Extract text from Apple Mail location files (MAILTOLOC)
To convert MAILTOLOC mail locations to another format, you need Apple Mail or other Web software.
To convert other file formats to the "macOS Internet Shortcut" file type, you need software like Apple Mail or a similar tool.
A .mailtoloc file is a Mail Internet Location File used exclusively by macOS to store an email address shortcut. Users create these files by dragging an email link (a mailto: URL) from Apple Safari or Apple Mail directly onto the Finder desktop. Internally, it is formatted as an Apple Property List (plist).
The core disadvantage of the .mailtoloc format is its strict platform dependency. It is useless outside of the Apple ecosystem. If you email or transfer this file to a Windows or Linux machine, it will not act as a clickable shortcut. Users are instead forced to guess how to open it, often resulting in error messages. Because it is a system-specific settings file, it is completely ignored by web browsers on non-Apple devices.
Because of these limitations, converting or extracting the data from a .mailtoloc file is heavily recommended before sharing. The best target formats are universal text formats like TXT, HTML, or a standard Windows URL file. During extraction, the macOS-specific desktop shortcut behavior is lost, but the critical underlying email address is safely preserved.
This file format is difficult to open or convert on other operating systems. Emphasize that often only the original macOS Finder can properly read or execute the shortcut. Because it is a proprietary file meant only for Apple environments, typical converters fail to extract the payload. If our analysis detects the supported underlying XML text format, viewing the raw email address or converting it to a plain text file is completely possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your MAILTOLOC file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert MAILTOLOC 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 "Email Link Shortcut" 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 MAILTOLOC, try Apple Mail or another comparable tool in the "Email Link Shortcut" 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 MAILTOLOC converter.