Extract text from MAILLOC files
To convert your MAILLOC file to another format, you need Apple Mail or other System software.
To convert other file formats to the "Mac OS Configuration" file type, you need software like Apple Mail or a similar tool.
A .mailloc file is not the document or image you were likely expecting; it is a tiny Apple Mail system file that acts as a placeholder or pointer. These files are typically generated when you drag an attachment out of Apple Mail before it has fully downloaded, or when using Mail Drop for large files. Instead of containing binary data (like a PDF or JPG), the .mailloc file contains XML text data specifying the URL or directory path where the actual asset is located.
The primary difficulty for users is that standard viewers like Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word cannot open these files, leading to errors claiming the file is corrupt or unsupported. Because the file is essentially a text-based Property List (plist), the most practical solution is to convert it to TXT or XML. This allows you to open the file in a text editor, locate the <string> tag associated with the file URL, and manually retrieve your original attachment. For archiving the metadata structure, converting to JSON is also effective.
Convert.Guru analyzes your MAILLOC file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted PLUGINPAYLOADATTACHMENT, RFC822 and IDENTITY files.
If you want to convert MAILLOC file to TMP, TEMP, CACHE, LOG, BAK, OLD, NEW, PART, DOWNLOAD, CRDOWNLOAD, LOCK or PID, you can use Apple Mail or similar software from the "Mail Attachment Placeholder" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DEVICE, CACHE, SOCK, SYMLINK, PID, MOUNT, FIFO, LOG, PIPE, TMP, JUNCTION or TEMP files to MAILLOC, try Apple Mail or another comparable tool in the "Mail Attachment Placeholder" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our MAILLOC converter.