Tech tutorials, howtos and walkthroughs

Hello again gentle reader! A few commentaries on my article Portable Email Clients for USB Drives makes Sending Email Safe and Mobile indicated to me that Mozilla Thunderbird can be used as a means of backing up one’s Email, specifically Gmail!

That person commented, as it struck them as odd that I wrote about doing Backups in terms of Physical Media as explained in How to do Physical Backup using DVD and CD and a Listing of the best software Burning DVD and CD’s and software as per my other more famous article How to Backup you Data using the a List of the Best Free Backup Solutions, yet I never touched on the idea of doing a backup of Email.

Good to point out that this does indeed exist and is a bit of an oversight. But then, that’s why write; I learn something new everyday! To this end, I’ve decided to pen a short ditty on Email Backup solutions, as it’s equally dreadful and a frightful thing for me to conceive having to recover after having your Email hacked and your Email account wiped or worse, confidential Emails read and exposed. A Backup of your Emails from you online Accounts such as Gmail can save you all that trouble!

Backup solutions Galore for Email – Third Party Clients rule the Battle to protect your Emails

First, Mozilla Thunderbird automatically downloads your old Emails and new ones every time you open the Email Client. When you click on Get Mail, it not only downloads all of your current Emails but also your old Emails and folders that they located in as well.

more on Geezam.com:  Schneider Electric’s Back-UPS Connect – Stay Connected during the Hurricane Season

Mozilla Thunderbird - Click on Get Mail to backup email - 09-04-2014 LHDEER

If you’re work in a business setting that uses Microsoft Outlook and you already have your company’s Internal Email, backing up your Email is also easy, as the Outlook Email client also has the capability to backup Gmail.

The Steps are quite easy:

  1. Launch Microsoft Outlook
  2. Click File menu in the top-left corner
  3. Click on the Info Panel on the left
  4. Click Add Account button near the top of the Info pane
  5. Select E-mail account Radio Button
  6. Enter your name, Gmail address, and corresponding password
  7. Click Finished button when done

Microsoft Outlook - Select add account in Outlook - 09-04-2014 LHDEER

Outlook will automatically populate itself with your Emails, and Microsoft Outlook automatically updates our Emails ever time you launch Outlook, just as Mozilla Thunderbird does.

Microsoft Outlook - add information about the email account - 09-04-2014 LHDEER

Apple Mac fans, don’t feel left out! I got a little something up my sleeve just for you lovers of Mail that apparently are sleeping with the enemy by flirting with Gmail:

  1. Launch the Mail application
  2. Click Mail in the main application taskbar
  3. Select Preferences from the drop-down menu
  4. Click the Accounts tab
  5. Click the Addition button
  6. Select Google from the list of available mail accounts
  7. Enter your name, Gmail address, and corresponding password
  8. Click the flashing Set Up button
  9. Select the Mail app
  10. Click the flashing Done button

Apple Mail - Acccess Apple Mail and select Save Preferences  - 09-04-2014 LHDEER

Again, every time you access your Mail Application in Apple OS X, it’ll refresh your Emails with the latest activity from Gmail.

more on Geezam.com:  Schneider Electric Framework for control of sustainable objectives in Data Centers

Apple Mail - enter Gmail Credentials - 09-04-2014 LHDEER

Finally to just throw in the Kitchen sink, you can use Gmail Backup, a truly Third party Software application that’s NOT BUILT into your computer’s Operating System like Microsoft Outlook for Microsoft Windows or Mail for Apple OS X. This is called, quite appropriately, Gmail Backup and works as follows:

  1. Download, install and launch Gmail Backup
  2. Launch the program, when the installation is complete
  3. Enter your Gmail address, corresponding password
  4. Select a location to save the resulting files
  5. Allow Gmail Backup to download and save the resulting EML files, a process that may take hours

Gmail Backup - Setting up your Gmail Backup account - 09-04-2014 LHDEER

Trust me, albeit Gmail Backup takes awhile, it’ll be worth it. Best of all is that your built-in Email clients such a Microsoft Outlook, Apple’s Mail and even the trusty Mozilla Thunderbird can open the file format in which the Emails are saved. If this were a game of Nintendo’s Mario Brothers, you just got a 1 Up and an Extra life all in one go!

Gmail Backup - File format can be read by any email account - 09-04-2014 LHDEER

Thus, this last option is truly useful, as these are now physical files that you can not only backup on Physical Media or in the Cloud, but also directly as a restoration format via these various Email clients software.

Dear reader, watch this spot!! In a series of coming articles, I’ll deal with how to backup other Email Accounts. Until then, Backup and prepare in case Disaster Strikes, Busta Rhymes Style!

About the Author

Read more on Geezam.com