How to Backup Gmail Emails with Attachments

According to Google, till October 2019, there were around 1.5 billion Gmail users worldwide. The pandemic has increased the use of Gmail email client users exponentially, and along with that, the events of cyberattacks. It has become essential to backup Gmail emails in today’s times.

In the user email data, not only the email content but the attachments included with the email are also important that need to be backed up. The attachment files can be of different types like PDF, JPG, XLS, etc. Most of the essential data is shared on the mail through the attachments only. Go through this blog till the end, and you will get to know all the methods to backup Gmail account with the attached files. 

But before that, let us understand the reasons that make it necessary to backup Gmail emails with attachments.

Reasons to Backup Gmail Mailbox with Attachments

Gmail users should always keep a backup of their email data, including all attachments and email items, due to the below-mentioned reasons.

• Increasing virus and malware intrusions have made it crucial for having a backup of our Gmail emails. The virus attacks can take away all the personal data. Having a backup of the mailbox can save from this situation.
• Human errors result in the occasional deletion of some emails. To prevent yourself from such mishaps, a local backup is recommended of the Gmail mailbox, including all the attachments.
• Gmail email client stores all the data on the cloud. Moreover, it offers 15GB of storage space. Once the storage is jammed, it creates problems for further storage. You can clear this space if you have backup up all your Gmail data, with all attachments to your PC.
• The user can access the Gmail emails only when there is a working internet connection available. If you are not connected to the web, you cannot access your emails. The local Gmail backup comes in handy to prevent such an event.

The above reasons make it clear that it is necessary to backup Gmail emails to your system regularly. Let us now move forward to the methods of backing up Gmail emails.

How can I backup my Gmail emails?

1. Through Google Takeout Feature
2. Saving Gmail Emails As PDF
3. Using MS Outlook

These are the manual methods that can backup Gmail email with attachments to the computer. We will discuss and elaborate on each one in a stepwise manner so that you can answer the question on how to take backup of Gmail with attachments.

1. Through Google Takeout Feature

The Takeout feature of Gmail is an inbuilt feature that allows taking the backup of the Gmail data to the PC. Follow the below steps to execute the method accurately.

• Login to your Gmail account and click on Manage accounts under your Gmail Profile Initials.

• From the options on the left, pick Data & Personalization.

• Under Data & Personalization, scroll down and click on Download your Data.

• Now, select Deselect all to unmark all the listed contents.

• Then, scroll down to check on Mail to choose the Mails to be downloaded.

• After that, scroll down and hit the Next Step button.

• Under the delivery method, pick Send Download link via Email from the drop-down options.

• Now, under File Type and Size, choose the file format of the backup file.

• Mark the file size as per your requirements and press Create Export.

• The Google Takeout will start its work of creating a backup of the email files. 

• As the backup will be completed, you will receive an email containing a download link. Open it and click on Download. Your backed-up files will be downloaded to your local drive. 

Your Gmail email data will be saved to your PC by this method. However, it is a stagnant process as it can take as long as several hours or days.

2. Saving Gmail Emails as PDF

It is a simple method that can save and backup Gmail emails as PDF to your computer. The precise steps of the complete backup process are described below.

• Log in to your Gmail email account and click on the mail you wish to save.
• Then, click on the Print All icon, and you will see the email preview.

• Press the Save button and pick the location on your PC.
• After that, click on Save, and your Gmail email will be saved as a PDF file.

The above method is the quickest but can save only a single Gmail email at once. So, it turns out to be time-consuming.

Now, to backup Gmail emails using the third method, we need to complete some prerequisites first. The following steps need to be completed before moving to the third method of backing up Gmail emails.

Steps for Enabling IMAP in your Gmail account

• Sign In to your Gmail accounts, and under the Settings icon, select See all Settings.

• Then, choose the Forwarding and POP/IMAP option.

• Mark on Enable IMAP and click on the Save Changes button. The IMAP access will be enabled for this account.

Steps to Allow Less Secure Apps in  Gmail account

• Open your Gmail account and click on the Manage Accounts option under your Initials.

• On the left-hand side, pick the Security Option.
• Now, scroll down and press on Turn on Access.

• After that, click on Allow Less Secure Apps to turn it On.

3. Using MS Outlook

• Open your MS Outlook application, and under the File options Click on Add Account.

• In the Add New Account tab, enter your Name, Gmail account, and the third-party app-generated password.

• Now, click on Next, and MS Outlook will start to link your Gmail account to Outlook.

• After the process is complete, hit the Finish button. 

All your Gmail emails will be available to access in MS Outlook as a backup. Perhaps, if you delete any email from your Gmail account, it will automatically be removed from Outlook.

All the manual methods mentioned above can backup Gmail emails and attachments but have some limitations. All of them cannot include the attachments in the backup, and they are also very time-consuming.

However, to overcome all these limitations and take the backup of your Gmail emails with ease, you can opt for a professional method, i.e. Gmail Backup Tool. It is the best solution for Gmail backup and restores, including all the attachments to multiple file formats like PDF, EML, MBOX, DOCX, etc. It can also migrate the Gmail emails to other email clients like Yahoo, Hotmail, Thunderbird, Amazon Webmail, etc. Furthermore, the tool is also capable to export Gmail to PST that can directly open the Gmail emails into Outlook.

Conclusion

Here, we have thrown some light on the importance of backing up Gmail emails with attachments. The methods for the same have also been mentioned and specified for you to execute them efficiently. These methods to backup Gmail emails do not work for every user as they have some limitations. So, an alternate method using the Gmail Backup Tool is suggested to directly backup Gmail emails to hard drive in bulk, including all the attachments.