With so much important information being sent by email these days it is no wonder that many people worry about what would happen if a bug caused them to lose all of their emails.
One of the most popular types of email account is with Gmail, and just the other day Google confirmed that a number of Gmail users had temporarily lost access to their mails. Here will look at how to back up your Gmail account to another account to avoid the risk of losing everything.
Back up to another Gmail Address
- Go into your Gmail account and choose the option marked Settings or Mail Settings in the top right hand corner of the screen.
- Click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
- Choose the very first option on the list, which is Enable POP for all mail (even mail that’s already been downloaded).
- Click on Save changes.
- Now you need to go to the alternative email account which you are going to be backing up to and configure it to receive the Gmail.
Using Outlook
If you use Outlook Express then go to Tools / Account / Add / Mail / Type name / Next / Put in the full Gmail account in the Email address section / Type pop.gmail.com under Incoming Mail (POP3/IMAP or HTTP) / Enter Smtp.gmail.com under Outgoing mail (SMTP) /Next / Under Account name put you full email address / Enter your password and click on Next / Finish / In the account choose pop.gmail.com / Properties / Enter in the Advanced tab / Tick the This server requires a secure connection (SSL) box in Outgoing Mail (SMTP) / Put 465 where it says Outgoing Mail (SMTP) / Tick the box names This server requires a secure connection (SSL) under Incoming Mail (POP3), it will change to 995 / Servers tab tick the My server requires authentication tab / ok.
Using Thunderbird
Open Thunderbird and type in your full Gmail and password. The mail will download in batches and you won’t receive your sent mails. You should leave Thundebird open until you get all of your Gmail messages across. To get new messages quicker then go to Tools on the Menu Bar / Account Settings / Server Settings / Change the value on Check for new messages on server to the value you want (default is 10 minutes).
Back up to Hotmail
When logged into your Hotmail dashboard click on the little cog next to the word Inbox / Choose the Get email from another account option / Choose Add an Account / Advanced options / Enter the Gmail address and password / pop.gmail.com is the Server address / Keep the port as 995 and tick the SSL box / Save.
So a few different ways to do it, any more or any questions feel free to comment below.
