What is the best way to back up Google Mail and Google Talk chat logs?

Alex August 21, 2011
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I’m looking to backup my GMail account along with all of my Google chats ~ 20,000 conversations.

I know there is some talk about IMAP and POP and I’m not sure what to do.

I have Outlook on my computer and I know that there are options with that.

I just want to have a backup of everything, preferably so I can store it locally.

  1. Jack Saltiel
    August 22, 2011 at 7:36 pm

    Actually I played with all that before I found the forum. IMAP works fine on my Android phone and Outlook worked acceptably (not great) until about two weeks ago when it started getting very very very slow.

  2. Ny51bern
    August 21, 2011 at 5:03 pm

    Thanks for your response. From what I gather, I need to forward my Gchats via email?

    • Ny51bern
      August 21, 2011 at 5:10 pm

      ah I missed that link. Thanks a lot!  http://freshhorse.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/leaving-gmail-and-bringing-your-chats-with-you/

  3. Anonymous
    August 21, 2011 at 4:47 pm

    Makeuseof guide
    http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-backup-your-gmail-account-to-your-computer/

    You attach chat logs to an email and send them to Thunderbird.
    ---Open a chat log---Click down arrow next to Reply.---Click Forward---Type in your address that you want chat log sent to---Click Send button

    IMAP importhttp://collincode.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/imap-import/
    http://collincode.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/google-chat-history-downloader/

    Leaving Gmail, and Bringing Your Chats With You
    http://freshhorse.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/leaving-gmail-and-bringing-your-chats-with-you/

    If you have a Google Plus account, you can easily download just about everything you have made available on the service.
    http://www.howtogeek.com/68863/how-to-downloadbackup-your-gmail-google-calendar-and-docs-data/

    How To Completely Back Up Your Google Account Files
    http://www.tested.com/news/how-to-completely-back-up-your-google-account-files/1233/

    Google Groups
    http://www.techbuzz.in/how-can-i-backup-google-mail-gmail-details-history.php

    (via the GMail web interface) just bring them up one at a time, click on the
    print button, and then save the resulting page as HTML. Alternately, you can use
    the "View Original" option in the dropdown on the message to save the RFC2822
    source (the chat as HTML, in a MIME subpart of an email message).

    IM-History
    http://www.download32.com/im-history-i53916.html

    GmailKeeper
    http://gmailkeeper.com/

    Spicebird
    http://www.spicebird.com/

  4. Jeffery Fabish
    August 21, 2011 at 9:01 am

    Hi Alex,

    Is this link of any help? The POP and IMAP protocols allow you to download your emails, odds are very good your email provider uses one of these. (SMTP is only for sending email)

    • Ny51bern
      August 21, 2011 at 3:07 pm

      I tried Outlook and it only downloaded emails, and not Gchats..

      • Tina
        August 25, 2011 at 11:50 am

        Yeah, chat logs are not downloaded via POP. I see the same when using Thunderbird.

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