Gmail backup?

[LVSaint]

I'm always a tiny bit paranoid that one day my business Gmail account might disappear. I've read that I'd need to have POP enabled (which it is) but then archived? Without wanting to start poking buttons and messing things up, what do I need to do to enable incoming and outgoing messages to be automatically stored on my laptop?

[Weston Super Saint]

How do you access your Gmail?

 

If you just go on to the Gmail website, then you may lose the lot.

 

If you use a webmail program - such as Outlook express - it will download the messages onto your computer from the server, then it is simply a case of adding the folders where the mails are stored to your backup routine.

 

For added security, the message can be deleted from the server once it is downloaded to your computer....

[thesaint sfc]

You can set up forwarding in gmail so that it forwards every single one of your emails to another email address. Why not get a yahoo email address or hotmail and set it up so it forwards all your emails to there, thus you have a duplicate copy should something ever happen to one of your email accounts. Alternatively you can do as WSS says, however downloading emails via outlook express or any other email client takes a long time.

[LVSaint]

I know I should have thought about this long ago. Forwarding it all to a different address seems the easiest solution but won't help with the older stuff.

 

I may try a Thunderbird account one weekend and shift everything over slowly.

 

Thanks.

 

Edit - Just downloaded Thunderbird software and I didn't find that I need to adjust anything on the gmail settings or tinker with anything really in Thunderbird other than specify the gmail address and password. After a couple of hours, I've managed to get all my stored read email from gmail into Thunderbird. Extremely easy. No messing with IMAP or POP settings or anything.

Edited 24 June, 2009 by LVSaint

[stockportsaint]

That'll be because Thunderbird is part of the Mozilla/Firefox project, which is heavily funded (80% so I've heard) by Google. So they'll make their email client highly compatible with their main sponsor's webmail.

[hamster]

Just wandering how long people keep e-mails for?

 

At home I used to apply 'rules' to sort them into folders as they arrived, but found that I never tidied the folders. Out of sight out of mind I suppose.

 

Now I delete as I go, and if one might need a 'follow up', I add a 'flag' and come back to it. It really does help to keep on top of them.

 

Don't forget to empty your 'deleted' folder every now and then too, I've seen them with literally thousands of e-mails in them, built over years.

 

There aren't that many e-mails that need to be kept for longer than a month in my opinion.