HTS Tech Tips

Computer Tips, Insights, and Technology News

Gmail Backup – Backing Up Gmail Data to Your Computer

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Gmail backup is a concept that many Gmail users have not spent much time thinking about. Although the idea of Gmail backup did get some user’s attention when 40,000 Gmail users lost all the data in their email accounts at one point in 2011. Sure, it was only 0.02 percent of all Gmail users, but hey—that’s a lot of people. Why did it happen? Google only called it an “unexpected bug” and left it at that.

Luckily, Gmail was able to restore all that data within about a week, but a week’s quite a long time if you use Gmail for business! And what if next time Gmail’s backup system experiences an unexpected bug as well? What if you lose access to your Gmail account but need to access your messages?  If you have read any of the previous data backup posts here and here and here on the HTS Tech Tips blog you know how important it is to always keep backups of all your data, including your email.

How can you take your Gmail data into your own hands?  One technique is to set up a desktop mail client like Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail to accept backups for you.  To make backups all you need to set up is your POP protocol.  Prefer to just interact with your desktop mail client and ignore your Gmail account completely?  Setting up IMAP enables you to send and receive mail through your desktop mail client while still using Gmail as your address. This solution works for a lot of people, but not for everyone.  Not everyone finds these programs easy to use, or wants them installed on their computers.  They also aren’t necessarily optimal for backing up multiple Gmail accounts.

Rather not mess around with a desktop mail client? For a modest monthly fee, you can set up an automatic (or manual) Gmail backup using a program designed to download Gmail messages. There are a number of companies which offer these Gmail download and backup services including Gmail Keeper, Backupify, Spanning Backup and BackupMyMail.

Backing up Gmail is pretty simple when you let a program do it for you!  You can either set up backup automation or backup Gmail manually. Most of these programs not only backup your messages but also your labels and folders. You can either download your Gmail backup to your computer or store it securely on the company’s server. Most Gmail backup services allocate you unlimited storage space.

What can you do with Gmail backup?

  • Store a backup of your messages and settings securely in the cloud or on your computer.  Save space on your computer, or have instant offline access to your latest backups – both options are available to you.
  • Automate backups so you don’t have to worry about it.  Set up a manual backup anytime you want.  You have total control.
  • View your messages anytime, even if you get locked out of your account.
  • How ridiculous is it that Gmail provides no simple way to migrate to a new email address?  Easily transfer your old messages to a new email account by using a Gmail backup service.  You won’t need to keep a lot of defunct email accounts around simply to have copies of your old messages.
  • View your messages during a Gmail outage.
  • Back up multiple accounts.  If you have multiple Gmail accounts, you won’t have to go through the stress of setting up special backup and filtering rules on your desktop email client just to keep your messages from separate accounts straight.  It’s easy to set up multiple account backups with an online company.  Your backups will stay organized so you can stay organized too.

A couple of these companies also offer other services above and beyond Gmail backup.  BackupMyMail offers similar services for online photos, tweets, and blog entries.  Backupify offers even more. You can back up not only Gmail but also Google Apps, Facebook, online photos, and tweets. These days so much of our lives take place in virtual space, and much what is important to us is made up of 1’s and 0’s. Just because your data isn’t physical, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take extra measures to protect it.

Gmail backup only costs a few dollars each month, but it can save you time, hassle, and even money if you run a business using Gmail. Most of these services have free trials, so you can see for yourself how helpful they are! Regardless of which method or service you select remember that having a backup of your data is worth it.

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Multiple Google Email Addresses – One Gmail Account

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Google Gmail is a very slick, free email product. One Gmail feature that you may not be aware of is that multiple Google email addresses can be created from one Gmail account. These bonus email addresses are easy to create and manage and can take a few different forms.

Multiple Google Email Addresses from One Gmail Account

Having multiple Gmail addresses can provide a range of uses including easily separating personal and business email and tracking incoming email from specific subscriptions and mailing list. There are three main methods for expanding the number of usable Google email addresses that you can have from a single Gmail account:

  1. Using the @googlemail.com domain.
  2. Using the “dot” or period in your email name.
  3. Using the plus sign “+” at the end of your name and adding extra characters.

Using the “@googlemail.com” Domain Name
Let’s start with the use of the @googlemail.com domain name. With every Gmail account you actually get a second email address – one is the regular @gmail.com address while the second address has @googlemail.com as the domain. So Gmail will actually see myname@gmail.com as the same as myname@googlemail.com. All email messages that are sent to myname@googlemail.com will be delivered to your

Using a Dot or Period in the Email name

Another interesting facet of Gmail addresses is what is sometimes referred to as “Dot Blindness”. In an interesting twist Gmail does not recognize dots, ”.”or periods as characters in Google email address user names. This means that Gmail “sees” my.name@gmail.com or myna.me@gmail.com as the same address as myname@gmail.com. You can also use multiple “dots” in the username such as my.na.me@gmail.com.

The same “dot blindness” also applies to email addresses using the @googlemail.com domain name with my.name@googlemail.com or my.na.me@googlemail.com being routed to the same Inbox as myname@gmail.com.

Using the Plus Sign and Additional Characters
The third trick for extending the use of your Gmail account is the ability to add extra characters to the end of your username by inserting a plus sign, “+” after your name. Google does not recognize these characters but Gmail search filters do. The characters after the plus sign can be either letters or numbers. So myname+abcde@gmail.com or myname+abcde@googlemail.com will end up in the same Inbox as myname@gmail.com.

Test these out for yourself and see what works best for you. All the variations below are from the same Google email account and will all end up in the myname@gmail.com Gmail Inbox:

myname@gmail.com

myname@googlemail.com

my.name@gmail.com

my.name@googlemail.com

my.na.me@gmail.com

my.na.me@googlemail.com

myname+abcde@gmail.com

myname+123abc@gmail.com

my.name+abcdefg78@gmail.com

my.name+abcdefg78@googlemail.com

Benefits of Multiple Google Email Address from One Gmail Account

So you say, “OK, these Google email address tips are interesting, but what would I use all these variations for”?  One use is to track where mail is coming from. When you sign up for a newsletter subscription or mailing list you can create a specific email address by using the plus sign and some specific characters or “dot” pattern. You can then track incoming email based on the specific email name that you created.

For example, you sign up for a subscription to a newsletter using my.name+456news@gmail.com and then in addition to the newsletter you signed up for you start receiving email from a number of other different sources to that specific address. This could indicate that the specific mailing list might have been compromised or even sold.

Another use of these address variations is for sorting out spam or unwanted email from a specific Google email address. By using Gmail filters you can automatically direct mail to a specific address, such as myname+666@gmail.com to the spam folder.

Variations on your address can also be used to separate out personal and business messages and automatically identify each with a different label and sorted to a different folder.

Simplified Google Email Address Management

Having multiple Google email addresses is a useful tool for addressing a number of different email needs. The benefits of having a centralized email account that can easily process a number of different email addresses without having to go out and set up numerous new accounts with additional usernames and passwords can be a real plus. And they are all managed from a single Gmail account. Kind of reminds of the J.R.R. Tolkien verse: “One ring to Rule Them all, One Ring to find them.”

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