qualcomm\Eudora Folder.
  • PocoMail: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\PocoMail\Mail.
  • Opera Mail: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera\Opera\mail\store\account1
  • SpiceBird: – C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\spicebird
  • The Bat: – C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\The Bat mail\mail name
  • SeaMonkey: – C:\Users\Admin\AppData\ Mozilla\SeaMonkey\Profiles\<Profile_Name.default>\Mail
  • Sylpheed: – C:\Users\(user name)\AppData\Roaming\Sylpheed

You May Also Interested to Convert MBOX to PST Format.