Gmail (and most email) is something that we never think about backing up, because we always assume that our data is safe. Well, 40,000 people would tell you it isn’t that safe due to their being a data issue that wiped out all of their Gmail data last March.
Bugs are part of the technology industry, and Google isn’t exempt from bugs happening to them. Even though Google has back ups of their servers, it is still a good idea to make sure you have your own backup of your email.
Let’s take a look at 7 ways you can backup your Gmail account.
Another Gmail Account
Creating a Gmail account is free and importing all mails to it easy, so this allows you to use another Gmail account as your backup. This isn’t perfectly safe, as you won’t know where the two mailboxes are on their servers, but Google does roll out updates in phases, so it is less likely for both to get hit at once.
Using a Desktop Client
All major operating systems ship with a default email client of their own and backing up data using this option also helps you view your mails at any time even without being connected to the internet.Some of the good alternatives are Microsoft Outlook, Apple mail and Mozilla Thunderbird.
Gmail-Backup
Gmail-Backup is a free software available from gmail-backup.com or from the Google Apps marketplace. Gmail-Backup uses the IMAP option to backup your mails.
To Hotmail using TrueSwitch
Hotmail may not be the most preferred email solution, but it still clocks in around 350+ million users worldwide. Hotmail in its approach to make things easier for people wanting to join their bandwagon has partnered with trueswitch.
TrueSwitch, normally a paid service, lets users copy their mails from one account to another, but it is free if you are moving from one email service to Hotmail. So you can backup your emails to Hotmail and still keep using your gmail account.
Mailstore
Another free solution, Mailstore can access multiple online email accounts using the POP/IMAP methods and create backups for your emails.
Gmail Keeper
For a one time cost of $19.95, Gmail Keeper offers a robust solution specific to Gmail which includes backing up your folders; including labels and the trash folder into a .zip file on your computer. It also gives you the option to backup multiple accounts.
Backupify
Backupify can backup all kinds of online services like Gmail, Google Docs, picasa, Flickr and more. The advantage lies in the fact that, once backed up, you can search, download or restore the data at any point. There are 3 kinds of plans. The free plan includes the backing up of upto 5 accounts with a limit on storage to 2GB per account.
Conclusion
Backing up your content will ensure you complete peace of mind and access to your data at any point and time, even during an outage. The above mentioned methods will ensure 100% safety and access to your data and emails. So choose the method you like and backup your Gmail today!
