How to Download All Your Emails in Gmail?

For those who fear of Google killing your Gmail account, do this:

• Go to your Gmail. Click the options (gears icon) on upper right. Choose the menu [Forwarding and POP/IMAG] link at top.

• In the menu [IMAP Access] section, choose menu [Enable IMAP].

• Now, download Mozilla Thunderbird, at http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/. Install it. Start it.

• Type in your name, Gmail, and Google password. example

name: xah lee
email: xahlee@gmail.com
password: your Gmail password

• Now, Thunderbird will start to download all your emails and store on your local computer. Starting with your inbox.

• In Thunderbird, click the menu [All Mail] folder on the left pane, then Thunderbird will start to download all emails in that folder too. Do this for menu [Sent Mail] folder and other folders.

• Now, you can read or write email either from a web browser or Thunderbird. When you delete a email from either, it'll be deleted in the other too. (i.e. they are auto sync'd instantaneously. (might take a minute for gmail to update its interface))

If Google kills your Gmail account, your email will still be available on your hard drive.

Still Paranoid?

Now, technically there's still a remote chance that Google can wipe the emails on your hard drive, if they really want to be nasty. (let's suppose you've got a high-powered employee there who hates you.)

Remember that your Thunderbird is synced with Gmail? So, technically speaking, Google can delete all your emails on their server, and disable you from login to Gmail from web, but they let you connect to your Gmail account still from a email client. So, when you woke up and start Thunderbird, it start to sync, and since all your emails on server is deleted, it'll sync and delete all your email on your hard drive too. By the time you came back from the kitchen with a cup of coffee, it's too late.

If you are really that paranoid, you can prevent Google from deleting your Gmail in a absolute way.

Instead of enabling the IMAP in one of the step above, enable the POP instead.

POP basically means that the email will download just one way. That is, from Google's email server to your machine. It also means your Gmail and the one in Thunderbird won't be synced. You essentially have your own local copy.

— love n share n care, —Xah

Downloading ALL Your Data on Google

You can also download all your data on Google's other services. Simply go to Google Takeout at https://www.google.com/takeout/. (Google Takeout doesn't include gmail data.)