Windows 8 and 8.1 How To Backup Mail Messages in the Mail App

The Mail app available in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 does not feature the messages backup and restore functionalities that are available in all the e-mail client programs; all the mail messages are stored locally on the users' computer in a specific folder whose name has the following format

*C:\Users\NomeUtente\AppData\Local\Packages\microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_XXXXX\        *

LocalState\Indexed\LiveComm\YYYYY\ZZZZZ\Mail\1      

where C:\Users\UserName is the folder that stores the user's profile and XXXXX, YYYYYand ZZZZZ are random alphanumeric strings.

The Mail folder contains one sub-folder for each e-mail account (in this example, the only account that has been set up is the operating system's Microsoft account) that has been configured in the Windows Mail app: this sub-folder stores all the e-mail messages (they are listed as .EML files) that the user can copy or move to any other folder or disk, thus performing a simple backup.

Furthermore, you can use the Windows Explorer search features and change the files' view in the folder to quickly find groups of messages that correspond to several search criteria and select them faster: for example, you can find all of the messages whose To: field is equal to a specific e-mail address.