This completely defeats the purpose of end-to-end encryption. Email at rest should NEVER be unencrypted.

Whilst you are at it, whyt not add export in PDF format, a more effective way to archive and manage e-mails.
Thanks for the attention

I'm not sure if this is what I am looking for or not. When I do a search then want to delete all (or just some) of the searched emails, they won't delete. They're still there. Is this what the 'Mass export' is? Thanks

Agree with Jeremy's 6/12/2020 comment. Export tool should be made available to FREE (non-paid) accounts right away so messages are not held hostage. Also, charging monthly for the Bridge tool in order to use an email client is a bit unnecessary. At the very least, batch export and import should be included with the free account. The latter would help with maintaining tidier, leaner file directories.

On a second note, why is a standalone "export" tool be needed or is it embedded in the Protonmail interface? The ability to backup or export should be as simple as selecting the file or non-contiguous group of files or entire folder and then click "save" to local PC drive in a standard, unencrypted format if so desired.

If an export tool was provided for FREE accounts this would presumably reduce the amount of old emails stored forever on the main servers?

@peter sorry but your solution don't work. Export functionality with bridge is only for paid users.
https://protonmail.com/bridge

@protonmail team when the export feature will be released for free Plan ? We are waiting since 2016...

This is already possible! Well perhaps not with any convenient interface or something like that, but if you're the slightest bit familiar with how to configure an IMAP e-mail account in for example Outlook you can use the Proton Bridge to export (but also import!) your emails through Outlook: https://protonmail.com/bridge/install

Some useful side notes:
1. Through setting up both your Protonmail account (through Proton Bridge) and your 2nd e-mail account, you can use fr example Outlook to copy all existing mails.
- You can right click any folder in Outlook and select 'Copy to...' to copy all mails in that folder to another account
- Note that for Protonmail the destination should also be 'Folders', meaning you can not directly copy your e-mails to for example 'Sent Items' or 'Inbox' in your Protonmail account
- If you do wish to import/export your items from sent or inbox folder you can first copy them to for example 'Folders/Inbox', and then separately in the Protonmail interface you are able to move the items to your Inbox / Sent items folder.

Of course you can also use Protonmail Bridge in combination with any other 'imap backup tool' you can search for online.

I need this feature! I pay for my protonmail and use Bridge. I badly need to backup my mail onto my local drive.

They keep promising this trivial feature for years without delivering anything, can't trust them with emails if they can't handle such basic stuff.

The ability for a local archive is currently the only thing stopping me from switching ALL of my most important email to Proton mail! I cannot wait until this feature is available!!!

You guys are great!

The only reason I have not switched to protonmail paid services is this feature is not available.

How is this feature coming along? It's the final feature needed for me to take finally switch to using ProtonMail as my primary mail provider.

Hi,
The 15th July 2016 admin said we will releasing an export tools in the future. Have you a roadmap one year later. Because even if Protonmail is great I will fill more comfortable to know that I can save MY data's. I think security isn't only encryption of storage the ability to get back my data's is also very important aspect of security.

Another 'please' for this facility - I like to keep most of my messages so I will eventually fill my storage allocation; in addition, as others have said, it is a valuable 'safety net' just in case something does happen...
Do you have an estimated completion date for this feature yet?

For me as well, being able to migrate all mail to Protonmail, and even more important to be able to take all mail with me if the need arises is essential. Could you in any way give us an estimate on when this functionality will be available? I'm eagerly looking forward to being able to use and pay for your services.

This is an essential feature (along with mbox import) that I would have expected in a 1.0 for an email client/service.

I'm a paying customer because I want to see protonmail succeed, but I can't trust it as a primary email manager until there is an escape hatch to take should anything happen. Aside from the fact that there are different versions (which people can convert between outside of protonmail) it is also a simple format that allows for tons of possibilities to fill gaps outside the ProtonMail client.

I would love to see the ability to both import .mbox and export. Without being able to import, I'm always have to check multiple email accounts.

It would be amazing. Maybe a POP3 option can do the trick but Protonmail does not support it.

I agree with Robert. If something happens —remember Lavabit— we should be able to backup our mail.

I'd add this is needed for more than just archiving emails when too many. I would like to transition to using ProtonMail much more than I am (currently really just dabbling with a few things). However, as much as I want ProtonMail to succeed, it is still a new service and anything could happen moving forward (e.g. the service being discontinued, or going in a different feature direction to one I am comfortable with). The ability to export my content so I can transition back OUT of ProtonMail if the need arises is fairly important before I can commit more fully.