In this article, you will learn:

• Why back up emails
• How to back up emails manually
• How to restore emails from backup
• Common issues
• Frequently asked questions

Email backup has two main purposes:

• Archiving: Old emails that you aren’t likely to need on a daily basis, but don’t want to or can’t delete, take up server space and can cause your mailbox to overflow. By backing up such emails on your computer, you can delete those messages from the server and free up capacity for new mail.
• Protection against incidental deletion: If you or an unauthorized person deletes important emails even from the Trash folder, the only way to get the messages back is to restore them from a backup.

We back up Webhosting, Mailhosting, WebSite and WMS mailboxes approximately once a day. These backups are used to restore data in the event of a server crash, so they are not intended for restoration at the customer’s request.

Email renewal from our backup is charged for all services except NoLimit Extra Webhosting. You can find more detailed information on backups from our side in the Backup article.

We always provide all the emails that were on the server at the date and time of the backup. Before requesting these emails, make sure you have enough space in your mailbox.

We do not provide backups older than 1 week.

To ask for a backup, send an authorized request (log into the customer administration panel which contains the email service) via the contact form. Include the following information:

• Complete mailbox name (such as mailbox@domain.tld)
• Date and time of the requested backup (a technician will tell you which backups best match your request)
• Agreement with the restoration price according to the price list.

When restoring emails, the age of the message doesn’t matter, but the date and time of its deletion does. If you deleted 2020 messages 1 day ago, we can restore them from backup.

Our system performs backups automatically, regardless of whether you are currently making changes or not. If you are going to clean your mailboxes, for example, back them up manually.

In the case of a small amount of emails, you can perform a manual backup directly in the WebMail mail client. For larger backups, we recommend a desktop client, such as Mozilla Thunderbird.

WebMail allows you to download individual emails in .eml format. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support bulk downloads, so it’s only suitable for backing up a few messages.

To download an email from WebMail to your computer, follow these steps:

1. Log into the WebMail client.
2. In the left menu, select a folder to download the email from.
3. Select the email message.
4. In the top menu, click … More.
5. Choose Download (.eml).

Email restoration methods depend on how the backup was created:

• WEDOS backup
• Manual restoration

You will find the recovered emails attached as an Inbox folder. The folder name is Backup_(date) with the date the backup is from. Inside you will find folders corresponding to the internal structure of the mailbox.

If you don’t see the restored mail folder, go to Settings Folders and check the Backup_(date) folder and subfolders.

Use your mouse to select the restored emails and move them to the folders they belong.

After the recovery is complete, delete the folder as follows:

1. At the bottom of the left menu, click the gear and select Manage Folders.
2. In the Folders column, check Backup_(date).
3. Click the gear at the bottom of the column and select Delete.

Via WebMail, you can import any number of e-mails in .eml format from a local backup (computer), including those exported from another mail client. The main limitation is the size of uploaded files (maximum 600 MB) and their amount (maximum 20).

Follow these steps to upload emails:

1. Log into the WebMail client.
2. At the bottom of the left menu, click the gear button and select Import messages.
3. Choose the .eml files to upload.
4. Confirm by clicking the Upload button.

Common email backup issues include:

• We aren’t authorized to restore email from backup
• The backup is missing emails

Issue: I cannot log in to the administration panel (contact form) with the mailbox address that I need to restore.

Cause: The service mailbox is not a customer administration panel login. The backup restoration must be requested by the email service administrator, i.e. the customer in whose account the service is located, or the customer authorized to do so.

Solution: Arrange the restoration request with the service administrator. If you do not know who manages your emails, ask support for a hint.

Issue: The emails we needed are missing from the backup.

Cause: The emails were likely deleted before the backup was taken. Most often, those emails are deleted by mail clients when retrieving mail from the server (especially by the POP protocol) – in this case, the email is deleted practically at the moment of delivery, and is almost impossible for us to back up. The backup may even be completely empty for this reason.

Solution: Try to find the email in the connected mail client. If you don’t find it, the chance of recovery is practically zero.

Question: I only need to restore one important email from a WEDOS backup. Can you restore for free?
Answer: Only if you have the NoLimit Extra Webhosting option. In any case, the technician supplies a backup of the entire mailbox, we do not restore individual messages.

Question: We deleted several years old important emails. Can you restore them for us?
Answer: As long as you deleted them no more than 7 days ago, we probably can. When requesting recovery from our backup, always state the deletion date, not the age of the deleted emails.

Question: How to download multiple emails from WebMail at once?
Answer: WebMail does not support bulk downloads. Use an email client, such as Mozilla Thunderbird.