Archiving Gmail (Thunderbird?)

[earthlingkc]

I have years worth of emails on Gmail that I'm not comfortable leaving in the cloud (no matter who the cloud email provider is). I'm thinking of archiving it to local Thunderbird but want that replicated. I also use Resilio Sync (private cloud to other computers). My plan is to have Thunderbird pull down all Gmail (not keeping on server after a week) and replicate the Thunderbird data folder with Resilio sync. If the Thunderbird PC that downloads the Gmail fails, is it easy to reconfig Tbird on another computer pointing to the replicated data folder or should it be 'exported' some other way. I haven't used Tbird.

And any better solutions than this? I would be somewhat fine keeping in cloud if Gmail offered a second layer password to access their own archive but they don't.

[catweazel]

And any better solutions than this? I would be somewhat fine keeping in cloud if Gmail offered a second layer password to access their own archive but they don't.

Once you see all the messages are downloaded locally you can backup your Thunderbird profile. It is relatively straightforward to recover the profile from backup at a later date. See this article.

An alternative method is here.

[chiefjim]

An alternative method is here.

I've been happily using ImportExportTools for some time. Messages saved to a folder away from /home in eml format. A copy of which then saved to the local folders. Thunderbird easily searches this folder. Amusing to surprise friends with quotations from messages they sent years ago. Nice knowing I have permanent copies even if later switching Internet providers.

[phd21]

Hi earthlingkc,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

Google does have an archiving feature in it settings.

I think using Thunderbird (TB) is an excellent method for retrieving (backing up) your emails which can be left on the Google Servers or not, then you can copy the TB profile folder to another folder or wherever (or create a secure archive file). I usually change the default local profile folders for my emails from the hidden TB folders to folders underneath my "/Documents" folder because I always back up my "/Documents" folder anyway.

If you use a cloud provider with encryption, then your data is secure as long as the cloud provider does not go out of business. "Mega.nz" has built-in encryption and free 50gb of space. The excellent "pCloud" offers 10gb of free space, but encryption is extra. Google drive does not have an encryption option that I know of. There is the "cryptomator" application which can be used with cloud providers. And as I stated before, if you create a secure archive file, then you can upload that to a cloud account(s).

Cryptomator: Free Cloud Encryption for Dropbox & Others
https://cryptomator.org/

I still think it is very important to keep a copy of any important files locally, like to an external hard drive or even DVD/Blu-Ray discs ("m-disc" is best for long term storage).



Hope this helps ...