15 ways to back up your Gmail

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  • How to back up Gmail

    How to back up Gmail

    If you're a Gmail user, you know that Google's entire IT infrastructure is standing behind your email archive -- but you also know that things sometimes go wrong.

    In this gallery, and its accompanying article, we'll explore 15 different ways you can make sure you can back up your Gmail message store.

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Back up using an email client

    Back up using an email client

    The easiest and most obvious way to back up your Gmail is to connect an email client like Thunderbird or Outlook on your desktop.

    Be sure to set Gmail up to allow IMAP (and don't forget to turn IMAP on for your labels). Then set up your email client and let it run.

    Photo by: Mozilla

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Gmvault

    Gmvault

    If you want to go a lot more hardcore, there's always the open source Gmvault script. It's a command-line script written in Python and it's quite powerful and flexible.

    Photo by: Gmvault

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Simple forwarding rule

    Simple forwarding rule

    If you want go simple (really, really simple), just set up an email forwarding rule in Gmail that sends every incoming message to another service.

    Photo by: David Gewirtz

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Attachments to Dropbox

    Attachments to Dropbox

    If you want to get creative, you can use IFTTT.com to set up all sorts of interesting triggers and scripts. One of the most useful is to send all attachments to a folder in Dropbox.

    Photo by: iFTTT

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Forward from a Google Apps account

    Forward from a Google Apps account

    Another variant on the forwarding idea is to set up an inexpensive Google Apps account and use forwarding rules to send messages to both Gmail and a designated alternate email service.

    Photo by: David Gewirtz

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Archive to FileMaker

    Archive to FileMaker

    An interesting Mac-only solution is MailArchiver X, which will allow you to download your Gmail and archive it to FileMaker.

    Photo by: MailArchiver X

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Upsafe

    Upsafe

    If you want a super-simple Gmail downloader for Windows, you can't go much easier than Upsafe.

    Photo by: Upsafe

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Use your hosting SMTP server to route mail

    Use your hosting SMTP server to route mail

    If you use a hosting provider and a custom domain name, you can set up your SMTP server at the hosting provider to have a server-side rule that sends messages to both Gmail and another service, like Office 365.

    Photo by: David Gewirtz

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Mailstore Home

    Mailstore Home

    Mailstore Home is another way of downloading your messages to a Windows machine. What makes these folks different is they also have enterprise-level solutions, so you can scale.

    Photo by: Mailstore Home

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Forward to Evernote

    Forward to Evernote

    We keep coming back to using filters and forwarding because it's easy to do. Evernote gives users a unique email address, so you can forward all your messages to your Evernote archive.

    Photo by: Evernote

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Backupify for G Suite only

    Backupify for G Suite only

    Backupify used to offer a backup solution for Gmail users, but now only offers it for G Suite. Even so, if you're a G Suite user, it's an option.

    Photo by: Backupify

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Google Takeout

    Google Takeout

    If you would be content with a single-time snapshot export of your email, you can't go wrong with Google's own Takeout service. A few clicks and all your email is downloaded in a pile of zip files.

    Photo by: Google

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • YippieMove for migration

    YippieMove for migration

    If you want to do a one-time migration of your Gmail messages to another service, give YippieMove a try.

    Photo by: YippieMove

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Migrate to Outlook.com

    Migrate to Outlook.com

    Microsoft would love to help you back up your Gmail email, as long as it means you're backing it up to Outlook.com. They offer a service to make the move.

    Photo by: Microsoft

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Gmail Offline

    Gmail Offline

    If you don't mind having just the last month's email messages offline (great for traveling), consider Gmail Offline, a Chrome plugin that caches recent Gmail data.

    Photo by: Google

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

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Google has a gigantic infrastructure for managing and storing Gmail email. Even so, some folks just want to know they control their information. This gallery shows 15 ways you can back up your Gmail email.

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How to back up Gmail

If you're a Gmail user, you know that Google's entire IT infrastructure is standing behind your email archive -- but you also know that things sometimes go wrong.

In this gallery, and its accompanying article, we'll explore 15 different ways you can make sure you can back up your Gmail message store.

Caption by: David Gewirtz

1 of 16

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