Frequently Asked Questions

The best way to ensure all your data and settings are brought over is through Backup and Restore.

Follow these steps:

In the old device:

1.        Create a backup through Menu > Backup (Menu > File > Backup in eM Client 7 and older)
2.        Deactivate your license if you are no longer going to use eM Client on this device in Menu > Help > License (not needed for one-seat licenses, but useful for making sure no licensing problems happen)
3.        Find the .ZIP backup file and move it to your new device
   (by default in ..\Documents\eM Client)

In your new device:

1.        Install eM Client (download it here)
2.        Skip initial setup
3.        Restore from your backup through Menu > File > Restore
4.        Activate your license in Menu > Help > License

If you put the backup file in the new device in the same folder structure as the default (..\Documents\eM Client) the restore will find it right away. Otherwise, you'll need to specify the path where the backup file can be found (in Menu > Settings > General > Backup).

You can also find these steps in our blog here: New device and eM Client? No problem!

eM Client can import your data directly from Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, other popular clients, previous eM Client database or relevant data files.

When you first run the application, an automatic import wizard will lead you through the process if it detects that you have other email client(s) installed.

Besides this, the import options can be accessed at any time in Menu > File > Import.
This option allows you to import your emails from .eml files, contacts from .vcf or .csv files, calendar and tasks from .ics files or even eM Client settings from .xml files.

Read more in our blog: Import Data from other email clients to eM Client and in the Documentation: Getting Started.

The backup options are accessible in Menu > Settings > General > Backup.
You can choose the folder where the backups will be saved and once you check the ‘Enable Backup’ option, you can also select how often you’d like the backup to occur and how many backups you want to keep (you can store up to five different backups at a time).

To change the time of the backup on Windows:

1.        Open up the Windows 'Task Scheduler' tool
2.        Click on the Task Scheduler Library
3.        You will see eM Client Database Backup in the middle window amongst the other tasks – double-click it to open the properties
4.        Go to the ‘Triggers’ tab
5.        Now you can edit the time and day when the backup takes place.

Mac does not have a default system scheduler, so the time needs to be changed either using a 3rd party app that has this functionality, or you can change it in the file ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.emclient.mail.backup.plist

If you want to change the backup time to the current time, you can do that from inside eM Client:

• In eM Client > Preferences > General > Backup uncheck Enable periodic backup
• Click 'Apply'
• Enable periodic backup again
• Hold the Alt (or Option) key and click 'Save & Close' or 'Apply' - this should change the backup time to the exact time you changed the setting.
• Restart launch agent - open terminal and run these two commands: 
• launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.emclient.mail.backup.plist
• launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.emclient.mail.backup.plist

The default time for the backup on macOS is 10:00 AM.

No, email synchronization cannot be limited just to a selected time period (for example from only the past few months or years) at this time.

For IMAP accounts, we by default only synchronize the email headers instead - this way you have an overview of all your messages but the synchronization is more efficient and the downloaded data doesn’t take up too much space.

A full message is downloaded into the eM Client database only after you open it.

For EWS accounts we automatically leave out the attachments and images - those are then downloaded only once requested. Unfortunately, the bodies of the messages are downloaded automatically, by the nature of the Exchange protocol.

The easiest way of moving your database to another device is to make a backup of your current database in Menu > Backup.

eM Client will back up the whole application database into the folder selected in Menu > Settings > General > Backup. You can also enable the option of automatic backups in regular intervals here.

You can transfer this backup to a device of your choice and restore from it through Menu > File > Restore.

Read more in our blog: How to work with automatic backups in eM Client