Mboxreader
easily view your Gmail Takeouts
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Hey HN,Did you know you can download all your emails (and attachments) from GMail into a .mbox format using Google Takeout (https://takeout.google.com)?I did this and for the longest time my .mbox backup just sat around. I built a web app that can take an .mbox file and load it into a UI that looks like GMail: threaded conversations, original labels and categories, contacts, attachments, and full-text search.The mail never leaves your machine: the upload and parsing happens in a Web Worker in your own browser, and the archive is stored in browser storage on your device. Close the tab and it's wiped.There's no account required to try it out, and if you still don't trust it there's a built-in demo mailbox — no file needed.Try it out at https://mboxreader.com. Let me know if you have any questions or any constructive feedback. Thanks in advance!Pre-emptive FAQs:1. "If 'no account required' why is there sign up?": I'm curious if there is a "power user" use case that needs support for larger backups and advanced features. But again, there's no need to sign up to try out the app. 2. "Why make it a web app instead of something I can run locally and privately?": There's less friction to try it out as a web app and local setups don't eliminate privacy concerns either.
HN · launched Jul 24, 2026 · 7 upvotes (top 60%) · 0 views
Niche: developer data and local file viewers · 49 launches, 9 in the last 7 days · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Vertical SaaS
- Prosumer
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 49 launches in developer data and local file viewers →
Could you build this?
Yes An in-browser client-side viewer that parses .mbox email text files using JavaScript streaming/file readers and renders an inbox interface.
Discussion
No comments on this launch.
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 210 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #90 of 211 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 216 days after the earliest competitor.
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- ThreadTrim for Gmail · ph · 2026-09-27 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- Gmail Cleanup · ph · 2026-10-02 · 4 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- MailPixel · ph · 2026-10-22 · 4 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- MailViewed · ph · 2026-09-09 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- Mailbox MCP · ph · 2026-09-15 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.45
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