E-mail, chat, & VoIP forum: How do I back up my e-mails from free online Yahoo Mail and Gmail accounts?

Using Mozilla Thunderbird, I log into my gmail, Yahoo, and other webmail accounts. Since these are all POP3 mail servers, the mail downloads automagically to my local machine. Backing them up is therefore a natural side effect with no additional steps necessary.

That does not save them locally though, this person is leary of leaving them, on gmail and yahoo servers. Because some friend "says" they lost all their emails. Probably had a free account and never used it or just threw a unknowledgeable thought out there.

I'm not sure how everybody else does it but I think an external hard drive with an auto back up would do it. I use Carbonite and I have had to retrieve the back up about a year ago. I think it saved all my email files. A call to their tech department would probably get a definitive answer about the Gmail and Yahoo. It runs every so often, many times a day, looking for new files to back up. Hope it helps

I just use Thunderbird. It copies everything from the 'Inbox' of my present e-mail server to it's own 'Inbox'. Then I just file them into the appropriate folders.

The original English word was Program, then when it was considered "Classy" to speak French a lot of words wrere Frenchified (my own special word). America was settled by Old English people who would not have been caught up in that Frenchy nonsense.
So Program originally, Programme to show off and curry favour with the French but always Program in America.
But there is no "correct" spelling as English is in a constant state of flux with new words added and old words being unused.
How many Pedants does it take to change a light bulb ?
Is that Screw or Bayonet fitting ?
Cheers, Bill

Amen! The Brits also messed up "center" and many others. Who carries a "torch" when it's dark? Maybe some natives in the Amazon rain forest (when it isn't raining) or in the African jungles.

Karl

You should do more research, at better places.
They are the same thing, We're not Greek or British anymore Toto.
PotAtoe, Pototoe. Tomato, tomoto.

Program is correct here in the .U.S.A.
Next there are also Nouns and Verbs with or with out objects.
You could say it depends on how you use it but even at that program still is good to use.
Can I have a Program for that show ?
I am going to Program that Chip.
I am running a Program on the computer.
I am going to Skate in the Short Program.
If you want to use Programme go ahead we know what you mean

If you look up programme at thesaurus.com nothing matches, look up Program there are matches.

A female when drinking usually sticks out pinky, a male not so much.
I will have a spot of tea, a spot is like a stain here...

Nothing like going off the deep end, and taking something Way out of context.
Maybe I should have used "drop", and for you, especially knowing there would have been one of you lurking.
But then you would have said "spotlight" is a "droplight ?"
At least it would have been a little more closely related and would have made a little more sense.

Yeah, my fault...

This is loaded, but very simple if you do not trust them.
I have had Yahoo, Hotmail, Aol, Lycos, Excite, accounts for over 10 years and Gmail since it came out, I have never heard any problems you say, they are backed up and backed up constantly to several different servers in case of a problem, they scan your emails for virii and malware and such, so on one hand your "untrustworthy" statements bothers me and makes me laugh. BUT since "it is not in your hands" that makes you weary. So the only way to save them for your self is to use an Email Client ( a local (installed on your computer) email program like Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird or similar) What happens though is good and bad, they automatically download those emails to your computer if something is infected it may infect your computer, there are plenty of settings though, some you can download a copy leaving copies on the free email or not and stuff like that, if your computer is infected it can infect those emails and or your email client, and another possibility is you can lose all your emails on your computer if you get infected and the computer dies, why not leave them out there with TRUSTWORTHY places like those mentioned where they are fairly safe. Again you can do both, Have copies.

I do not suggest Firefox Addon's or extensions those DO have problems and you might lose ALL your emails the very first time you try to connect to yahoo or gmail or hotmail. Make sure you use a separate program/client.

The reason people stopped using email clients like Outlook and Express and stuff is because emails are downloaded to your computer, so they then had to try and make them safer by adding settings that some times work sometimes don't. Like previewing.

Millions and Billions of people use and have been using Free Online Email day in day out year after year.
If you want FULL POWER, get a client download "copies" to your computer hopefully a external drive in case your computer ever fails or burn them to CD or DVD and make copies of them too.....

Both Gmail and Yahoo have help information for backing up mail. Gmail says this :-

"Backing up your mail with POP
Here's how to download a copy of every message* in Gmail to an email client:

1. Sign in to Gmail.
2. Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page, and open the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
3. Select Enable POP for all mail (even mail that's already been downloaded).
4. Click Save Changes.
5. Open the mail client you've configured for Gmail, and check for new messages.

Gmail messages are downloaded in batches, so it may take time for everything to appear in your mail client.

* Messages in Spam and Trash aren't downloaded unless you move them to your inbox or All Mail. *"

You should have access to one of the POP accounts listed in Help so downloading your mail to your PC should be easy. Where you store it may be on a USB drive or similar.
I doubt you need to though as these systems have extensive backup systems of their own.

using any email client that you are comfortable with, connect to the service using IMAP. synchronize the client. if you are like me (and have 20K messages) it can take a while. when complete, simply export the stores (folders) to any media.

hotmail is a little different. I had to use a windows based "live" client. It built a mail store that Outlook Express mounted ~ so I used that as an intermediate for export.

hope this is helpful!

-chrisv

Use Outlook to download the messages to your computer. Outlook gives you a choice that allows you to copy them without deleting them from the original site. That should provide you with two copies of the emails in totally separate locations.

Once you have the messages in Outlook, you also can save them in a format that allows you to export them or save them as a file on a removable disc. That would give you a third copy.

Hi Isabelle - I have a great number of email accounts for various reasons, and I set up email for many of my customers. I used to be a big fan of Mozilla Thunderbird, and then Microsoft came along with a FREE and easy to use email system called Windows Live.

The thing I like about it is that regardless of how many email accounts you have online, offline, or otherwise, in most cases you can seamlessly integrate them into your Windows Live system.

Setting up any email management system can be somewhat trying, but I've included a link for you that describes pretty thoroughly how Windows Live can be set up with the least amount of headaches.

http://help.live.com/help.aspx?project=wl_mailv2&market=en-us&querytype=topic&query=outlookexpresslivev1_trou_cantsendgmail.htm

This link provided by Windows Live takes you step by step in integrating your existing email accounts online. And if you already have a different email program you're using, no problem. When you set up Windows Live Mail, it automatically recognizes them and allows you to import the old messages into your new email management system.

You should note that Yahoo requires you to use Email Plus, at a cost of $19.95 annually to use a POP3 account so you can save your email on your computer as well as their server. Yahoo's email plus comes with some other benefits you can examine here:

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/original/mailplus/overview/overview-03.html

I couldn't be more pleased with Windows Live. It allows me to check all of my email from all sources at once (If I choose to), and I can check it from any computer just by logging on to Windows Live online. It's a handy feature that provides lots of convenience, saves time, and assures me that all of my email is not only always available, but always backed up.

Windows Live Mail also incorporates other popular features like Calendars with task management, a very useful Contact Manager, RSS Feeds and Newsgroups. I apologize if this sounds like a commercial for this product but the features included along with the fact that it's all free seems to good to pass up.

Hope this helps Isabelle. Good Luck.

It's true that other competitors have similar products. No argument. But it hasn't been my experience that they are nearly as seamless as the Windows Live Mail.

And you don't have to log on to anything if you're using your own computer. You simply open Windows Live mail and it's there.

Thanks for your input. I'll check out some of the others you've mentioned. Except for AOL. It may be easy and useful for the user, but it causes more system problems than any other program I'm aware of.

Best Regards

Windows Live on a Vista or Windows 7 (where it is free) synch the emails, contacts, deleted items, saved emails, and calendar items seamlessly! You log on to a second PC or the Live web site and all folders are synched!