NEWSubscribe to Receive Free E-mail UpdatesSubscribe

How to Backup Your Gmail Account

Mailing system was one of the first modes of communications to enter the Internet. At a time when calls and sending letters were expensive, e-mails proved to be a blessing in disguise. It was not only virtually free (except to pay for the bandwidth off course), but the letters or communication messages could be sent in no time at all. People realized they could reach anyone around the world in a matter of minutes through these e-mails. It helps curb long suffering letters and phone calls. E-mails are the first communication trend to enter the Internet.

At a time when biggies like Hotmail and Yahoo! mail were popular, Gmail was a newbie. Nobody expected it to gain so much popularity in a short time. With the myriad features and functionalities available, it quickly became most popular for not only sending personal mails, but also business mails. You don’t have to attach each file, instead, drag all the files and drop it in the attachment area. This is just one of the many practicable solutions Gmail offers over other mails. With Gmail being used for versatile activities, what will you do if you lose all the mails? Here are few ways to backup your account so that you don’t lose your mails completely:

Desktop client:


This method is used very commonly and the set-up takes no more than a few minutes. Gmail provides you access across various desktop clients like Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Apple Mail and other leading desktop clients. The program is free and can be accessed across various Operating Systems. Here are the steps for the setup process: 
  • Create a Gmail account if you don’t have one.
  • Click on the gear which is available on the top right corner and choose ‘Message Settings’.
  • Now, you have to load the tab: ‘Forwarding and POP / IMAP’.
  • Now, give access to access all mail by enabling it.
  • Set Gmail to be its copy. 
You have set your mail account. Now, you have to setup up the desktop mail client. If you want only one-way message transfers, use POP and not IMAP. Now, messages will be automatically downloaded to your desktop client.

Make use of the standalone backup program:
Gmail Backup is an excellent option to have when you want to create backup of all the mails. However, the functionality of this feature is not exactly what the name states. Once you install backup, it immediately downloads all your mails and creates a secure backup. Should you lose all the mails at some point, it restores all the stored mails back to your account. On the other hand, this program can be used only on those devices supported by Windows. It is available for free and you can download it to your system.

Third-party backup options:
There are third party backup services that backup automatically. They are not exclusive services and are available for a number of websites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Apps, etc. A good thing about these backup services is that you don’t have to put in any effort from your part. All you have to do is, feed the service you choose with the required credentials and it will do the backup for you. This is more or like a cloud and the only difference is that it only takes back-up. A lot of services don’t provide any other functionality.

These are a few ways through which you can create backup for your Gmail account and the mails you receive. By doing this, you don’t suffer the loss of important data when you face the mishap of losing all your mails from the account. Create a secure backup and don’t worry about losing mails in future!

This article has been brought to you by Jessica Keren of AT&T – The number one when it comes to quality home entertainment, att uverse support as well as att.com services.