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Preface

Emails have become an integral part of our personal and professional lives. They contain important conversations, attachments, and valuable information that we often cannot afford to lose. However, accidents, hardware failures, or even cyber threats can result in the loss of our emails. That's why it's crucial to have a reliable backup system in place. In this article, we will explore different methods and best practices for backing up emails effectively.

Importance of Email Backup

Email backup plays a vital role in safeguarding our digital communication. Here are a few reasons why it's essential:

  • Data Protection: Email backup ensures the protection of important emails, contacts, and attachments from accidental deletion, hardware failures, or data corruption.
  • Recovery from Disasters: In the event of natural disasters, theft, or system crashes, email backup ensures that your data remains safe and can be easily restored.
  • Legal and Compliance Requirements: Some industries require organizations to retain email data for a specific period. Backup helps meet legal and compliance obligations.
  • Seamless Migration: When transitioning between email providers or upgrading your systems, having a backup simplifies the migration process and ensures data integrity.

How to Backup Emails: Step-by-step Guide

For how to do email backup, there are two main types of email backup methods: local email backup and cloud-based email backup. Each has its advantages and considerations.

Solution 1: How to Backup Emails to Local

Local email backup involves storing emails on your local device. It offers more control and privacy over your data. Judging from the needs of many users, Gmail and Outlook are commonly used mail applications by most users. This article will provide the steps for local email backup of these two services.

1. Backup Emails from Outlook to Local

The export feature of MS Outlook allows users to backup all messages including subfolders. The following are the detailed operation steps.

Step 1. With the email open in Outlook, click the "File" tab at the top of the screen.

Click File
Click File

Step 2. Select "Import/Export" from the menu that appears.

Import/Export
Import/Export

Step 3. Click "Export to a File" and select "Next".

Export to a File
Export to a File

Step 4. Select the file format. The easiest format to use is .pst, since most flash drives use this format by default. Then select "Next".

Select .pst Type
Select .pst Type

Step 5. Select the folder to export and click "Next".

Select the Folder to Export from
Select the Folder to Export from

Step 6. Click "Browse..." to choose where you want to save your emails. At this point, you can choose to save emails to a flash drive or external hard drive.

Browse
Browse

2. Backup Emails from Gmail to Local

There are several methods of Gmail backup. For convenience, you can use Google Takeout to back up Gmail emails. It's the most convenient way for Gmail users to back up their mail, allowing them to download and export entire Google data, including emails sent via Google Takeout. Users can use the following steps to operate:

Step 1. Login to Google Takeout.

Step 2. At the top of the page, click "Deselect All". Then find the "Mail" option and tick it.

Select Mail
Select Mail

Step 3. Click "Next", then select the delivery method (Dropbox or Send download link via email), export frequency and file type & size.

Delivery Settings
Delivery Settings

Step 4. Click "Link accounts and create export". Once the email with the export file arrives, download it and move it to the backup folder.

Solution 2: How to Backup Emails to Cloud

Cloud-based email backup involves storing emails on remote servers or cloud services. This method provides convenience, accessibility, and additional security. The most common cloud-based email backup method is to back up emails to cloud accounts, but cloud services generally do not support direct backup entry.

At this point, for a more automated and hassle-free approach to email backup, you can consider using third-party backup tools, such as MultCloud. This tool allows users to directly integrate email accounts and cloud accounts and migrate email data between them. During the migration process, you can also set up services such as automatic migration and mail filtering.

What are the advantages of MultCloud compared to other tools?

  • Email Migration: Multiple emails can be migrated to the cloud at the same time, such as saving Gmail emails to Dropbox.
  • Scheduled Attachment Transfer: You can set the time to automatically transfer the attachments in the email to the cloud account.
  • Email Download: Easily download multiple emails to a computer or other device.
  • Email Filtering: Multiple options to filter emails like date range, sender, recipient, subject etc.
  • Email Account Management: Support adding multiple email accounts and centralized management.

 

The following are the detailed steps for backing up emails to cloud accounts. This article takes backup emails to Dropbox as an example.

Step 1. Use your email to register a MultCloud account, or log in directly with your Google or Facebook account.

Step 2. Click "Add Email", and choose Gmail to grant MultCloud access to your Gmail account.

Add Gmail
Add Gmail

Note: Outlook is available now! You can also add your Outlook account to backup Outlook emails to Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive.

Step 3. Click "Add Cloud", and choose Dropbox to grant MultCloud access to your Dropbox account.

Step 4. Select the email and destination on the "Email Migration" page respectively, and click "Migrate Now".

Backup Gmail to Dropbox
Backup Gmail to Dropbox

Notes:

  • In "Options", you can set the migration mode and email notification.
  • You can also enter your email account from MultCloud, and then select "Download" to back up emails to your computer or other devices.
  • If you need to backup Gmail to Dropbox periodically, you can set a specific time in "Schedule".
Schedule
Schedule

Conclusion

How to backup emails? The methods mentioned above will help you a lot. Whether you choose local backup methods or rely on automated cloud solutions, having a backup system in place ensures that your emails are safe from loss or unexpected events. Remember to follow best practices, such as maintaining a regular backup schedule, utilizing multiple backup locations, and testing the restoration process. By implementing these strategies, you can safeguard your valuable emails and ensure their availability when needed.

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