0

I wish to use a mail client to continuously backup my Gmail data. However, I want to prevent the client from making any changes to my Gmail.

When I tried to access Gmail using Thunderbird/IMAP, in the OAuth2 login screen, I was warned that Thunderbird can change my emails and delete stuff. There was no option to edit those permissions.

A while back when I used Windows 10, I tried its mail client to access Gmail and had the same problem.

EDIT : The backup must include Chats. Chats are not downloaded by POP clients. Also, it is desirable to also include drafts.

Improve this question
0

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

Short answer

Instead of IMAP use POP.

Explanation

From the reference

You can read your Gmail messages from a client or device that supports POP, like Microsoft Outlook.

The above means that accessing the GMAIL email mailbox, as the same happens with most of the email services mailboxes, using POP doesn't change the messages in the email server. Bear in mind that there is a setting to turn on/off the deletion of downloaded messages.

References

Enable POP - Gmail Help

Improve this answer
6
  • Thanks. There is one problem though. AFAIK, POP cannot be used to download sent messages. I want to download both sent and received messages.
    – Abhishek Anand
    Apr 3, 2016 at 16:38
  • 2
    All messages that are in the Gmail mailbox can be downloaded using POP. See productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/NqHKwHGuXcw
    – Rubén ♦
    Apr 3, 2016 at 18:58
  • Indeed, my Thunderbird client downloaded all messages. Thanks.
    – Abhishek Anand
    Apr 4, 2016 at 14:33
  • I should point out that Thunderbird has issues if the size of emails exceeds 4GB, which was true in my case. I switched to KMail, which did not suffer from this problem.
    – Abhishek Anand
    Apr 22, 2016 at 2:49
  • 1
    Gmail use labels instead of folders. Chats, Draft Spam and Trash are system labels that could not have equivalents in POP. Consider to post a new question including what you learned about using POP and what you expect. It's worth to say that the chat archiving feature is changed when turning on Hangouts and the changes can't be reverted.
    – Rubén ♦
    Apr 25, 2016 at 18:23
0

You can try Upsafe for this purpose. It does not make any changes to your Google account, it simply transfers the copies of your emails to another cloud. The app is cloud-based, so you can access your data from any device.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.