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Backup institutional gmail account that's about to get deactivated

  • 3 replies
  • 0 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Dino

Dino
Dino
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Hello there, I use Thunderbird to read emails from my institutional Gmail account (IMAP). Unfortunately, this account is about to get deactivated as I switched Institutions. Before it happens, I would like to keep all my emails locally stored and readable in Thunderbird. Is it possible to do it? Will it still keep asking me to log in to the inactive account? Thank you in advance, Dino

Hello there, I use Thunderbird to read emails from my institutional Gmail account (IMAP). Unfortunately, this account is about to get deactivated as I switched Institutions. Before it happens, I would like to keep all my emails locally stored and readable in Thunderbird. Is it possible to do it? Will it still keep asking me to log in to the inactive account? Thank you in advance, Dino

Chosen solution

Use https://takeout.google.com

It will export your Gmail messages in mbox format, which is Thunderbird's main format for storage of messages. You will be able to import those mbox files into Thunderbird's Local Folders account and access their contents offline with no need to sign in to any account.

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All Replies (3)

Stans
Stans
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Chosen Solution

Use https://takeout.google.com

It will export your Gmail messages in mbox format, which is Thunderbird's main format for storage of messages. You will be able to import those mbox files into Thunderbird's Local Folders account and access their contents offline with no need to sign in to any account.

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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If you have downloaded full message bodies instead of just the message headers, copy the mail to Local Folders and confirm the copy has succeeded. Then if the account is removed, the copies in Local Folders remain.

Dino
Dino Question owner
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Thank you very much sfhowes! I copied everything to a local folder.