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I have some .mbox files containing thousands of emails that were exported from Gmail. I'd like to be able to view mails, by conversation and by label (Gmail label), search, delete some mails, etc.

Essentially, it's a mail app in terms of UI, with labels on the left and with threaded conversations, but it works with a static mailbox file instead of talking to a real server. Sort of like how you can open a text file in a text editor, read it, search, delete things from it, and save it back.

What are some good apps that let you do this?

Kartick Vaddadi
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  • I think these two questions might also help you: http://superuser.com/questions/448681/how-to-open-browse-an-mbox-file http://askubuntu.com/questions/114063/open-mbox-file – bdecaf Sep 08 '14 at 11:27

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Apple Mail allows importing from .mbox files (see the import option in the File menu). I don't know how well it supports the other requirements you've listed but it might be worth a try.

nohillside
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    But don't I need to set up an account to use Mail.app? As I said, I don't want it to sync with any server, just open a local mailbox. – Kartick Vaddadi Sep 07 '14 at 12:56
  • Good point, don't know whether it's possible to use Apple Mail without any mail account. Just start it up and give it a try. – nohillside Sep 07 '14 at 18:01
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    Thanks. It lets me import the .mbox, search for mails by word or by sender, delete mails I don't want, etc. The only caveats is that it seems to make a copy, so deleting a sensitive mail deletes it only from its copy, and not the original .mbox it imported from. And that it takes several minutes to import a 4GB mailbox even on the 2013 Retina Macbook Pro with 16GB RAM. But, basically, it works. – Kartick Vaddadi Sep 08 '14 at 07:18
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    To bypass Apple Mail not being usable without an account, I just faked my way through adding an account with all dummy data: [email protected] for the address, "blah" for the password. It will repeatedly ask you for IMAP settings but you can just leave all the defaults without consequence. – radicaledward101 Feb 22 '18 at 21:15
  • @radicaledward101, don't think it works anymore? – Pacerier Jan 22 '20 at 08:37
  • Sorry for the slow response. @Pacerier yeah sorry I haven't had to work with mbox files in a couple of years. I'm not sure what I would use these days. – radicaledward101 Sep 23 '20 at 17:52