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Downloading your Gmail Account

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allen:
There's been talk here and, really, all over the net about backing up Gmail locally -- largely because a few people have fallen prey to what seems to be spontaneous combustion of Gmail accounts.  While some of these may very well be the result of violations of terms of service, I know I for one lost my account without ever violating any ToS and was given neither warning nor later justification for my loss off account.

That said, I personally feel anyone who uses gmail and values the information they keep on their account should take care to keep a backup of said data.  It is a bit ironic, if not counter-productive, to backup locally something that urges you to "archive everything" and enjoy universal remote access -- unfortunately, all that convenience and archival is meaningless if you don't have an account.  Unfortunately, sometimes gmail accounts just die.

Gmail does provide POP3 access to your account which, if nothing else, services are a rather efficient means of backing up your data.

Just go to your settings, select the POP/Forwarding tab, and make sure you select "All Mail" (even already downloaded) -- this will release all your mail for download to a third party client so you can download away.  Just follow the setup instructions provided for your mail client of choice.

The real reason I started this thread is the following, tiny bit of information--because it threw me off at first.  Gmail doesn't release all of your mail immediately.  It releases blocks for 200 - 400 messages at a time.  So when you go to download and it says it's downloading 300 or so messages, don't be alarmed.  Next time you check your mail, it'll grab another block -- and so on.  If you have a big gmail account, your best bet is to set your e-mail client to download every minute or two and just leave it running overnight.  Eventually, it'll download them all.  From there on out, it's easy street -- just downloading your daily mail traffic.

Any seasoned computer user knows the value of backing up data (even if they don't actively pratice it :) -- gmail is no different.

Rover:
It's kind of funny in a way.  I have my gmail account set for POP3 download and I read it from Thunderbird 99% of the time.  I just use the gmail interface when I'm away from home. 

So in effect, I use Gmail as the backup and use all of my stuff locally  :D

VSiAQ:
I second that. I'm using a slow dial-up connection and I'm unable to spend time waiting for the web mail interface to load. I just use Thunderbird to read email, and check the option "Forward mail" to my Yahoo! account to be notified whenever an email comes.

jgpaiva:
Yesterday, after reading the entry in Allen's blog, for the first time, i believed this could happen. (before that, i thought it were only anti-google hoaxes)

But i don't like the idea of using pop and reading mail locally, or doing backups.
So, i opened an account on another big e-mail provided and set the forwarding of all mails to that e-mail account.
I guess this is a good way to do things for those who don't like using POP.

Btw, does anyone know what would happen if i redirected the incoming mail on the other e-mail account to the gmail again? do you think they'd get full?

allen:
It's kind of funny in a way.  I have my gmail account set for POP3 download and I read it from Thunderbird 99% of the time.  I just use the gmail interface when I'm away from home. -Rover (March 20, 2006, 10:20 PM)
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Actually, I do the same thing (sans Thunderbird) -- primarily because of gmail/Opera being only tolerant of one another, at the moment.

Yesterday, after reading the entry in Allen's blog, for the first time, i believed this could happen. (before that, i thought it were only anti-google hoaxes)-jgpaiva (March 21, 2006, 03:46 AM)
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I wish :) When it happened to me, though, it was a while back -- before pop3/forwarding were options.  It's possible, if not likely, there are some who make up stories as anti-gmail propaganda, but the unfortunate truth is that their stories are based on real tragedies :)

Btw, does anyone know what would happen if i redirected the incoming mail on the other e-mail account to the gmail again? do you think they'd get full?
-jgpaiva (March 21, 2006, 03:46 AM)
--- End quote ---

Huh, that's an interesting question . . . an infinite loop of reforwarding mail . . . Try it! :)

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