Klasor
Klasor › Guides › Export and backup

How to recover messages from an export

You have .eml files and a manifest. Here’s how to check that they’re intact and how to bring them back.

5 min read · updated Nov 8, 2026

1. Find the export

Open the Klasor-Export_YYYY-MM-DD_HHMM folder (from Klasor: Show in Finder). If you chose .zip, double-click the archive to unpack it. Inside you’ll find the .eml files, MANIFEST.csv, and README.txt.

2. Verify a file (optional)

MANIFEST.csv holds, for each file, the path, size, SHA-256 checksum, and Message-ID. To verify a file, in Terminal:

shasum -a 256 "path/to/message.eml"

The result must be identical to the checksum in the manifest. Verify now (on the Status row of the export) does this automatically for the whole export.

3. Open a message

You can open .eml files by double-clicking them in an email program. Their names start with the message date, so they sort chronologically in Finder.

4. Put the messages back in Outlook

Drag the .eml files into a folder in Outlook. Try a test folder first, with 2–3 messages.

  • Restored messages may look slightly different from the originals (for example, read/unread status isn’t part of the .eml file).
  • Labels applied by Klasor aren’t kept in the .eml file itself. Since version 3.0 the export also contains MANIFEST-META.csv, which records each message’s folder, labels, read status and flag; Deleted by Klasor uses it to restore them. For older exports, you can apply labels again by labeling the folder once more.
  • Keep the original export until you’re sure the restore is complete.

Messages Klasor moved out of Outlook

If you used Free up space, you don’t need the steps above: open Free space → Deleted by Klasor, tick the messages and press Restore to Outlook. They return to their original folders with read status, flag and labels. Outlook shows the restore date as the received date; the original sent date and headers are kept.

For a double backup

For a second copy in Outlook’s format, see the .olm export. The two formats complement each other: .eml can be read anywhere, while .olm keeps the folder structure for Outlook.