4 ms·

I perform a periodical backup of all my Google data with https://takeout.google.com/ https://takeout.google.com/ if the sh*t would ever hit the fan.

karpour 5y ago
Is there a good way to automate this?
- skyeto 5y ago
  It lets you choose a bi-monthly schedule for the exports, then you just need to automate the download from the link that you get emailed.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- lelandfe 5y ago
  No API but you could script the browser. Obviously would break if the UI changes. Quick google shows some potentially still-relevant posts: https://superuser.com/q/716756 https://superuser.com/q/716756
- msh 5y ago
  Google takeout offers build in automation, you can set it to run every X months automatically.
- sschueller 5y ago
  I have been looking into this. There is mbsync (isync)[1] which will let you download a imap account. There is also a premade docker image[2] which you could trigger via cron and sync your mails. For gmail it is recommended to get a login token but I have not looked into how to do that. [1] https://isync.sourceforge.io/mbsync.html https://isync.sourceforge.io/mbsync.html [2] https://github.com/JakeWharton/docker-mbsync https://github.com/JakeWharton/docker-mbsync
JamesAdir 5y ago
I hope you checked your data and tried to restore everything. I pulled out my Google Music data about 6 months ago and it was almost unusable with Google mixing all the data in one folder.
karteum 5y ago
N.B. note that Google performs some encoding conversions within the GMail backup from Takeout that permanently break all non-ascii characters when an encoding other than UTF-8 is used in the original mail (those characters are replaced by the 0xEFBFBD sequence, and since information in lost it guess it cannot be properly recovered). Obviously I am not the only one who have been experiencing the issue, e.g. https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/71153/takeout-breaks-my-non-ascii https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/71153/takeout-br... The issue does not happen when doing backup with another tool e.g. mbsync.
jerrygoyal 5y ago
where do you backup the data? I keep it in the Dropbox for now (anything other than GDrive)
bariumbitmap 5y ago
As it stands, Google Takeout is not sufficient. While attempting to export data, you can still get a "sensitive action blocked" and "we can't verify it's really you"-style errors that indefinitely prevent access to that data. I've encountered this myself when trying to export my YouTube subscriptions, and it gave me pause when I considered that this could happen to more serious data. It's not a one-time issue, either, I've been retrying export for months now without success. The responses I've seen to other people with this problem are not encouraging, amounting to "oh, you must have done something out of the ordinary, try again in a few days". See, for example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20054083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20054083 https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/i6cn1x/google_takeout_sensitive_action_blocked/ https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/i6cn1x/google_... https://support.google.com/accounts/thread/13380514/i-can%E2%80%99t-download-my-takeout-archive?hl=en https://support.google.com/accounts/thread/13380514/i-can%E2... https://twitter.com/veerismo/status/1341605248834498561 https://twitter.com/veerismo/status/1341605248834498561 Edit: better links

karpour 5y ago

Is there a good way to automate this?

skyeto 5y ago
It lets you choose a bi-monthly schedule for the exports, then you just need to automate the download from the link that you get emailed.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
lelandfe 5y ago
No API but you could script the browser. Obviously would break if the UI changes. Quick google shows some potentially still-relevant posts: https://superuser.com/q/716756 https://superuser.com/q/716756
msh 5y ago
Google takeout offers build in automation, you can set it to run every X months automatically.
sschueller 5y ago
I have been looking into this. There is mbsync (isync)[1] which will let you download a imap account. There is also a premade docker image[2] which you could trigger via cron and sync your mails. For gmail it is recommended to get a login token but I have not looked into how to do that. [1] https://isync.sourceforge.io/mbsync.html https://isync.sourceforge.io/mbsync.html [2] https://github.com/JakeWharton/docker-mbsync https://github.com/JakeWharton/docker-mbsync

JamesAdir 5y ago

I hope you checked your data and tried to restore everything. I pulled out my Google Music data about 6 months ago and it was almost unusable with Google mixing all the data in one folder.

karteum 5y ago

N.B. note that Google performs some encoding conversions within the GMail backup from Takeout that permanently break all non-ascii characters when an encoding other than UTF-8 is used in the original mail (those characters are replaced by the 0xEFBFBD sequence, and since information in lost it guess it cannot be properly recovered). Obviously I am not the only one who have been experiencing the issue, e.g. https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/71153/takeout-breaks-my-non-ascii https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/71153/takeout-br... The issue does not happen when doing backup with another tool e.g. mbsync.

jerrygoyal 5y ago

where do you backup the data? I keep it in the Dropbox for now (anything other than GDrive)

bariumbitmap 5y ago

As it stands, Google Takeout is not sufficient. While attempting to export data, you can still get a "sensitive action blocked" and "we can't verify it's really you"-style errors that indefinitely prevent access to that data. I've encountered this myself when trying to export my YouTube subscriptions, and it gave me pause when I considered that this could happen to more serious data. It's not a one-time issue, either, I've been retrying export for months now without success. The responses I've seen to other people with this problem are not encouraging, amounting to "oh, you must have done something out of the ordinary, try again in a few days". See, for example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20054083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20054083 https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/i6cn1x/google_takeout_sensitive_action_blocked/ https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/i6cn1x/google_... https://support.google.com/accounts/thread/13380514/i-can%E2%80%99t-download-my-takeout-archive?hl=en https://support.google.com/accounts/thread/13380514/i-can%E2... https://twitter.com/veerismo/status/1341605248834498561 https://twitter.com/veerismo/status/1341605248834498561 Edit: better links