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How to open .EML files on Mac

To open .EML files on Mac, double-click the .eml file; if it doesn’t open in your preferred mail app, Control-click → Open With and choose an email client/viewer.

Step-by-step instructions

  1. Double-click the .eml file; if it doesn’t open in your preferred mail app, Control-click → Open With and choose an email client/viewer.
  2. If the email appears as raw headers/text, open it with a mail client that understands Internet Message Format/MIME rather than a plain text editor.

Common issues

The .EML file opens as unreadable raw text

This typically happens when the file is opened in a plain text editor that does not interpret RFC 5322 headers and MIME parts (HTML body, attachments).

  1. Open the .eml with an email client/viewer instead of a text editor.
  2. If you must inspect it manually, use a text editor only to verify headers, and extract attachments using a mail client that understands MIME.

Double-click opens the .EML in the wrong program

File associations may be set incorrectly (for example, not associated with message/rfc822 or mapped to a generic editor).

  1. On Windows: right-click → Open with → choose Outlook (or another mail client), and set it as the default for .eml if offered.
  2. On Linux: change the default application for message/rfc822 or the *.eml association via your desktop environment settings (shared MIME-info).

Outlook won’t open the .EML as expected

Different Outlook versions and configurations (including the new Outlook) can behave differently when opening .eml files.

  1. Use Microsoft’s documented method for opening .eml in the new Outlook (see Further reading).
  2. If one method fails (e.g., double-click), try opening from within Outlook or using Open with from File Explorer.

Attachments are missing or won’t open

The .eml may be incomplete/corrupted, or the message’s MIME structure may not have been preserved during download/transfer.

  1. Re-download or re-export the .eml from the original source to ensure the full message is saved.
  2. Open the .eml in a mail client that supports MIME so attachments are recognized and extracted correctly.

Security note

.EML files can contain links, HTML content, and attachments via MIME; treat them like opening an email—be cautious with unexpected senders and do not open attachments you don’t trust.

Back to .EML extension page