How to Save Outlook Email as MSG Format? – Verified Solution

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  • Updated on November 20th, 2025

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In a professional setting, employees maintain project folders to keep all the relevant documents. Now, instead of searching through Outlook, users can save Outlook email as MSG. By doing this, they can integrate project-related messages directly into the folder structure. In today’s blog post, we will explain how to save Outlook emails as MSG files. Also, users can quickly save multiple Outlook emails as a MSG file simultaneously with the Cigati PST Converter. Let us now look at how users can save emails using this tool and without a tool.

Situations Where Users Download Outlook Emails as MSG

Given below are the situations in which users download their Outlook emails as MSG files. Take a look at them:

  • To save and organize important emails, users download their Outlook emails as a MSG file.
  • Compliance teams require emails to be preserved exactly as received or in untouched form. Hence, users convert Outlook emails to a MSG file.
  • Instead of exporting the entire mailbox, users save specific emails as a MSG file when they need a quick backup.
  • Many document management tools support MSG files. Therefore, users prefer to save emails in this format.
  • When building offline archives, the MSG format is preferred because each email message stands alone.

How to Save Outlook Email as MSG Format Efficiently?

This section will outline the methods to efficiently save Outlook emails in an MSG format. The manual and professional methods are explained, along with their pros and cons. 

Drag and Drop to Save Multiple Outlook Emails as MSG

This is a straightforward method used by those who want to save individual or multiple Outlook emails as MSG. Also, the resultant MSG file will preserve the structure, formatting, and attachments.

Use the following instructions to start the process:

  1. Open MS Outlook and head to the folder containing Outlook email(s).
  2. Then, select the desired email(s) that you want to save as MSG.
  3. Next, drag the selected emails and drop them into a local folder.
  4. Outlook will automatically save the email(s) as .msg files. 

Save Emails from Outlook as MSG with Dates

Users have more control over their saved emails by choosing a file name, storage location, and file type. In this, Outlook’s built-in “Save As” option is used to save each email as a MSG file.

Follow the step-by-step process to begin saving Outlook emails:

  1. Launch the MS Outlook application.
  2. Now, double-click on the desired email to open it.
  3. After that, click on File > Save As and choose the folder to store the MSG file.
  4. Next, select Outlook Message Format (.msg) from the Save as type dropdown list.
  5. Finally, press Save to save the email as a MSG file.

Issues with the Manual Approach

  • These methods become inefficient when saving a large volume of Outlook emails as a MSG file.
  • A lot of manual effort is required to select the emails one by one and then drag and drop them into a folder.
  • There are no automated options for bulk saving, filtering, duplicate prevention, etc.

Verified Solution to Save Outlook Email as MSG Format

Experience seamless bulk conversion of Outlook emails to the MSG format with the Cigati PST Converter. This comprehensive tool accurately saves the Outlook emails to MSG and other file formats as well. In addition to this, it supports migration to major email platforms like Gmail, Office 365, Thunderbird, etc. With this tool, users can customize their conversion using its advanced features. A few of them are date-filter, split resultant PST file, migrate emails without attachments, duplicate removal, etc.

Simple steps to download Outlook emails as MSG file:

  1. Install and open the conversion tool on your computer.
  2. Then, opt for Single Mode and click Next to continue.
  3. After that, press Select File to browse the Outlook PST file to be saved as MSG.
  4. Now, expand the folders, select the files, and preview them. Then, click Next.
  5. From the File Format options, choose MSG, and apply the customization filters if needed.
  6. At last, click on the Convert button to finalize the process.

Conclusion

Users often save Outlook email as MSG file format for offline accessibility. Using the manual approach, via Outlook’s “Save as” option and drag and drop method, users can save emails. But both of them are unreliable and take a significant amount of time. Moreover, with the professional Cigati PST Converter, users can have error-free, efficient, and quick results. With this converter tool, users can be assured of data integrity and data reliability.

You May Also Read: How to Convert Outlook Email to EML Format

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I save an email and its attachments in MSG format?

Ans: MSG format always preserves attachments by default. When you save an email as MSG, everything inside the message, including the attachments, remains intact.

Q: Why won’t Outlook let me save an email as MSG?

Ans: This usually happens due to restricted permissions, an unconfigured default email profile, corrupted Outlook data files, or if Outlook is running in limited safe mode. Restarting Outlook or recreating the profile often fixes it.

About The Author:

Rohit Singh is an Email Backup, Recovery & Migration Consultant and is associated with Software Company from the last 3 years. He writes technical updates and their features related to MS Outlook, Exchange Server, Office 365, and many other Email Clients & Servers.

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