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backup Gmail mail messages using Thunderbird

Step1
Login to Gmail and inside it click on settings in the top right corner.
Step2
Click on the Forwarding and Pop link\tab.
Step3
Click on Enable Pop for all mail.
Step4
Click on step number 2 of that window and click on Keep Gmail's copy in the inbox from the drop down menu.

Step5
Click the "Save Chages" button.
(Great you just told Gmail it is allowed to send your emails to another mail client!) Don't worry your mail is still protected by your account password and username.
Step6
Download Thunderbird at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
Step7
Double click on Thunderbird Setup X.XX (Where X is the version number)
Step8
The first screen is the welcome screen of Thunderbird setup, click Next.
Step9
Read the agreement on the next screen, click I accept and then click Next.
Step10
Click next again.
Step11
Click Finish (leave the "Launch Mozilla Thunderbird now" checked)
Step12
If you have Microsoft Outlook on your computer, you will have an option to import those settings, choose yes if you would like to and then click next.
Step13
Just choose next and ok for the rest of these screens. I recommend not changing your current default RSS and mail settings when prompted, unless you plan to use Thunderbird for your regular mail and rss reader.
Step14
Once inside the Thunderbird mail window go to Tools > Account Settings.
Step15
From the left side click the button that says Add Account.
Step16
Click Email Account and click next.
Step17
Fill in your name and your full Gmail address and then click Next.
Step18
Choose POP and type in pop.gmail.com for your incoming server. If you like you can fill out the outgoing server, but it is not necessary for using this as a Gmail backup.
Step19
Click Next.
Step20
Type your full Gmail email address as your incoming and outgoing email address, and then click Next.
Step21
Click Next, and click Finish.
Step22
Click in the left pane the section that says “Server Settings” If you do not see server settings expand each collapsed entry on the left until you do see those words.
Step23
On the right side of the new pane choose SSL and type in 995 for your port, the other options are semi optional.
Step24
Click Get mail, from Thunderbird. Thousands of messages will take you several days to get a complete backup, when it is finally caught up it will be really fast for future emails. You don’t have to leave the computer on just have Thunderbird open for a bit every time you have the computer on to allow the backup, and then close it when you get off.



Tips & Warnings

* If you want to use Thunderbird as a full mail client you can follow the directions here for fully setting up your outgoing server: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=38343 However since this is a tutorial on backup we only intend to show you how to copy your current Gmail inbox. The instructions provided for Gmail to Thunderbird are dated so all screen shots they provide will be slightly off as of this writing.


1 Response to "backup Gmail mail messages using Thunderbird"
deena said :
March 19, 2009 at 11:25 PM
what d meaning of Thunderbird?... tell me...

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