Operating Gmail within the cloud has some actual advantages: You will get at your emails from a browser tab on any internet-connected machine, you don’t want to put in any further software program to entry it, and your whole messages are safely backed up on Google’s servers, ought to one thing occur to your laptop computer or cellphone.
Nonetheless, there is perhaps instances while you need native copies of your Gmail emails as nicely. Maybe you’re anticipating to be with out common web entry, or possibly you need to shield your self in case Gmail on the internet goes down. Perhaps you simply want the texture of an area e mail consumer.
You’ve obtained a few choices for downloading your Gmail inbox and archive, that are helpful in several methods. Observe that following these steps received’t have an effect on your emails within the cloud—they’ll stay the place they’re, except you actively begin deleting messages or resolve to shut your Google account.
Downloading Gmail emails to an area e mail app
For those who use an e mail utility working in your pc, like Outlook or Apple Mail, you need to use it to get at your Gmail inbox by means of a normal protocol known as IMAP (or Web Messaging Entry Protocol).
It means a collection of messages—often from the previous couple of weeks or months—are stored in sync along with your native pc. Any adjustments made on the internet are mirrored in your native e mail consumer, and vice versa. Technically, it’s extra syncing than downloading, nevertheless it does imply copies of current emails will probably be saved in your pc in addition to the online.
To make this work, first it’s important to allow IMAP from Gmail on the web:
- Click on the gear icon (high proper), then See all settings.
- Open the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab, then choose Allow IMAP.
- Click on Save Adjustments to substantiate.
On the identical web page you’ll see choices for the way the syncing between your native e mail app and Gmail on the internet is dealt with, which you may as well tweak. Maybe an important one is how deleted emails are dealt with. While you delete a message in an area program corresponding to Outlook, on the internet model of Gmail you may select to have the message archived, despatched to the Trash folder, or immediately erased.
With IMAP enabled, you may then add your Gmail account to the e-mail program in your pc. The method for it will differ relying on this system, and we will’t cowl all of them right here—however the possibility so as to add a brand new e mail account must be pretty prominently displayed.
Gmail is such a well known service that almost all e mail apps will simply ask you on your Gmail tackle and username, after which be capable of get linked that means. You don’t must fill out an extended sequence of configuration choices, which was the case previously.
For instance, for the default Outlook e mail app that comes as a part of Home windows 11:
- Click on the gear icon (high proper), then Accounts and E-mail accounts.
- Choose Add account, then enter your Gmail e mail tackle.
- Click on Proceed, then observe the directions to signal into your Google account.
After a couple of seconds, you’ll see that your Gmail account is added as a brand new possibility within the navigation pane on the left, with your whole Gmail labels represented as folders.
Downloading Gmail emails as an archive
The opposite possibility for getting Gmail emails in your pc is to obtain all of them as a whole archive. That is extra appropriate if you wish to maintain a backup someplace secure, and don’t want common entry to your messages in an app.
Head to your Google account on the internet, then click on Information and privateness, and scroll down to seek out the Obtain your information possibility. Click on that hyperlink, and also you’ll see you may obtain data from every kind of Google companies, out of your Chrome looking historical past to the notes you’ve saved in Google Hold.
- Click on Deselect all, then choose the Mail possibility.
- Choose All Mail information included if you wish to choose and select which messages are included within the obtain (messages assigned to a particular label, for instance).
- Click on Subsequent step, and also you’ll be met with a sequence of choices about the way you need to get the obtain—you will get a hyperlink over e mail, or have it added to your Google Drive or one other cloud storage service.
- Choose Create export, and also you’ll obtain an e mail when the obtain is prepared.
On the choices web page, you may as well select to have the identical export generated routinely, on a schedule—helpful if you wish to again up your Gmail account sometimes, with out having to recollect to do it every time.
Keep in mind that if you happen to’re utilizing a Gmail account supplied by an employer or different group, somewhat than a private one, you won’t have the choice to obtain an archive of your emails. If that’s the case, the Mail entry merely received’t seem while you head to the Obtain your information web page.
The archive obtain places your emails in a format known as MBOX. Shoppers corresponding to Apple Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird can open these recordsdata, as can Outlook with a plug-in. Observe although that this can be a static archive, appropriate as a backup: For those who open the file in an area program, the emails received’t be synced to and from the online.
