While there's no dedicated Save As… command in Gmail when you view an email or conversation, saving a message in the .eml (email source) format is neither impossible nor difficult.
Save an Email as an EML File in Gmail
To save an individual email message as a .eml file (for opening on the desktop, to import in an email program or to attach it perhaps) in Gmail:
- Open the message in Gmail.
- Click the down arrow next to Reply in the header area of the email you want to save.
- Select Show original from the menu that comes up.
- Press Ctrl-A (Windows, Linux) or Command-A (Mac) to highlight all the text in the window or tab that opens with the message's source code.
- Press Ctrl-C (Windows, Linux) or Command-C (Mac) to copy the code.
- Possibly, your browser will let you save the message's source code as an .eml file. It's worth trying; make sure you do save the page source — not a web archive, for instance.
In this case, you're done.
- Possibly, your browser will let you save the message's source code as an .eml file. It's worth trying; make sure you do save the page source — not a web archive, for instance.
- Open any plain text editor (such as TextEdit, Notepad and Vim).
- Create a new text-only document.
- Press Ctrl-V (Windows, Linux) or Command-V (Mac) to paste the message source.
- Save the document as a plain text file on your Desktop or Downloads folder, for example, with the extension ".eml".
You can use the message subject, for example, and save a message with the subject "Breezy Hiking Weather on Monday!" to a file titled "Breezy Hiking Weather on Monday.eml".
You can now import the resulting .eml file to an email program that supports the format or attach it to a new message right in Gmail, for example.
(Updated November 2011)
