Restored a backup but emails won’t save. When selecting save email an error message appears saying email didn’t download properly and so can’t be saved.
How to solve this please as need an old email urgently to send on a website portal so can’t just send the email through email, must be saved file.
Does anyone know how to get around this? Doesn’t make sense that en email can be viewed but not saved.
sábado 21 febrero 2026 :: 1731hrs (UTC +0100)
Hey @mimimi
As a test I restored a recent backup and did not experience any
issues and was able to ‘Save As’ any email I chose whether from
the listing or open in viewer.
Please explain exactly (step by step) what you are doing.
skybat
¡Buena suerte!
¡Saludos desde Valencia la soleada en España!
¡Mis mejores deseos y mantente a salvo!
Hablo español, luego portugués, inglés, francés y alemán
con conocimiento de varios otros idiomas.
I restore a backup, which has an email of interest from months ago. After restoring, I open the email of interest and it shows as normal but when I try to save that email, an error message appears. I’ve gone on chatgpt and it says that likely the email wasn’t downloaded fully which is why it can’t be saved. I never knew anything about that.
domingo 22 febrero 2026 :: 0922hrs (UTC +0100)
Hey @mimimi
Unfortunately you have not given (step by step)
I am not interested in Chatgpt comments
How exactly are you trying to save?
What is the error message given by eMC?
Do you use IMAP or POP3?
Is the email still on the mail server and if so will it open there?
I am leaving to drive to Seville so any reply will be late today or Monday
skybat
¡Buena suerte!
¡Saludos desde Valencia la soleada en España!
¡Mis mejores deseos y mantente a salvo!
Hablo español, luego portugués, inglés, francés y alemán
con conocimiento de varios otros idiomas.
1.Here are few steps to solve your problem. Follow:-
Restore the email again from the backup and make sure the restore/download process finishes completely before trying to save it.
2. Open the restored email and confirm that the message content loads fully. If it shows an incomplete or loading state, restore it again.
3. Try saving it to a different local folder, such as Desktop or Documents, and make sure you have permission to write to that folder.
4. Check available disk space and temporarily disable any software that may be blocking the file from being created.
5. If you need the email as a file for a website portal, export/save it as .EML if that format is accepted. EML preserves the email message and its headers better than copying the text.
6. If the same “email didn’t download properly” error appears again, repair or re-index the backup/archive and then retry the restore. A damaged or incomplete message in the backup can cause saving to fail.
If you’re using third party email backup tool, try restoring the message to a supported mail destination first and then export/save the restored message as an .EML file for uploading to the portal.
Restored a backup but emails won’t save. When selecting save email an error message appears saying email didn’t download properly and so can’t be saved
If you restored a backup “and the email wasn’t fully cached locally” then you won’t be able to save it locally and it would need to be redownloaded from the mail server end.
Is that mail account still active on your server ?
Also as @skybat wrote is it a POP, IMAP, or Office 365 or iCloud account?