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This is a good place to remind everyone of Google Takeout [1]. Back up all of your data. Don't let this horror story happen to you. [1] https://takeout.google.

This is a good place to remind everyone of Google Takeout [1]. Back up all of your data. Don't let this horror story happen to you. [1] https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout

metalliqaz 7y ago
Thanks for reminding me... again... about this. Why haven't I backed up my gmail data yet? It has been years since I realized I have to do it. Why haven't I done it?
- russdill 7y ago
  Because it's not easy to automate.
  - din-9 7y ago
    Gmail alone is easy - use POP in a mail client, set it to mark stuff read, leave it on the server etc https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828?hl=en
    - btrettel 7y ago
      I'll agree that POP is pretty easy and worthwhile here. One caveat: I'm not certain that it's identical to what Takeout provides. I downloaded the mbox file via Takeout and the Takeout version was a fair bit larger than my Thunderbird mbox file as I recall. Maybe Thunderbird stores the emails more efficiently than Takeout? I should examine this more closely. As far as I am aware there are no missing emails in Thunderbird, though I could write a script to be certain. Edit: Seems that I misremembered. The Takeout file seems to be appreciably smaller than what Thunderbird has, but in line with what Gmail reports at the bottom. I guess Thunderbird is actually less efficient than Gmail. Attachments might explain some of this, as I deleted some attachments in Gmail that I kept in Thunderbird.
      - lallysingh 7y ago
        Attachments?
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - jandrese 7y ago
        The takeout file might be compressed too. Most mail clients don't bother to compress anything.
        btrettel 7y ago
        Yes, it was zipped, but I was comparing uncompressed. I've now checked. There's about a 500 MB difference for about 10 GB of emails. So not too bad, but appreciably different.
  - chongli 7y ago
    They now have a feature that lets you schedule it to run every few months. You could probably automate the download from your email client.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
  - corrigible 7y ago
    `gmvault` in a cron job works pretty well...
- rjohnk 7y ago
  Check out Mailstore Home
mceachen 7y ago
Thanks for the reminder--I've done it several times in the past, but it wasn't a scheduled thing at all. There's a new checkbox in takeout that lets you schedule a backup every 2 months (and then presumably you'll get an email when you need to download it). Does anyone else have issues with takeout failing with "unknown error occurred" if you use the default of selecting all products? I have to manually create multiple takeout archives (one for gmail, one for photos, one for location history...)
- techer 7y ago
  Absolutely! Always fails. I didn't know about the alternative you mention...thanks....
- mrgill 7y ago
  Works fine for me with select all. Maybe it was a temporary thing.
azinman2 7y ago
My previous experience (years ago) was that it actually gave me incomplete backups... which is.. insane and frustrating. Hopefully that’s fixed now.
bocklund 7y ago
I was just about to set this up to automatically put everything in my organization's Box every six months, but: > With access to your XXX@YYY.ZZZ Box account, Google Download Your Data can: > Read and write all files and folders stored in Box Nope. Download link it is.
- OJFord 7y ago
  To be clear though, unless Box does actually offer a finer-tuned 'write to specific dir' access control, that's not nosey Google's fault.
- resonanttoe 7y ago
  Yeh that's unfortuante but it is normal for box's API. This isn't Google being overly grabby, its the only scope available to third party read and writing to box. The API scope doesn't have any knowledge of individual files or applications. https://developer.box.com/docs/scopes https://developer.box.com/docs/scopes Conversely, Google Drive does have scopes available for Application specific folder read/write https://developers.google.com/drive/api/v3/appdata https://developers.google.com/drive/api/v3/appdata So box needs to up its game.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

metalliqaz 7y ago

Thanks for reminding me... again... about this. Why haven't I backed up my gmail data yet? It has been years since I realized I have to do it. Why haven't I done it?

russdill 7y ago
Because it's not easy to automate.
- din-9 7y ago
  Gmail alone is easy - use POP in a mail client, set it to mark stuff read, leave it on the server etc https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828?hl=en
  - btrettel 7y ago
    I'll agree that POP is pretty easy and worthwhile here. One caveat: I'm not certain that it's identical to what Takeout provides. I downloaded the mbox file via Takeout and the Takeout version was a fair bit larger than my Thunderbird mbox file as I recall. Maybe Thunderbird stores the emails more efficiently than Takeout? I should examine this more closely. As far as I am aware there are no missing emails in Thunderbird, though I could write a script to be certain. Edit: Seems that I misremembered. The Takeout file seems to be appreciably smaller than what Thunderbird has, but in line with what Gmail reports at the bottom. I guess Thunderbird is actually less efficient than Gmail. Attachments might explain some of this, as I deleted some attachments in Gmail that I kept in Thunderbird.
    - lallysingh 7y ago
      Attachments?
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
    - jandrese 7y ago
      The takeout file might be compressed too. Most mail clients don't bother to compress anything.
      - btrettel 7y ago
        Yes, it was zipped, but I was comparing uncompressed. I've now checked. There's about a 500 MB difference for about 10 GB of emails. So not too bad, but appreciably different.
- chongli 7y ago
  They now have a feature that lets you schedule it to run every few months. You could probably automate the download from your email client.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- corrigible 7y ago
  `gmvault` in a cron job works pretty well...
rjohnk 7y ago
Check out Mailstore Home

mceachen 7y ago

Thanks for the reminder--I've done it several times in the past, but it wasn't a scheduled thing at all. There's a new checkbox in takeout that lets you schedule a backup every 2 months (and then presumably you'll get an email when you need to download it). Does anyone else have issues with takeout failing with "unknown error occurred" if you use the default of selecting all products? I have to manually create multiple takeout archives (one for gmail, one for photos, one for location history...)

techer 7y ago
Absolutely! Always fails. I didn't know about the alternative you mention...thanks....
mrgill 7y ago
Works fine for me with select all. Maybe it was a temporary thing.

azinman2 7y ago

My previous experience (years ago) was that it actually gave me incomplete backups... which is.. insane and frustrating. Hopefully that’s fixed now.

bocklund 7y ago

I was just about to set this up to automatically put everything in my organization's Box every six months, but: > With access to your XXX@YYY.ZZZ Box account, Google Download Your Data can: > Read and write all files and folders stored in Box Nope. Download link it is.

OJFord 7y ago
To be clear though, unless Box does actually offer a finer-tuned 'write to specific dir' access control, that's not nosey Google's fault.
resonanttoe 7y ago
Yeh that's unfortuante but it is normal for box's API. This isn't Google being overly grabby, its the only scope available to third party read and writing to box. The API scope doesn't have any knowledge of individual files or applications. https://developer.box.com/docs/scopes https://developer.box.com/docs/scopes Conversely, Google Drive does have scopes available for Application specific folder read/write https://developers.google.com/drive/api/v3/appdata https://developers.google.com/drive/api/v3/appdata So box needs to up its game.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]