Written by Jennifer Walsh. Reviewed for technical accuracy by Shubham Dixit, Independent Expert in Email Forensics and Data File Conversion.
Shubham is an independent external reviewer and not an employee of PCDOTS.
Quick answer. MBOX files do hold attachments, tucked inside each message, but printing an email shows the body and the attachment names, not the attachment contents. To print MBOX files with attachments, open the .mbox in Thunderbird and print or save as PDF, then print the attachments too, or use a tool that turns the whole mailbox into PDFs with attachments included.
On this page
Do MBOX files contain attachments
Yes, they do. An MBOX file is a run of email messages saved one after another, and each message carries its own attachments inside it, encoded as part of the message. So when you have an .mbox, nothing is missing, the pictures, PDFs and documents are all in there. The question that trips people up is not whether the attachments are present, it is whether printing brings them out, and that is where a little care pays off.
The attachment is in the message, but a plain print lists its name, not its pages.
“This surprises people in evidence work all the time. The MBOX absolutely holds the attachments, but a normal print, and even Thunderbird’s export to PDF, writes out the email and merely names the attachment, it does not render the file. So a printed record can look complete while the actual document is missing. When I need the attachments on the page, I either open and print each one, or run the mailbox through a tool that folds the attachments into the PDF. For a courtroom bundle, that difference matters.” Shubham Dixit, Email Forensics reviewer (draft, pending approval)
The catch when you print
Here is the thing to know before you start. When you print an email, or use Thunderbird’s ImportExportTools NG to export a folder to PDF, you get the message itself, headers and body, and a line naming each attachment. What you do not get is the attachment opened out onto the page. Thunderbird even pops up a note that the attachments will not be saved into the PDF. That is fine if you only need the emails, but if the attachments are the point, a plain print leaves them behind. So the real task splits in two, print the messages, and deal with the attachments.
Free, print in Thunderbird
For the messages themselves, this is free. Open the .mbox in Thunderbird using the ImportExportTools NG add-on, then select a message or a whole folder and use File, Print, choosing Save as PDF or a real printer. That gives you clean copies of every email. To bring the attachments across too, open each attachment from the message and print it on its own, or save all the attachments to a folder and print them from there. It is a little manual, but for a handful of emails it costs nothing and gets you the whole picture, emails plus their files.
Print the email, then print its attachments, and nothing is left out.
The whole mailbox, with attachments
Doing that by hand is fine for a few emails, but if the .mbox holds hundreds and you want each one as a PDF with its attachments folded in, opening every file yourself is the slow part. A tool reads the whole mailbox and writes the PDFs for you, attachments included, in one run. The PCDOTS MBOX Converter does this on Windows, turning a .mbox into PDF and keeping the attachments with each message, with a preview and a free version so you can test a folder before you buy. It is the honest fit for a big batch, or when the attachments have to be on the printed page.
The tool route, a whole .mbox to PDFs with the attachments kept in.
Here are the steps with the screens.
Step 1. Install and run the software on Windows, then open the menu.
Step 2. Choose MBOX files and add the .mbox so the mail loads.
Step 3. Open the Export menu and choose PDF, keeping attachments on.
Step 4. Pick a destination and Save.
To open the .mbox in the first place, see our guides to import MBOX into Thunderbird and open MBOX files on Windows. If it is really the attachments you are after, convert MBOX to EML first makes each message and its files easy to reach.
The methods compared
Pick by how many emails you have, and whether the attachments must print.
| Method | Best for | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Thunderbird Print to PDF | The emails, free | Body only, names the attachments |
| Open and print attachments | A few files, free | Manual, one at a time |
| MBOX Converter tool | A whole mailbox | Windows, keeps attachments in |
Frequently asked questions
Do MBOX files contain attachments?
Yes. Each message in an .mbox carries its own attachments inside it, encoded as part of the message, so nothing is missing from the file.
Why do my printed emails not show the attachments?
Because printing an email renders the body and lists the attachment names, but does not open the attachment onto the page. You print the attachments separately, or use a tool that includes them.
How do I print MBOX emails for free?
Open the .mbox in Thunderbird with the ImportExportTools NG add-on, then use File, Print, and choose Save as PDF or a printer.
Does Thunderbird export to PDF include attachments?
No. Its export writes the messages to PDF and warns that attachments will not be saved. Print the attachments yourself, or use a tool that folds them in.
How do I print a whole mailbox with attachments at once?
Use a tool that reads the .mbox and writes each message to PDF with its attachments included, so you do not open hundreds of files by hand.
Can I turn MBOX into PDF instead of printing on paper?
Yes. Saving to PDF is the same route, whether you use Thunderbird’s Save as PDF for the emails or a tool for the whole mailbox with attachments.
The one thing about the attachments
If you remember a single point, make it this one. The attachments are already inside your MBOX, that was never the problem. The problem is that printing an email prints the words and only names the files, so a stack of printed emails can quietly leave every attachment behind. For a few, print the emails in Thunderbird and open the attachments to print them too. For a mailbox full of them, let a tool write the PDFs with the attachments kept in. Either way, check that the files, not just their names, made it onto the page.
