Download a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data • Hacker News Board

Re: Download a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data

#51

Post by bradbatt » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 6:21 PM UTC

ollyculverhouse wrote: post #23

nanidin wrote: post #19

Unfortunately this requires you to be able to log in. I had an account (with the same name I use here) mysteriously stop being able to log in about 6 years ago. I lost all of my email, contacts, and calendars. I was never able to find out why the account was shut down, I'm guessing it was a ToS violation for something I did several months before I got banned (made 100+ gmail accounts with my invites, didn't use them…

Why would Google keep a copy of your mail if your account was deactivated for 6 years? Isn't that asking a bit much considering you were the one that broke the ToS?

Does anyone thing that Google isn't keeping a copy of every bit of data they have on everybody that has ever used any of their systems? I cannot imagine they would ever throw data away. Even if they restrict the end user from it doesn't mean that they destroy the data for their own use.

Re: Download a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data

#52

Post by drcode » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 6:22 PM UTC

menacestudio wrote: post #49

Is it just me or does anyone else think that Google is possibly thinking of dropping Gmail service as well? Think Google Reader.

Not impossible, though I'm guessing gmail is used widely enough that it would be a PR nightmare if they did this, much worse that the greader fiasco. They're probably forced to keep gmail alive, whether they want to or not.

Re: Download a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data

#53

Post by hafichuk » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 6:23 PM UTC

IIRC, the last time Google gave a service the ability to download (export) data, they closed it shortly there after. (RIP Reader)

Re: Download a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data

#54

Post by jefferph » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 6:24 PM UTC

I recently migrated away from gmail and before I left took a back of "All mail" up using mbsync ( http://isync.sourceforge.net/mbsync.html) which was easy to setup and quick to run. As a bonus this gives you your mail in Maildir rather than mbox.

Re: Download a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data

#55

Post by acjohnson55 » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 6:24 PM UTC

drivers99 wrote: post #24

toomuchtodo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, so you weren't backing up your email account?

Wait, how many people back up their gmail account?

Mine is backed up to several copies of Apple Mail

Re: Download a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data

#56

Post by js2 » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 6:24 PM UTC

brucehart wrote: post #39

For anyone looking to an alternative method, there is a great open source Python script called Bagoma that incrementally backs up your Gmail account: http://bagoma.sourceforge.net/ . Each email is stored as an individual text file rather than the mbox format. I have backed up my account with it every few days for a couple of years and it works great. It will even restore your account to Gmail if you need to switch ac…

A similar project is http://gmvault.org/

I'd never heard of bagoma before. I've used Gmvault successfully on both gmail and google apps accounts.

Re: Download a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data

#57

Post by Aldo_MX » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 6:24 PM UTC

> The ability to download your Gmail messages will be rolled out over the next month while Calendar data is available to download for everyone today.

Oh...

Re: Download a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data

#58

Post by rooster8 » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 6:25 PM UTC

Any Mac OS X users here using Horcrux?

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/horcrux/id557880555

It's written by a HN guy. I've had it on my wish list for a while, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet. Can anyone give an opinion on it?

Re: Download a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data

#59

Post by bradbatt » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 6:25 PM UTC

makmanalp wrote: post #33

Hmm, first thing I thought was, there goes Backupify's business model: https://www.backupify.com/ Also, holy crap, it's great to see MBOX going strong after 20 odd years.

Not really imo…they are an automated, set-it-and-forget-it backup service. Not quite the same thing for me to have to remember to go in occasionally and download a full copy of my data versus having a service do it for me once or multiple times a day. Especially for businesses who want to manage multiple accounts and have a centralized backup system.

Re: Download a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data

#60

Post by gky2 » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 6:26 PM UTC

vijucat wrote: post #32

Here is the simplest solution I found to taking a backup of your gmail. The only glitch is that the mirror account will of course be a perfect image only if you set up the forwarding from day one :-( I had to use gmvault (gmvault.org/) to make a copy of my gmail; it was quite doable. Pasted from http://www.webmonkey.com/2008/11/simple_solutions_to_help_yo... "Create some backup accounts — This one is so obvious I’m a…

Thanks for sharing. In the case of GMVault, how "important" do you think your email needs to be for you to use something like that, as opposed to using Google's solution when it comes out? Or asked in a different way, what do you feel GMVault could offer which regularly archiving emails using the Google solution can't?