Backing up your emails is an essential task if you're a heavy Gmail user, whether it be for a personal project or work. When it comes to exporting Gmail emails manually, many users run into problems like downloads not being completed, attachments missing, or preserving the folder structure becoming cumbersome. Google Takeout is an option, but it often does not work well with large mailboxes or give control over which data you actually want to be backed up.
Though, you have an option to script the backup using Python and IMAP, which could provide you with a custom solution and automate the process. IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) archive your emails on the server and allow you to access your email and manage them remotely, therefore allowing you to programmatically fetch email. This is particularly helpful for backing up multiple accounts, parsing messages by sender, date, subject, and to ensure attachments are being saved.
Typical Problems with Backing Up Gmail
Some other frustrations users have include:
Mailbox size: If you have tens of thousands of emails, it could take some the better part of a day, or more, to wait for their emails to transfer and download locally to an email client.
**Attachments: **If you save attachments manually, it might take a while to do so and you may have to perform corrections to mistakes you make in saving them.
Folder structure: Keeping the original folder structure from Gmail and exporting it to another email client is difficult. The standard methods for exporting your mailbox emails do not raise this question because there are no rules or standard methods for preservation.
**Backups: **Users typically want to backup only specific emails (ex. emails for the last six months, specific sender emails etc.).
All of these challenges can be overcome by using Python to write a basic script using an IMAP server and the imaplib package. For example you can have the script automatically download the messages, save the emails in the EML file format, and download the attachments separately.
Overview of the Approach
IMAP access: Verify that you have IMAP selected and configured within your Gmail.
**Generate an app password: **If you have two-factor authentication enabled you will need to generate an app specific password.
Connect via Python: Once you generate an app specific password, you can authorize your server (Python) to connect to Gmail using the imaplib and email packages.
Download messages: You can loop through the emails, select messages based on specific criteria and download them into the specified mailbox folder locally.
Attachments: If you are working with emails with attachments you can download attachments into their download folder in the original raw format.
This process offers a safe and reliable method for anyone who intends to back up their Gmail account on a regular basis. For people who prefer GUI-based or automated solutions, there are also programs out there that have been built with this sort of functionality for bulk backups, selective downloads, and scheduled exports. Using tools like these can help users avoid common pit falls and save time, especially when managing multiple accounts or large amounts of data.
Overall, using Python with IMAP gives the user control, flexibility, and reliability. It is a great method for working around limitations from manual methods to ensure that emails, attachments, and folder structure are intact.
`
import imaplib
import email
import os
Gmail credentials
EMAIL = 'your_email@gmail.com'
APP_PASSWORD = 'your_app_password'
Connect to Gmail IMAP server
imap_server = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL('imap.gmail.com')
imap_server.login(EMAIL, APP_PASSWORD)
imap_server.select('inbox') # select folder
Search emails (all emails)
status, messages = imap_server.search(None, 'ALL')
email_ids = messages[0].split()
Folder to save emails
os.makedirs('Gmail_Backup', exist_ok=True)
for e_id in email_ids:
status, msg_data = imap_server.fetch(e_id, '(RFC822)')
raw_email = msg_data[0][1]
msg = email.message_from_bytes(raw_email)
# Save email as .eml
subject = msg.get('subject', 'No Subject').replace('/', '_')
filename = f"Gmail_Backup/{subject}.eml"
with open(filename, 'wb') as f:
f.write(raw_email)
imap_server.logout()
print("Backup completed successfully!")`
See, I agree, looking at the code part of the software, seeing the scripts is tiring for an everyday user, which is why there are already in the market like RecoveryTools Gmail Backup Tool that make the end task simple for eveyday user.
Top comments (0)