How To Create Gmail Offline Backup

Creating an offline backup of your Gmail is essential for various reasons, such as:

• Your Gmail storage is full, and you don’t want to purchase additional storage.
• You are planning to move away from Gmail.
• You want to maintain an offline archive of your emails.

Regardless of the reason, this guide provides a step-by-step process to create a Gmail offline backup.

Google Takeout

The good news is that Google offers a feature called Google Takeout to help users easily download their data.

Follow these steps:

1. Go to Google Takeout.
2. Click Deselect All to untick all products.
3. Scroll down, search for Mail, and tick the checkbox. It will indicate that your emails and attachments will be exported in MBOX format.
4. Scroll down and click the Next Step button.
5. Under Destination, select Send download link via email. Google will send an email with the download link once the export is ready.
6. For Frequency, choose Export Once.
7. Click the Create Export button.
8. The export process may take several hours. Once it’s completed, Google will send you an email with the download link.
9. Download your backup. You will receive either a ZIP or MBOX file. Typically, the ZIP file contains Gmail configurations, while the MBOX file contains emails.

How to Open Gmail MBOX File with Thunderbird

Now that you have the backup, what if you need to access your old emails? Fortunately, Thunderbird can open MBOX files. Follow these steps to view your emails:

Method 1: Using Folder Properties

1. Open Thunderbird.
2. In the left sidebar, right-click Local Folders and select New Folder…
3. Give the folder a meaningful name, such as gmail_backup.
4. Once the folder is created, right-click the folder and select Properties.
5. In the General Information tab, note down the Location path (e.g., mailbox:///home/sumar/.thunderbird/n75ncpm3.default-release/Mail/Local Folders/gmail_backup).
6. Close Thunderbird.
7. Navigate to the folder location on your system.
8. Delete the gmail_backup file from the directory.
9. Copy your Gmail MBOX file to this folder and rename it to gmail_backup.
10. Open Thunderbird again and select Local Folders > gmail_backup.
11. It may take some time for Thunderbird to rebuild the index. Once completed, you will be able to browse your emails with their attachments.

Method 2: Using Troubleshooting Information

1. Open Thunderbird.
2. Press ALT+H to open the Help menu, and then click Troubleshooting Information.
3. On the Troubleshooting Information page, click the Open Directory button next to the Profile Directory row.
4. Close Thunderbird.
5. Inside the opened directory, navigate to Mail/Local Folders (e.g., /home/sumar/.thunderbird/n75ncpm3.default-release/Mail/Local Folders/).
6. Paste the MBOX file into this folder and rename it to something meaningful, such as my_gmail_takeout.
7. Open Thunderbird and go to Local Folders in the left sidebar. You will see my_gmail_takeout. Click the folder, and Thunderbird will index the emails automatically, allowing you to browse your emails and attachments.