How to Use an Email Client to Download Your Gmail Emails
If you use Outlook, Windows Mail, or another email client, your emails are downloaded to your computer every time you get a new message. However, your Gmail account and the program you use must both have POP enabled so that the emails don’t get deleted if you delete them from Gmail.com. To ensure that your email client downloads your Gmail messages:
How to View Gmail Offline With Google Chrome
If you use Google Chrome, view Gmail messages offline without downloading them. To set up offline mail:
How to Download an Archive of Your Gmail Messages
To download all your Gmail messages in a convenient compressed format: Your messages appear in the MBOX format, which is a large text file. Email programs like Thunderbird can read MBOX files natively. For large archive files, use an MBOX-compatible email program instead of parsing the text file. This method offers a snapshot-in-time view of your Gmail account. If you need to pull data more frequently than once a calendar quarter or so, find an alternative method of archiving.
Use an Online Backup Service
There are many online companies that incrementally back up your email and social media accounts for easy retrieval. For example, Backupify backs up personal information from Facebook, Flickr, Blogger, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google. Backupify offers a 15-day trial for free before you commit to paying for the service. Alternatively, try Upsafe or Gmvault. Upsafe offers up to 3 GB of storage for free, while Gmvault is an open-source project with multiplatform support and a robust developer community.
Selectively Archive Gmail Messages Using Data Rules
If you don’t need all of your emails, consider more selective approaches to email archiving:
Manual Forwarding: When you receive a message you want to keep, forward it to another email account. To keep a copy of emails you send, enter the email address for the other account in the BCC line of your outgoing emails. Auto-forwarding: Tell Gmail to copy or blind copy all received email to a specific email address. IFTTT recipes: Use the IFTTT website to sync your Gmail account with a service outside of the Google ecosystem. Forward to Evernote or OneNote: Set up the me@onenote.com alias to import emails into OneNote, or use your custom Evernote email address to log messages into Evernote.
