Over the weekend, 150,000 Gmail users logged in to see their accounts completely wiped out– no emails, no chat logs, no contacts, just a blank Gmail account. Google says it is working to restore these users’ accounts.
This news underscores the importance of backing up your life in the cloud, even on “reliable” networks like Google. We’ve shown you how to back up your Facebook data and your Twitter history and today, we have two quick tips on backing up your Gmail account.
One of the best ways to back up your Gmail account is BackUpMyMail which is a paid service of $19.95 per year that automatically backs up your entire account, you don’t have to do anything at all.
Another simple method is to forward all emails to a secondary account. This can be done by clicking the gear at the top right in your Gmail, selecting “Mail Settings” then “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” and at the very top “Add a forwarding address” which you’ll send to a backup Gmail (I suggest setting up a second Gmail account with the email address “youremailBACKUP@gmail.com” with the same password so it’s easy to remember when you’re panicked that Google erased everything).
This doesn’t solve the problem however if all of Gmail is wiped out overnight, so paying for backup if Gmail is your primary business email address is smart. Some people manually back up quarterly, monthly or if compulsive, weekly to a CD so they have a physical copy given that Realtors must adhere to local laws about length of maintaining a copy of all client communications.
UPDATE: Backupify is offering a free year of service in light of the Gmail glitch.
AGbeat is not affiliated with any of the aforementioned companies.
Art Vuilleumier via Facebook
February 28, 2011 at 12:14 pm
Again… Gmail is free and you get what you pay for …
Keith T. Garner
February 28, 2011 at 12:43 pm
No matter who your e-mail vendor is, its a wise idea to backup your mail. After losing a ton of e-mail when an ISP had an issue like this I took to running my own mail server (linux, postfix, spamassassin, dovecot.) My reaction is a little over the top, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take precautions.
If you’re on Windows and can access your e-mail via IMAP, IMAPSize (https://www.broobles.com/imapsize/) is a pretty good tool for this. There’s other ones out there, but I’ve used IMAPSize for a few things back at the office.
Unfortunately, as much as a Mac and Linux guy as I am, I don’t know of a similar tool. But that’s mostly because I’d use something command-line and more unixy to do it.
Lani Rosales
February 28, 2011 at 12:53 pm
Definitely if someone has the technical ability to run their own server, THAT is the ideal backup and it is definitely not over the top!
Matthew Hardy
February 28, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Boy am I glad that from business to personal, I run my own servers.
And… everything important on those servers is backed-up to multiple FTP servers. It’s so easy — no command line necessary, just simple utility software (none web-based).
Control and ownership take very little time to master.
Disk platters are cheap; losin’ data ain’t.