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I'm interested to know what the pros and cons are of this utility vs using the Google takeout functionality? I like the idea of this project but I don't know w

I'm interested to know what the pros and cons are of this utility vs using the Google takeout functionality? I like the idea of this project but I don't know what it would gain me over Google's native export? Is it the restoration that's missing from Google's service? https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout

tonyplee 10y ago
I just started a takeout session on all my google drive, emails data too. I wonder how to use them once I have the backup data?
- JonathonW 10y ago
  Exactly what you get from Takeout varies from service to service; for email you get an MBOX-format mailbox file (that you can then import into a desktop email client of your choice).
  - dmd 10y ago
    Really? mbox, not maildir? That must be insanely huge.
    - cdubzzz 10y ago
      I pulled mine recently and it was about 3.5GB with ~115k items (chat messages are included). Also pulled my wife's - 217k items @6GB.
      - dmd 10y ago
        Right. So, maildir format then, not mbox.
        cdubzzz 10y ago
        It is actually mbox. I should have provided more detailed numbers - in my Takeout file, for example, there are 91,360 chat messages and only 23,407 email messages .
        dmd 10y ago
        So there's 23407 email messages but only one file containing all of them?
        cdubzzz 10y ago
        Yep! All messages are in a single mbox file and it's 3.2GB. cdubz@professor-farnsworth ~/data $ du -h Mail-chris.mbox 3.2G Mail-chris.mbox
        dmd 10y ago
        Wow. I stand corrected and that's awful. Yet another reason to use gmvault!
        icebraining 10y ago
        Why it awful? As an archive, seems decent.
        dmd 10y ago
        (1) inconsistent escaping rules (dealing with the literal string \nFrom) (2) easy to corrupt
        creeble 10y ago
        Worth noting that Google provides some Python sample code for parsing the file which works great.
e40 10y ago
I'd like to know, too. On the surface, it would seem that scripting is the main benefit to it, but there might well be other pros/cons.
- handruin 10y ago
  Very good point. This would make it easier for me to add to a service or cron job to pull periodically.
amelius 10y ago
Probably the most useful aspects are that you can run it in batch mode (without supervision), and that you can backup incrementally. (Note that these aspects may also make the tool a little more dangerous to use.)
xur17 10y ago
My coworker and I both tried this yesterday, and today we both received an email with this error message: "Sorry, we encountered a problem when creating your Google data archive."
- lkesteloot 10y ago
  Me too. They must have had a surge of takeouts given the recent lock-outs.
- agumonkey 10y ago
  Took out my Google data a few times, now amounting 1.4GB never had this issue. Let's hope it's only a temporary slipup. btw, the data is pretty exhaustive, even for non major Google applications or more recently added features (Maps Location History).

tonyplee 10y ago

I just started a takeout session on all my google drive, emails data too. I wonder how to use them once I have the backup data?

JonathonW 10y ago
Exactly what you get from Takeout varies from service to service; for email you get an MBOX-format mailbox file (that you can then import into a desktop email client of your choice).
- dmd 10y ago
  Really? mbox, not maildir? That must be insanely huge.
  - cdubzzz 10y ago
    I pulled mine recently and it was about 3.5GB with ~115k items (chat messages are included). Also pulled my wife's - 217k items @6GB.
    - dmd 10y ago
      Right. So, maildir format then, not mbox.
      - cdubzzz 10y ago
        It is actually mbox. I should have provided more detailed numbers - in my Takeout file, for example, there are 91,360 chat messages and only 23,407 email messages .
        dmd 10y ago
        So there's 23407 email messages but only one file containing all of them?
        cdubzzz 10y ago
        Yep! All messages are in a single mbox file and it's 3.2GB. cdubz@professor-farnsworth ~/data $ du -h Mail-chris.mbox 3.2G Mail-chris.mbox
        dmd 10y ago
        Wow. I stand corrected and that's awful. Yet another reason to use gmvault!
        icebraining 10y ago
        Why it awful? As an archive, seems decent.
        dmd 10y ago
        (1) inconsistent escaping rules (dealing with the literal string \nFrom) (2) easy to corrupt
        creeble 10y ago
        Worth noting that Google provides some Python sample code for parsing the file which works great.

e40 10y ago

I'd like to know, too. On the surface, it would seem that scripting is the main benefit to it, but there might well be other pros/cons.

handruin 10y ago
Very good point. This would make it easier for me to add to a service or cron job to pull periodically.

amelius 10y ago

Probably the most useful aspects are that you can run it in batch mode (without supervision), and that you can backup incrementally. (Note that these aspects may also make the tool a little more dangerous to use.)

xur17 10y ago

My coworker and I both tried this yesterday, and today we both received an email with this error message: "Sorry, we encountered a problem when creating your Google data archive."

lkesteloot 10y ago
Me too. They must have had a surge of takeouts given the recent lock-outs.
agumonkey 10y ago
Took out my Google data a few times, now amounting 1.4GB never had this issue. Let's hope it's only a temporary slipup. btw, the data is pretty exhaustive, even for non major Google applications or more recently added features (Maps Location History).