How to backup Gmail + Tips and Tricks

It is possible that after these months of teleworking and confinement, you have seen how your work and personal email accounts were filled with hundreds of messages up to (at least in my case) even reaching the full available space of Gmail. And it is that in many occasions we will not be able to simply erase to create more space.

That is why today we want to review the Google Takeout functions, which they will allow us to make a backup copy of Gmail, with all the messages and attachments, with a simple, fast, totally safe and free method.

How to backup Gmail

Although it may seem strange, this process is not carried out directly from the Gmail application itself, but we will have to access the settings of our Google account, using the account linked to this email account on which we want to make the copy of security.

• Once here, without even having to navigate, we should see a small section in the middle called «Privacy and personalization», with a prominent line that reads “Manage your data and customization options”, on which we will click.
• Scrolling down a bit in this window, we will reach the section “Download, delete or create a plan for data data”, within which we will find this first option to “Download your data”.
• Next, we will only have to select (or rather deselect, since they will all be checked by default) all the data linked to the account that we want to save, which will include all the activity and preferences of our Google account. In this case, looking only to save the emails, we will select the option of «Unmark all», exclusively marking the «Mail» option to create a backup copy of the messages and attachments of our Gmail account.

• Going down to the bottom of the page, we will click on the “Next step” button to continue with the process.
• Finally, we will only have to choose the method in which we want to receive this backup, by selecting the arrow below “Method of delivery” to see your options, including options such as a direct download link, an email, or the one saved to our associated Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Box accounts.
• Once finished, we just have to click on “Create export”.

Emphasize to others that this method will not only be useful for making occasional or manual backups, but also we can establish the creation of recurring automatic backups, with periods every two months and up to a year, as well as the ability to choose the type of file and the maximum file size (receiving several partitions of it in the event that the resulting copy is larger).

In addition, in the case of wanting to make a backup copy of the Gmail account of a company, it is possible that we require that the administrator of the same enable Takeout features beforehand.