# Backup4Mail — full text > Complete English text of https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/ and of the privacy policy (https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/privacy) as Markdown, generated from the website. Short summary: https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/llms.txt. Also available in German (https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/de/), French (https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/fr/), Spanish (https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/es/) and Italian (https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/it/). ## Home page [Backup4Mail](https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/) In development EN[DE](https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/de/)[FR](https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/fr/)[ES](https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/es/)[IT](https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/it/) In development Backup4Mail by robspace ### Your whole mailbox. Every point in time. Backup4Mail backs up complete IMAP mailboxes from your mail server into a folder you choose – on your Mac, an external drive or a NAS. After the first run it only fetches what has changed. Every backup becomes a point in time you can travel back to, restore and export. For Mac · macOS 26 or later Coming to the Mac App Store [Privacy policy](https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/privacy) **In development.** Backup4Mail is being tested right now and is not available yet. This page describes what the current test version does. How it works #### From the cloud, along the arc, into the drawer. The logo tells the whole story: your mail travels from the server into a drawer that belongs to you. What sits in the drawer rests safely. What moves is light. - ##### Your mailbox Backup4Mail connects directly to your mail server, always encrypted, and only reads. Backing up marks nothing as read and moves or deletes nothing. - ##### One turn per backup The first backup copies everything. Every later one fetches only what is new, gone or changed – folders run side by side over up to three connections. - ##### Your vault A folder on your Mac, an external drive or a NAS. Mails are stored as EML (one file per mail) or MBOX (one file per folder), with a README that explains the layout. What you delete on the server stays in the vault unless you switch on thinning. Features #### Everything a mail backup needs, nothing it doesn’t. 01 ##### Time travel Every backup is a point in time. Turn the time ring and see your mailbox exactly as it was then: folders, mails, read and flagged status. New mails, mails deleted since and moved mails are marked. The search finds subject, sender, recipients and preview across all points in time. 02 ##### Back up – then only the changes Add an account with its email address: for well-known providers Backup4Mail fills in the server itself, otherwise it asks your provider’s domain. Microsoft accounts (Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, Microsoft 365) connect with “Sign in with Microsoft”. The password or sign-in token goes into the keychain of this Mac. The first backup copies everything, every later one only the changes. The orbit shows how far it is: mails, size, rate and the folder being backed up. 03 ##### Restore without duplicates Restore a whole point in time, single folders or single mails – into the original account or another one, into the original folders or a separate folder. A dry run shows first how many mails are already there and how many will be uploaded. Flags and received dates are kept. 04 ##### Export into open formats Export any point in time as MBOX, MBOX for Apple Mail, EML folders, Maildir, PST Beta or HTML archive – a searchable offline website that any browser can open, no mail app needed. 05 ##### Backup jobs with their own schedule Every account at a destination is a backup job: every hour, daily at a set time, weekly or only manually. With the window closed, Backup4Mail keeps working from the menu bar, and if you switch it on, it opens at login. Missed backups are caught up a minute after the Mac wakes; a sleeping Mac it cannot wake. - [Privacy policy](https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/privacy) - [Imprint](https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/imprint) - [Contact](mailto:support@robspace.de) - [Deutsch](https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/de/) - [Français](https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/fr/) - [Español](https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/es/) - [Italiano](https://backup4mail.app.robspace.de/it/) © 2026 Robert Poetzsch · robspace · Made with care in Germany ## Privacy Policy for Backup4Mail Last updated: 4 November 2026 ### 1. Who is responsible Backup4Mail (“the app”) is developed and published by Robert Poetzsch under the robspace brand. Robert Poetzsch Brückenstr. 8A 65719 Hofheim am Taunus Germany Email: support@robspace.de This policy describes which data Backup4Mail processes, where it is kept and who can see it. It applies to the Backup4Mail app for Mac and to this website. Backup4Mail is in development; this policy describes the current test version. ### 2. Summary - Backup4Mail has **no server** of its own. robspace operates no service that your mail, your passwords or your account data pass through. - Your mail goes **only from your mail server to the destination you choose** (a folder on your Mac, an external drive or a network drive). robspace cannot see your mail. - Account data stays in the app’s container on your Mac; passwords stay in the **keychain of this Mac** and are not synced via iCloud. - Backup4Mail contains **no analytics, no tracking, no ads and no third-party SDKs**. - Purchases are handled by **Apple**. robspace receives no payment or account data. ### 3. What Backup4Mail stores on your Mac **In the app’s container** (`~/Library/Containers/RobEarth.Backup4Mail`): your backup jobs with the email address, the mail server, the user name and their settings (schedule, folders, notifications, thinning), the chosen destination as a security-scoped bookmark of macOS, a local index of your vaults (a cache built from the vault, for time travel and search) and a temporary buffer for mails that are waiting for the destination. App-wide settings are stored there as well. **In the keychain of this Mac:** the password or app password of each account, for Microsoft accounts the sign-in token. The entries can only be read on this Mac and are not synced via iCloud Keychain. ### 4. Your mail Backup4Mail connects directly to your mail server. The connection is always encrypted; if encryption is not possible, Backup4Mail does not connect. While backing up, Backup4Mail only reads: it marks nothing as read and moves or deletes nothing on the server. The mails go from your mail server to the destination you choose and nowhere else: into a vault, a folder that you select on your Mac, an external drive or a network drive. When you restore, mails go from a vault or an imported file to the mail account you choose. When you export, Backup4Mail writes files to the folder you choose. robspace has no access to any of this. The vault and its files belong to you. If your destination is a network drive, a NAS or a folder that another service syncs, the conditions of that device or service apply. ### 5. Setting up an account To find the server for your email address, Backup4Mail first uses a list of well-known providers built into the app. If your provider is not on it, the app looks up the domain of your email address in DNS (MX and SRV records) and asks for your provider’s configuration file at addresses under that domain (`autoconfig.` and `/.well-known/autoconfig/`). Only the domain is used for this, never your password. The DNS queries go to the DNS server your Mac uses. **Microsoft (Outlook.com, Microsoft 365)**, when you connect with “Sign in with Microsoft”: signing in happens directly at Microsoft. The app receives a sign-in token and stores it in the keychain of your Mac. Microsoft’s privacy policy applies. ### 6. Purchases and Backup4Mail Pro Backup4Mail can be used for free for 30 days; after that, new backups and time travel need Backup4Mail Pro (monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase). Restore and export stay free. Purchases and subscriptions are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store and your Apple Account. Your payment details stay with Apple; Backup4Mail never sees them, and robspace receives no payment or account data (no name, no email address, no Apple Account). For the start of the trial, the app reads the date signed by Apple from Apple’s receipt on your Mac and stores it in the keychain of this Mac. Whether you own Backup4Mail Pro, the app checks on your Mac with Apple’s StoreKit. robspace operates no server that checks purchases. Apple’s terms and privacy policy apply to purchases. ### 7. Notifications, menu bar and login item Backup4Mail can notify you, for example when a backup failed, when the destination has been unreachable for a while, when unusually many mails disappeared from the server or, if you switch it on, when a backup finished. You choose this per backup job. These notifications are created by the app on your Mac; there is no push service. You can switch them off in System Settings › Notifications › Backup4Mail. With its window closed, Backup4Mail keeps running as an icon in the menu bar so that scheduled backups can run. It opens at login only if you switch that on in the app; you can remove it again there or in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions. ### 8. No analytics, no tracking, crash reports Backup4Mail contains no analytics, tracking, advertising or crash SDKs and no third-party code that sends data. It does not track you across apps or websites of other companies and does not use an advertising ID. Crash reports reach the developer only through Apple and only if you have agreed to share them with app developers (System Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements). You control that there. ### 9. Links The app links to this website, to this privacy policy, to Apple’s terms of use, to subscription management in the App Store, to the robspace community page on github.com and to the support address support@robspace.de. A click opens the page in your browser or your mail app; Backup4Mail itself sends nothing. GitHub’s privacy policy applies on GitHub. Issues on GitHub are public: please do not post mail content, addresses or other personal data there. ### 10. Deleting data If you remove a backup job in the app, Backup4Mail deletes its data on this Mac (schedule, folders, settings) and the account’s password or sign-in token in the keychain, unless another backup job uses the same account. The backups at the destination stay with you: Backup4Mail does not touch the vault, and you can delete it in the Finder if you want to. If you move Backup4Mail to the Trash, its container in `~/Library/Containers/RobEarth.Backup4Mail` remains until you delete it. ### 11. This website This website is hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH on a server in a data centre in Falkenstein (Germany). When you open a page, the web server automatically logs your IP address, the date and time, the page or file requested, the HTTP status, the amount of data transferred, the referring page (referrer) and your browser’s user agent. These logs serve only the operation and security of the website; the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure and stable operation). They are deleted automatically after 14 days at the latest, are not analysed and are not passed on unless a legal obligation requires it. The website sets no cookies, uses no analytics or tracking and embeds no third-party content. If the website remembers a choice you make on it (for example the language), it does so only in your browser’s local storage and not for tracking. The fonts come from this server; there is no connection to Google Fonts or other font services. ### 12. Legal bases and your rights The app sends no data to the developer. Processing in the app takes place on your Mac, under your control and on your instruction (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR: providing the functions you use). Apple’s privacy policy applies to the App Store and to crash reports shared through Apple. If you write to us at support@robspace.de, we process your message in order to answer it (Art. 6(1)(b) or (f) GDPR) and delete it once it has been dealt with and no retention obligation applies. You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection (Art. 15–21 GDPR), and the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, for example the Hessian Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HBDI). As we receive no data from the app, you can exercise most of these rights directly on your Mac: change or remove accounts in the app and delete vaults in the Finder. ### 13. Changes If the way the app handles data changes, we update this policy and the date at the top. ### 14. Contact Questions about privacy: support@robspace.de