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> You can export mail from Google. I've tried to do it on some old G Suite accounts that got suspended and no, you can't.

Freak_NL 5y ago
IMAP just works; at least as long as the account is active.
mxuribe 5y ago
As @Freak_NL noted, IMAP can help here. What i have been doing for years now is to setup Thunderbird leveraging maildir...Now, the majority of the time i do read my mail via google's webmail...but on occasion i do use Thunderbird for reading mail. But the benefit of having my mail locally accessible - as indivudual files under maildir - is that things are snappier for going through all of my messages...But the secondary benefit is that i can (and have been for years) backing up my email as files...In essence all the files under thunderbird's maildir can be copied/pasted to some other storage place/folder/network share/whatever...so i get speed and protection! Plus this (having all my email messages locally-accessible) makes it trivially easy to "re-import" (if you want to call it that) my email from GSuite over to any other IMAP-capable mail provider...it is as easy as dragging files from my GSuite-account in thunderbird over to the other, non-GSuite account within said same Thunderbird view. (Granted it takes time to push up email to the new provider this way if you have tons of messages...but its easy.) I'm sure there are more efficient methods to get your messages from Goolgle and shifted over to another mail provider...but this is what i've done, and it works. YMMV depending on the number of messages you're dealing with, and any constraints your new/other mail provider might have in receiving loads of "new" messages.
OutsmartDan 5y ago
You can use takeout.google.com to export your entire inbox.
- reaperducer 5y ago
  I think you missed the part about the account being suspended. Can't log in? Can't take out.
  - seba_dos1 5y ago
    Actually, I can login to account settings and can initiate a take out, but there's no way to include Gmail data in it (and trying to get to Gmail results in "account suspended" message).

Freak_NL 5y ago

IMAP just works; at least as long as the account is active.

mxuribe 5y ago

As @Freak_NL noted, IMAP can help here. What i have been doing for years now is to setup Thunderbird leveraging maildir...Now, the majority of the time i do read my mail via google's webmail...but on occasion i do use Thunderbird for reading mail. But the benefit of having my mail locally accessible - as indivudual files under maildir - is that things are snappier for going through all of my messages...But the secondary benefit is that i can (and have been for years) backing up my email as files...In essence all the files under thunderbird's maildir can be copied/pasted to some other storage place/folder/network share/whatever...so i get speed and protection! Plus this (having all my email messages locally-accessible) makes it trivially easy to "re-import" (if you want to call it that) my email from GSuite over to any other IMAP-capable mail provider...it is as easy as dragging files from my GSuite-account in thunderbird over to the other, non-GSuite account within said same Thunderbird view. (Granted it takes time to push up email to the new provider this way if you have tons of messages...but its easy.) I'm sure there are more efficient methods to get your messages from Goolgle and shifted over to another mail provider...but this is what i've done, and it works. YMMV depending on the number of messages you're dealing with, and any constraints your new/other mail provider might have in receiving loads of "new" messages.

OutsmartDan 5y ago

You can use takeout.google.com to export your entire inbox.

reaperducer 5y ago
I think you missed the part about the account being suspended. Can't log in? Can't take out.
- seba_dos1 5y ago
  Actually, I can login to account settings and can initiate a take out, but there's no way to include Gmail data in it (and trying to get to Gmail results in "account suspended" message).