Have you ever wondered where Windows Mail stores email? Want to remove all traces of an old account? Find here the Mail app data folder location on Windows 11 and Windows 10 where you can find message texts, attachments, and pictures.
First, Playing Ball with Chocolate Pudding Mud
Baseballs are dangerously slippery. For an easier and safer grip, every ball before every MLB game is rubbed in mud.
The special mud has been described to have “the look and feel of chocolate pudding” and comes from a mile-long strip along the Delaware River. The exact spot is, of course, a secret.
Before we ponder whether somebody has tried to replace something that is just like chocolate pudding with chocolate pudding, let’s find the exact spot where Mail keeps emails under Windows—or at least something that has the look and feel of emails:
How to Find the Windows Mail Data Folder Location (Windows 10 and 11)
Time needed: 5 minutes
To find the folder where Mail for Windows does store emails (as well as the folders for attachments and inline images):
- Open Windows Explorer.
Windows keyboard shortcut: Press Windows E to open Explorer quickly.
- Click in the folder path in the address bar so it highlights.
- Type
%LocalAppData%\Packages. - Press Enter.
- Now navigate to microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_[random string]\LocalState\Files\S0.
- Here, you will find one folder for each account.
- Inside each account folder, you will find up to three folders for email:
EFMData: the email text saved as HTML data,
Attachments: attached files in their native format and
Photos: images from emails saved as PNG files.
How to Find the Windows Mail Data Folder Location (Windows 10 and 11): FAQ
What format are the .DAT files in the EMFData folder?
The .DAT files you find in the EMFData folder for each Windows Mail account contain the following:
- HTML-only versions of email bodies.
No headers: They do not include any email header information (such as the sender or recipient, except for the email subject as the document title).
How can I open the .DAT files?
You can copy the .dat files to any other location, then rename them to have an .html extension.
The HTML files will open in any browser.
(How to find the Mail data folder location tested with Windows 11 Version 23H2 and Windows 10 Version 21H2; updated October 2023)