backing up webmail

pigeonpie

There are emails on both google and yahoo mail that I need to back up. I don't know how to do it so can anyone give me really simple instructions please? I would be interested in backing up to a format that I could add to (simply) on an ongoing basis. I use a mac but my OH has a PC so whichever is easiest please as am not IT savvy at all.
thanks.

clarkz

not sure if its possible because it is a web based email and not pop3, you could forward them to something like outlook and back them up that way.

best to sit tight and see if anyway knows of a program for it.

buglawton

With Yahoo it it should be possible to get just your Inbox into a Program like Pop Peeper. Yahoo is so inflexible about forwarding and backing up I expect people are leaving in droves.

With Google set up a MAPI account on your PC email program, Outlook (and no doubt Thunderbird) can do this not sure about Outlook Express. Once done a mirror of your Gmail folders will appear and these can be copied to other folders.

superscaper

clarkz wrote: »

not sure if its possible because it is a web based email and not pop3, you could forward them to something like outlook and back them up that way.

best to sit tight and see if anyway knows of a program for it.

Not quite true. Best way to backup locally probably is by pop3.

Go to settings in Gmail account, Fowarding and Pop/Imap, then enable pop and ensure copies are left in google mail's inbox. Click on the link for configuration instructions for your particular email client.

markchadwick

My approach would be the following. This approach is a bit long-winded, but the best in my opinion and what I use with my gmail and hotmail accounts. You may need to do a little "googling" for some of the items below as a detailed description would make this post even longer.

Perhaps superscaper might consider adding this to the backup thread? Unless something already exists there of course. It will probably need a better and clearer explanation of each point and/or links to appropriate sites for further details.

Setup:

1. Download and install mozilla thunderbird.

2. Download and install the webmail extension/s for thunderbird. This allows thunderbird to access your yahoo webmail account and download the emails into the client.

3. Add your yahoo account to thunderbird so you can download all of your email into it (guidelines exist online)

4. Add your gmail account to thunderbird via IMAP (guidelines exist in your settings page in your gmail account online)

5. Allow email to download (may take some time) then highlight all of your yahoo emails in your inbox (CTRL + A should do the trick) and then you can drag-and-drop them into your gmail inbox. This will copy all of your emails from yahoo (not great webmail) into gmail (great webmail) whilst preserving all of the mail headers and time-stamps.

6. For all future emails, set up a rule to monitor your yahoo inbox folder in thunderbird something like: "IF email > 0 Kb MOVE to Gmail Inbox".

This way, all of your email will now be consolidated in one gmail account (making it easier to backup/search/filter/etc) and accessible from any computer online in gmail (at least the email you have since copied into gmail using thunderbird).

Backup:

7. Configure thunderbird to "download messages for offline access" for your gmail account so your emails are backed up locally. This gives you the best of both worlds as when you read emails locally, they will appear read online in gmail and also backed up locally like using POP. Using POP access means your emails online won't appear read as they will be a downloaded local copy. This can be quite annoying if you use both thunderbird and webmail to access gmail.

8. For extra security and peace of mind, configure your gmail account to also allow POP access (see superscapers post below). You can then sign up for another gmail account and use the "mail fetcher" feature to pump all of your email from your normal gmail account to your backup gmail account. Again, instructions on how to do this are online - but this is great as your email is backed up server-side and without any hassle on your part. Double protection of all of your email then makes it more secure.

If at a later date someone hacks your yahoo/gmail accounts, you have all of your email in two locations (locally in thunderbird and online in the gmail-backup account) and can start using your backup gmail account with minimal downtime.

buglawton

One question: Does Thunderbird download ALL Yahoo folders inc Sent Items, even if for example you have created additional ones in Yahoo?

markchadwick

buglawton wrote: »

One question: Does Thunderbird download ALL Yahoo folders inc Sent Items, even if for example you have created additional ones in Yahoo?

I have only configured this to work with hotmail since I don't have a yahoo account. What I can confirm is this though: I had to install two extensions in thunderbird (webmail extension AND webmail-hotmail extension) and in the options (tools>add-ons>extension options) I could add folders that were in hotmail, and mail from them folders would get sucked into thunderbird.

Assuming yahoo adopts a similar protocol, I think you could probably do the same thing. If not, you may have to move the emails into the inbox to get at them, but not sure. You also need to ensure you configure the options properly as you can get a "time-out" response if you don't configure the ports in the extension option in thunderbird - from checking mine, it is:

Webmail: POP=1025; SMTP=25; IMAP=143
Webmail-Hotmail: Folders to be downloaded can be added in POP tab

If you get it working, it might be wise to post it on here for others in your position.