How to Save Gmail Emails to Hard Drive – Top 2 Ways
Summary: This write-up explains two best possible ways to save Gmail emails to hard drive in just a few steps. One is an automated tool that offers various advanced features to make the job effortless. Second is the manual method that is free of cost but comes with certain limitations. Have a look at both the methods and choose the best suitable for you.
Gmail is one of the most preferable choices of webmail clients because it’s free of cost, provides multiple business applications, generous storage space, etc. However, this storage space is getting less sufficient day by day as technology is evolving.
It is allowed to store only a fixed amount of data i.e., 15 GB. Moreover, this storage space is shared between three services i.e., Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. When this storage limit reaches, Gmail becomes non-functional and there might be a loss of data, and users face Gmail running out of storage space issue. At this point in time, users cannot even delete their important emails.
So, to overcome this limitation, experts advise saving Gmail emails to Hard Drive. Now, the question is how one can implement the same without losing a single bit of data. To know this in detail, read this article till the end and you will get two ways to do so.
“I am using Gmail since 2010 and my mailbox is filled up with a large number of emails. Now, there are some important emails also, which are hard to filter. To free up storage for new emails, I cannot even delete my old emails. Therefore, I decided to save Gmail emails to Hard Drive. If anyone knows any solution for the same, please recommend.”
Best Method to Download Gmail Emails to Hard Drive
The direct solution for saving emails from a Gmail account without any effort is via an automated tool. Use the Best Rated Gmail Backup tool that allows users to download crucial Gmail data (emails, contacts, calendar, and documents) without any effort.
Apart from this, there are many other features offered by the tool to customize the process. There is a date range and folder filter to download only the selected set of data. This feature makes the entire process quick and efficient. Additionally, there is an option to delete the data once it is downloaded. This feature helps to free up the space occupied by those emails.
A user can export Gmail emails to PST, PDF, MBOX, MSG, and EML file format. This makes it easy for users to access Gmail emails in other email applications also. Some other advance options provided by the software are:
- Option to perform Incremental Migration in the next attempt
- Save Gmail emails in multiple file formats
- Capable to save Gmail emails, calendars, contacts, documents
- Allows to select folders to download selective data from Gmail
- Date-based filter option to save data from a specific date range
- Option to delete data after download for free storage space
- Supports all versions of Microsoft Windows operating system
If you are a Mac user, then please download from here:
How to Save Gmail Emails via Google Takeout?
Google provides a free utility named Google Takeout that let users download Gmail data on the local machine. This application will save Gmail emails to Hard Drive in MBOX format. Moreover, the MBOX format is supported by a wide range of email applications. So, exporting Gmail emails via Takeout is not a bad idea.
- Enter Gmail credentials to log in to Takeout.
- A screen with multiple listed data items is displayed.
- Now, as you need to download Gmail emails so, turn on the Mail icon only and turn off the rest of them.
- Two options are offered i.e., Includes all of your mail and Select Labels. Here, you can choose the option as per your requirement.
- In the case of Select Labels option, a dialog box containing labels displayed on the screen. Select the label of your choice and click on the OK button.
- Now, click on the Next option.
- You can choose the desired File type and Archive file size here.
- After that, you need to choose the delivery mode for the archive file. Here, we have selected Send download link via email option.
- At last, click Create Export button to begin the process.
- Then, log in to Gmail account and look for the email sent by Google Takeout.
- Open the email and click on the Download archive button.
- It will be redirected to Google Takeout tab and begin Gmail emails downloading process in a ZIP format on the local machine.
- Next, you need to extract data from the Zip file.
- You can easily see that the downloaded file is in MBOX format. Now, you can import it into any MBOX-supported email client.
Limitations of the Manual Procedure
- You are not allowed to download data from a particular date range
- If the process gets interrupted in between, you need to start over it again
- There is no option to perform incremental migration so, might result in duplicates
- The process is quite long and very time taking compared to a professional solution
- A user will get Gmail data in MBOX format only not in any other desired format.
Conclusion
Mailbox data is always really crucial for every user and nobody wants to lose it. Therefore, users usually search for how to save Gmail emails to Hard Drive. Keeping the importance of users’ data in mind, this blog will let them know both professional and manual ways to download emails from Gmail to Hard Drive. A user needs to make a choice between them as per his or her choice.
