To back up your Gmail account, you can download an archive file containing all of your Gmail information to your computer. Unfortunately, it is not possible to back up a Gmail account from the Gmail mobile app.
Steps
Step 1. Navigate to your Google Account page
All your settings and account information will be on this page.
- If you are not yet signed in to your Google account, click Log in in the upper right corner of the screen, enter your email address and password, then click Log in.
Step 2. Click Personal Information and Privacy
This option is in the middle of the page.
Step 3. Click Define Your Content
You will find this option in the menu Personal information and confidentiality on the left side of the screen.
Step 4. Click Create Archive
This option can be found under the section Download your data on the right side of the page.
Step 5. Select each item you want to back up
By default, all items will be selected.
- Even if you don't want to download everything, make sure that the option E-mail is selected before continuing.
- You will see an arrow pointing down near the option All Posts. Click on this arrow to select whether you want to include all emails or select specific labels to download only the emails corresponding to these labels.
Step 6. Click Next
This button is located at the bottom of the screen.
Step 7. Make sure the.ZIP option is selected
You will find this option under File type at the top of the page.
- ZIP files can be opened on almost any device. To do this, just double-click on the file. ZIP files also take up less space than other file options in the menu File type.
Step 8. Click on the box below Archive size (max)
This will bring up a drop-down menu with different maximum upload sizes:
- 1 GB
- 2 GB
- 4 GB
- 10 GB
- 50 GB
Step 9. Select a size
Archives exceeding the size you selected will be split into multiple files.
- For example, if you have chosen 4 GB, but the file size is 6 GB, the download will be done in two files: one of 4 GB and another of 2 GB.
Step 10. Click on the box under Shipping Method
You will see several options for sending the backup file.
- Send download link by email: you will receive a link of the file to download in your Gmail account. Click the link to download the file.
- Add to Drive: the file will be placed in Google Drive, and you will be able to access it. These archives will be deducted from the storage space allocated to you.
- Add to Dropbox: the file will be imported to your Dropbox account (if you have one).
- Add OneDrive: the archive will be imported to your OneDrive account (if you have one).
Step 11. Select a sending method
Consider the maximum archive size, as the file size could be larger than the cloud storage space.
Step 12. Click Create Archive
Your Gmail account will be saved in the file format you selected.