December 28, 2006 37 Comments

Back Up Your Gmail

Handsome Om Malik has officially scared the bejeesus out of me with his post about Gmail suffering some kind of problem resulting in deleted accounts, missing archives, etc. Story link is here.

Back Up Your Gmail

I took Om’s advice and backed my gmail account up. Here’s the steps I took.

  1. Read Google’s Help document on POP access to your Gmail account.
  2. Configure an account on your mail client for your gmail account. – IMPORTANT- Build a separate account. If you’re using Outlook, make sure this is a standalone PST file. If you’re using mail.app or Thunderbird, make sure this is a standalone account.
  3. Do the sync between gmail and your client. NOTE: This will probably take a while. If you’ve got a fairly healthy gmail account with lots of archived mail, you will be at this step for hours. So, disable your computer’s sleep setting, but enable the screensaver if you want, and let it do its thing.
  4. When it’s all there, turn off your mail client.
  5. Locate your mail client’s file for the gmail mails.
  6. Consider moving these (or making a copy) offline to a backup drive. In my case, I’m going to clip off a current update from today, and toss that entire file to my backup drive. Then, I’ll delete the account on my POP mail client, and go about my business.
  7. Schedule your updates periodically with Google Calendar (provided THAT doesn’t encounter a whoops).

I am a *huge* supporter of web-side applications. I use Google mail, calendar, docs, maps, and search every day. But an experience like what Om points out at GigaOm is a great reminder that it’s still my job to make appropriate backups of my records and not trust Google (or any other company) to keep my data safe for me.

If you’re a gmail user, consider doing this within the next 24 hours (provided you haven’t been doing this all along). External hard drives are cheap (I just got a 200GB external drive for $99). Give your online data a life vest.

Related posts:

  1. OFF TOPIC: Google Talk Mucks Up Gmail
  2. A Whole Lotta Bad Google
  3. A Whole Lotta Bad Google
  4. Google Office
  5. Back Again

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  • http://www.idoitdigital.com Clintus

    Oh man, this sucks. Thanks for the 411 though. I think I shit myself…

  • http://www.idoitdigital.com Clintus

    Oh man, this sucks. Thanks for the 411 though. I think I shit myself…

  • http://b.drewolanoff.com drew olanoff

    Brilliant advice Chris, I’m reposting this over at BestDamnTech.com for our listeners/viewers with a link back. I’m not lazy, but I just couldn’t put it any better.

  • http://b.drewolanoff.com drew olanoff

    Brilliant advice Chris, I’m reposting this over at BestDamnTech.com for our listeners/viewers with a link back. I’m not lazy, but I just couldn’t put it any better.

  • http://www.strangerstudios.com Jason Coleman

    Thanks for the quick how-to. I didn’t even think about Gmail’s POP support.

  • http://www.strangerstudios.com Jason Coleman

    Thanks for the quick how-to. I didn’t even think about Gmail’s POP support.

  • http://www.strangerstudios.com Jason Coleman

    Thanks for the quick how-to. I didn’t even think about Gmail’s POP support.

  • El Guapo

    This does not work. I have 1.5GB of email stored in gmail right now. (Lots of vonage voicemail).

    POP access only gives you about 30MB or so of your most recent mail.

    Any ideas?

  • El Guapo

    This does not work. I have 1.5GB of email stored in gmail right now. (Lots of vonage voicemail).

    POP access only gives you about 30MB or so of your most recent mail.

    Any ideas?

  • El Guapo

    This does not work. I have 1.5GB of email stored in gmail right now. (Lots of vonage voicemail).

    POP access only gives you about 30MB or so of your most recent mail.

    Any ideas?

  • Chris

    I’m with El Guapo. Thunderbird only retrives some 280-300 emails at the time. How can I get it to keep retrieving all my gmail?

  • Chris

    I’m with El Guapo. Thunderbird only retrives some 280-300 emails at the time. How can I get it to keep retrieving all my gmail?

  • Chris

    I’m with El Guapo. Thunderbird only retrives some 280-300 emails at the time. How can I get it to keep retrieving all my gmail?

  • Chris

    I don’t believe there is any way to retrieve more than 30meg of gmail e-mails.

  • Chris

    I don’t believe there is any way to retrieve more than 30meg of gmail e-mails.

  • Chris

    I don’t believe there is any way to retrieve more than 30meg of gmail e-mails.

  • http://www.chrisbrogan.com chrisbrogan

    Have you tried something different than Thunderbird as the catcher? I swear I got 14,000 mails on my Mail.app. Now, I haven’t checked to see size, but then, I don’t have many with attachments stored, I don’t think.

  • http://www.chrisbrogan.com chrisbrogan

    Have you tried something different than Thunderbird as the catcher? I swear I got 14,000 mails on my Mail.app. Now, I haven’t checked to see size, but then, I don’t have many with attachments stored, I don’t think.

  • http://www.chrisbrogan.com chrisbrogan

    Have you tried something different than Thunderbird as the catcher? I swear I got 14,000 mails on my Mail.app. Now, I haven’t checked to see size, but then, I don’t have many with attachments stored, I don’t think.

  • Chris

    Well GMail will let me download between 300-400 emails at a time it seems.

    I’ve now setup the account within Thunderbird to check and retrieve for new email every 1 minute. I had to restart Thunderbird to get the new settings activated. But now the email is flowing into my archive folders.

    To others – you might want to configure a rule/filter on mail retrieval. All my email now flows into a folder for the year the email was from.

    That way it would also be possible to restore the email to a gmail account using the gmail loader app and load one year at a time. Of course before doing that I would need to seperate the mail further into sent/received archives.

  • Chris

    Well GMail will let me download between 300-400 emails at a time it seems.

    I’ve now setup the account within Thunderbird to check and retrieve for new email every 1 minute. I had to restart Thunderbird to get the new settings activated. But now the email is flowing into my archive folders.

    To others – you might want to configure a rule/filter on mail retrieval. All my email now flows into a folder for the year the email was from.

    That way it would also be possible to restore the email to a gmail account using the gmail loader app and load one year at a time. Of course before doing that I would need to seperate the mail further into sent/received archives.

  • Chris

    Well GMail will let me download between 300-400 emails at a time it seems.

    I’ve now setup the account within Thunderbird to check and retrieve for new email every 1 minute. I had to restart Thunderbird to get the new settings activated. But now the email is flowing into my archive folders.

    To others – you might want to configure a rule/filter on mail retrieval. All my email now flows into a folder for the year the email was from.

    That way it would also be possible to restore the email to a gmail account using the gmail loader app and load one year at a time. Of course before doing that I would need to seperate the mail further into sent/received archives.

  • Anonymous

    Hi Chris,

    This is Suresh (aka Proto) from India. I stumbled upon your useful article while I was searching for how-to-backup-gmail-using-thunderbird. I have been thinking of taking a gmail backup ever since news about people loosing their mails or sometimes being locked out of their gmail accounts came to the fore.

    Now that TB 2 RC1 is out, thought it is as good a time as any to take backups. The backing up is happening right now (as I right this).

    However, I didn’t quite understand the points 5, 6, and 7 (as in “how exactly to go about it”). Here are the queries I have:

    #5. How can I identify the folder name? Any link that explains this will be very useful for TB newbies like me

    #6. “I’m going to clip off a current update from today, and toss that entire file to my backup drive. Then, I’ll delete the account on my POP mail client, and go about my business.”.

    Here, are you talking about moving the mail-file to a backup and then actually deleting it off from the source (folder mentioned in #5)? Why would you do it?

    Also, are you going to delete the gmail pop account info from TB? If yes, then how will you take backup next week or in future? I mean is your intention only to take backup only till today (day in which you are doing this exercise)?

    #7. “Schedule your updates periodically with Google Calendar”.. Here, are you asking us to repeat all the steps (to take backup) every week or month, by using reminders from GCal? Or is there a way to actually take GMail updates using GCal? I know this might sound dumb, but I didn’t quite understand.

    Thanks.

    Regards,
    Suresh.

  • Anonymous

    Hi Chris,

    This is Suresh (aka Proto) from India. I stumbled upon your useful article while I was searching for how-to-backup-gmail-using-thunderbird. I have been thinking of taking a gmail backup ever since news about people loosing their mails or sometimes being locked out of their gmail accounts came to the fore.

    Now that TB 2 RC1 is out, thought it is as good a time as any to take backups. The backing up is happening right now (as I right this).

    However, I didn’t quite understand the points 5, 6, and 7 (as in “how exactly to go about it”). Here are the queries I have:

    #5. How can I identify the folder name? Any link that explains this will be very useful for TB newbies like me

    #6. “I’m going to clip off a current update from today, and toss that entire file to my backup drive. Then, I’ll delete the account on my POP mail client, and go about my business.”.

    Here, are you talking about moving the mail-file to a backup and then actually deleting it off from the source (folder mentioned in #5)? Why would you do it?

    Also, are you going to delete the gmail pop account info from TB? If yes, then how will you take backup next week or in future? I mean is your intention only to take backup only till today (day in which you are doing this exercise)?

    #7. “Schedule your updates periodically with Google Calendar”.. Here, are you asking us to repeat all the steps (to take backup) every week or month, by using reminders from GCal? Or is there a way to actually take GMail updates using GCal? I know this might sound dumb, but I didn’t quite understand.

    Thanks.

    Regards,
    Suresh.

  • Proto

    Hi Chris,

    This is Suresh (aka Proto) from India. I stumbled upon your useful article while I was searching for how-to-backup-gmail-using-thunderbird. I have been thinking of taking a gmail backup ever since news about people loosing their mails or sometimes being locked out of their gmail accounts came to the fore.

    Now that TB 2 RC1 is out, thought it is as good a time as any to take backups. The backing up is happening right now (as I right this).

    However, I didn’t quite understand the points 5, 6, and 7 (as in “how exactly to go about it”). Here are the queries I have:

    #5. How can I identify the folder name? Any link that explains this will be very useful for TB newbies like me

    #6. “I’m going to clip off a current update from today, and toss that entire file to my backup drive. Then, I’ll delete the account on my POP mail client, and go about my business.”.

    Here, are you talking about moving the mail-file to a backup and then actually deleting it off from the source (folder mentioned in #5)? Why would you do it?

    Also, are you going to delete the gmail pop account info from TB? If yes, then how will you take backup next week or in future? I mean is your intention only to take backup only till today (day in which you are doing this exercise)?

    #7. “Schedule your updates periodically with Google Calendar”.. Here, are you asking us to repeat all the steps (to take backup) every week or month, by using reminders from GCal? Or is there a way to actually take GMail updates using GCal? I know this might sound dumb, but I didn’t quite understand.

    Thanks.

    Regards,
    Suresh.

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