Gmail is a free email service provided by Google. Gmail is a similar service to other email providers. Through this, you can send and receive emails, create an address book, block spam, and do other common tasks. but it also has several qualities that help make it one of the most popular online email services.
In this blog, we will be providing the best ways to backup Gmail emails to a hard drive. We will explain both manual and professional methods but firstly we discuss the need for backup.
Why Should I Backup My Gmail Account?
Backing up your mailbox data is a smart strategy to prevent data loss. Along with that, there are many other reasons to backup your Gmail account. Some of the most prominent causes that lead you to export your valuable items are listed below.
- Sometimes hackers get to access your Gmail account even after privacy. So many users backup their Gmail accounts to prevent hacking.
- In some cases, users delete the email by mistake and cannot recover it. So taking a backup of emails will be helpful.
- If by chance the computer or PC shuts down unexpectedly.
- It is well known that Gmail is a cloud-based service. To access this you need a good internet server.
Now we will discuss the complete process of the backup Gmail email.
How to Backup Gmail Emails?- Manually
You can download your Gmail emails locally via different methods. The first and most familiar approach to save your mailbox data is the manual method. It is a free solution that requires some technical expertise. If you are aware of basic functionalities of Gmail, you can easily backup Gmail emails via manual approach.
Let us check some easy and reliable migration methods.
1. Google Takeout Features Method
If the user has the time and wants to perform it manually, they can try this method. Using the Google Takeout feature, you can archive Gmail content to the system location. To learn it, follow these steps.
- Visit https://myaccount.google.com and sign in to your Google account to add your Gmail account.
- On the left panel of the opened page, click Data & personalization. On the right pane, you will see the description page. Click the highlighted arrow in the below image against Download your data under Download, delete, or make a plan for your data.
- In order to move only Gmail emails, select Deselect All and then Mail as highlighted. On the next page, click Next step.
- Using the drop-down menu, you can choose the export type, file type (.zip or .tgz), archive size (1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 10GB or 50GB), etc. Select the Create Archive option.
- Archiving will begin and it may take hours or days to complete.
2. Use Gmail Email as PDF Method
- Log in to your Gmail account using your user ID and password.
- Select the Gmail email you want to save.
- Then you will see a Print All button in the upper right corner, click it.
- Click the Print All icon and a pop-up window will appear.
- Now you should adjust the settings as desired and click Print. A Save As window appears.
- Select PDF in the Files of type option and click the Save button.
- Once you have your emails on your PC, you can copy and paste them to your external hard drive.
3. Use Save Gmail Email Via Outlook Method
- Start MS Outlook and log in.
- Click the Settings button and click the Show All Outlook Settings option from the drop-down menu.
- Then click Gmail and select the Email Sync option.
- A pop-up window will appear where you need to enter a display name.
- Then click the Connect Google Account option. Now create a new folder for your emails where all your Gmail emails will be imported and click the OK button.
- Select the Gmail account from which you want to import all emails to MS Outlook.
- Enter your Gmail account credentials and click the Next button.
- When prompted for authentication, click Allow to close the settings window.
After importing all your Gmail emails to Outlook, you can save them on your PC in the form of PST files. Then move the PST file to an external hard drive to create a backup of your Gmail emails.
As you see this process takes a long time and you need to wait a long time to complete the process. Just like that, there are many limitations in the manual method we will discuss in the below section.
Limitation Of Manual Method
- Time is spent on this process.
- There is no guarantee that the entire data will be backed up.
- All selected emails cannot be archived.
- Technical knowledge is a must.
As we discussed, the manual method has many drawbacks so now we will discuss the third-party solution which is the best solution to backup Gmail Emails to a Hard Drive.
Backup Gmail Emails to a Hard Drive – Professionally
CloudMigration Gmail Backup Tool is one of the best tools to back up Gmail Emails to a Hard drive. This is a very reliable tool to back up Gmail emails to a Hard Drive in many file formats such as PST, PDF, MBOX, EML, etc. moreover it also migrates Gmail to other email clients. Like:- Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, Thunderbird Mail, Office 365 Email, etc. This tool has many advanced features. To know about all the features download its free demo version.
Advantages of Gmail Backup Tool
- The Gmail backup tool provides a fast, secure, and easy-to-use process for backing up Gmail.
- When the conversion process is complete, this tool automatically freezes your Gmail server space.
- With this tool, you can easily store Gmail data with all its attachments on your system.
- The Gmail backup tool can store data more efficiently by using the naming convention feature.
- This tool allows you to filter unwanted emails after opting for the mail filter option.
- There is a demo version of the software available on the website that allows you to take a backup of 50 first emails of Gmail for free.
Conclusion
In this blog, we discussed the importance of backup Gmail Emails to a Hard Drive and the method of saving Gmail emails to the hard drive. You can opt for any method which is suitable for you but we recommended a professional method to save your time.
