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Download a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data

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

#161
post #111
post #44

OK, my archive is being collected as of now. It was so easy, with a direct link to the takeout, with Gmail preselected, and a one click operation - I almost wonder what the catch is :) I suspect it might have been a bit of a battle to push this through the top management. Anyhow, whoever did this - thank you.

really easy but not incremental?

IMAP is incremental.

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

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am glad they did this, as a user who already left the big G earlier this year. Its wasn't a big priority though because of IMAP and ICS. I already got my data out. If anything, I hope this helps promote the MBOX format for quickly moving mail around vs. error prone IMAP transitions.

It's pretty cool do download an archive though, instead of going through IMAP, for archival purposes that is. I have a lot of email in my GMail, going back to 2005 I think. I'm afraid of accidentally deleting it, plus I also use other email clients, like Thunderbird and I'm always triple-checking settings to ensure it doesn't delete old emails. Having the option of doing a dump from time to time, for storage, is real…

Check out "offlineimap" (or similar utilities) that sync your Gmail to your local machine over IMAP. Run that via cron and can back up your mail like normal.

http://offlineimap.org/

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

#166
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, there is a difference, absolutely. No, the line between the two categories is not clear at all.

Can you give me an example of an ambiguous case? I can't think of any personally.

Well, the URLs I enter in Chrome for example: is that data belonging to me because I entered it, or is it data about me because they track it?

Or even the connections I have on Google+: is it data belonging to me because I entered it?

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

#168
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give me an example of an ambiguous case? I can't think of any personally.

Well, the URLs I enter in Chrome for example: is that data belonging to me because I entered it, or is it data about me because they track it? Or even the connections I have on Google+: is it data belonging to me because I entered it?

You're not really handing over URLs to google saying "here are some urls, please keep them", are you? Bookmarks, yes, and you can easily export them.

> Or even the connections I have on Google+: is it data belonging to me because I entered it?

Yes. Google takeout lets you download your G+ circles, if that helps.

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

#169
post #98
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW I needed to do this to back up business emails when I closed down my last shop. At the time, all the open source projects I found didn't manage to correctly download ALL messages. I was finally able to do it by doing an HTML inject, and using JS to load each email iteratively.

Did you try bagoma? When was this?

2-3 years ago, and I don't remember, unfortunately. I just wanted to point out that it could be done through simple javascript if those viewing this thread are unhappy with any of the libraries mentioned.

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

#170
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Google simply shut down Gmail, their stockholders would pretty much fire the entire leadership of the company. It would be professional suicide to approve something like that.

I wonder if Page, Brin and Schmidt (the majority stockholders) would fire Larry, Sergei and Eric.

There would certainly be a change of leadership due to the change in the business that shutting down gmail would cause. The PR hit would be huge, and I'd WAG that majority rule would not be enough to keep them in place.
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