Synology email backup tutorial – Securing Emails the Right Way!

If you are looking into Synology email backup, it means you want your email data stored somewhere you control, not scattered across different providers or tied to the lifespan of a single account. Running a dedicated email backup tool directly on a Synology NAS offers a practical way to keep messages, attachments, and history accessible long after they disappear from the original mailbox.

You have a Synology NAS sitting on a shelf somewhere. Maybe it’s humming away in a closet, blinking its green lights, mostly just storing old photos or perhaps acting as a media server for your movies. It’s doing its job. But you probably have this nagging feeling that it could be doing more. And at the same time, you might have another nagging feeling, the one about your email.

Email ends up carrying more weight than we ever anticipated. Most people leave all of that sitting with their email provider by default. It works well enough, until access changes, limits appear, or the terms quietly shift. At that point, the question is no longer about convenience, but about where that data actually lives and how reachable it really is.

That is why dedicated Synology email backup solutions like Mail Backup X are so crucial. Mail Backup X, specifically the version designed for Synology isbackup solution that bridges the gap between that blinking box in your closet and the thousands of emails sitting in your inbox.

Let’s walk you through what this tool is actually like to use, setting it up and letting it run.

Setting it up - The Basic Idea

The thing about Synology mail backups is if you have to remember to do them, they won’t happen.

The standard version of Mail Backup X runs on your laptop. That’s great, but your laptop sleeps. You close the lid, you travel, you turn it off. A NAS, on the other hand, is designed to be on 24/7. By putting the software on the Synology, you are essentially building your own private email server that purely exists to back up a copy of your email data and keep it safe locally. You don't need your computer on for it to work. It just happens in the background.

If you look into installing this, you are going to see the word "Docker" or "Container Manager." If you are not a tech person, that might sound a little intimidating. But, it’s not that difficult. You don't need to know code to make this work.

Docker is a way to run software in an isolated environment on your Synology NAS. The NAS itself is the main system, and Docker lets you run applications in separate containers within it.

Mail Backup X runs inside one such container. Everything it needs to function stays inside that container. This means it does not interfere with other applications on the NAS, and changes to Mail Backup X do not affect the rest of the system.

Step 1: Installing Container Manager (Docker) on Your Synology NAS

Mail Backup X runs as a container, so the first requirement is Synology’s Container Manager. If it is already installed on your NAS, you can skip ahead.

From DSM, open Package Center and look for Container Manager (or Docker on older DSM versions). Installation is straightforward and does not require special configuration. Once installed, it simply becomes another system tool available on your NAS.

At this stage, it helps to do a quick check:

• Your NAS has enough free storage for email archives.

• You are logged in with an administrator account.

• The NAS has a stable internet connection.

Here is step by step tutorial to Synology email backup:- https://mailbackupxforsynology.mailbackupx.com/

1. Open-Package-Center

2. Search-Docker-Package

3. Docker-Installed-List

4. Docker-Overview-Panel

Step 2: Installing Mail Backup X from the Public Registry

With Container Manager open, move to the Registry section. This is where Synology lets you pull container images from public repositories.

Search for the Mail Backup X image and download the latest stable version. You do not need to choose older tags unless you have a specific reason. The download may take a few minutes, depending on your connection.\

5. Select Image Tag

Once the image appears under the Images section, you are ready to create a running container. Nothing is active yet. At this point, you have only downloaded the software.

Step 3: Configuring the Mail Backup X Container

This is the most important part of the setup, because it decides how and where your email data is stored.

When you launch the image, Synology opens a configuration wizard. A few settings deserve attention:

Container name: Give it a clear name. Something like mailbackupx-nas makes it easier to identify later.

Auto-restart: Enable this. If your NAS restarts after a power outage or update, Mail Backup X should come back online automatically.

Network settings: The default network mode is usually fine. You do not need to customize this unless your NAS uses a complex network setup.

Port mapping: You map an internal container port to a local NAS port. This determines how you access the web interface. Make a note of the port number you choose.

Volume mapping: This step ensures your data survives container restarts or updates. Create a dedicated folder on your NAS, something like Email Archives 2025, and map it to the container’s internal data path.

This folder is where everything lives: emails, indexes, configuration files. If permissions are wrong here, backups will fail later, so it is worth double-checking read and write access.

Once the summary looks correct, start the container.

Step 4: Initial Access and Setup of Mail Backup X

After the container starts, open a browser and visit your NAS IP address with the mapped port. You should see the Mail Backup X login screen.

The first login uses default credentials, and you are immediately prompted to change the password. This is not optional. It protects access to your email archives.

Next comes license activation. You can either activate a trial or enter a license key. Both lead to the same dashboard.

Before adding email accounts, there is one more required piece for cloud services.

Setting Up Authentication for Cloud Email Accounts

If you plan to back up Gmail, Outlook.com, or Microsoft 365, you need the Mail Backup X OAuth Helper browser extension. This extension handles secure authentication redirects during sign-in.

Without it, cloud accounts will not complete the login flow properly. Once installed, you do not interact with it directly. It simply assists during authentication.

Configuring Your First Email Backup

From the dashboard, choose Setup New Profile. A profile represents one email account.

You select the email service, sign in through the provider’s authentication flow, and grant access.

After authentication, you name the profile, choose which folders to include, and decide on a schedule. Automatic backups work well for most users. Mail Backup X handles incremental backups on its own, so only new or changed emails are added after the first run.

Compression happens automatically in the background. There is no switch for it, and no tuning required. Storage optimization is built into the system.

Once saved, the initial backup begins.

From here on, it is mostly automatic.

You can:

• Monitor Synology email backup activity from the dashboard

• Browse archived emails directly in the interface

• Search across mailboxes using sender names, keywords, or dates

• Add more profiles later if needed

If an email is deleted from the original account, it remains in the archive. The backup becomes an independent record.

A simple validation step after the first backup is to open a few archived emails and confirm attachments load correctly. This ensures permissions and storage paths are working as expected.

A few things worth keeping in mind during Synology Email backup

Before you settle into long-term use of Mail Backup X on a Synology NAS, it helps to be aware of a few practical points. None of these are problems as such, but they shape how the tool fits into real-world use.

• Storage planning matters more than it first appears: While Mail Backup X uses automatic compression in the background, you should still plan NAS storage with some margin rather than aiming for a tight fit.

• The first Synology mail backup will take time: Initial backups can be slow, particularly for large or old mailboxes. This is normal. Performance improves significantly once incremental backups take over.

• Permissions can cause early hiccups: If backups fail during the first run, it is often due to folder permissions on the mapped NAS volume. Checking read and write access early can save troubleshooting later.

• Cloud services need browser-based authentication: Gmail, Outlook, and Microsoft 365 rely on OAuth sign-in. Having the helper extension installed beforehand avoids stalled login flows.

• This is an archive, not a live mailbox: Mail Backup X does not sync changes back to your email provider. Once emails are archived, they are preserved independently, even if deleted elsewhere.

Running Mail Backup X on a Synology NAS is about setting things up carefully once and letting the system do quiet, repetitive work in the background.If your priority is long-term access to email data, local control, and the ability to search years of communication without depending on a cloud provider, this workflow fits naturally into a NAS-based environment email backup needs.

Mail Backup X includes a free trial that lets you use the full application before committing to a license. During the trial period, you can add email accounts, run backups, browse archived messages, and use search and export features just as you would in the licensed version. Even after the trial ends, your archived data remains accessible, so you can still view, search, and print your backed-up emails without losing anything.