You can read the plaintive screams of the GMail users here in their GMail support forum. There are 60 users out of luck -- a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the millions who use the service, but enough that it's making news around the world. The problem is especially embarrassing coming on the heels of some inexplicable search-ranking problems experienced by a number of bloggers and small business people.
The email problem is difficult because there is no feature allowing Google mail users to archive their messages on a HD. But there is a way:
- Download an email client like Thunderbird from Mozilla.org
- Install Thunderbird
- Configure Thunderbird, designating your GMail account as the source of your email, but making sure it does NOT delete messages "on the server," i.e. at Google
- Have Thunderbird download all your GMail messages to your HD
I don't think there's a way to upload them back to GMail in case of massive failure, but at least you have a copy.
1 comment:
Gmail is free, no? Doesn't seem like google has any need to backup email accounts and provide backups when they screw up since their users are not paying for the service. At any rate, if you want to keep your email (whether you pay for the account or not) you have to install an email client and download your email (like you suggest). And then don't forget to backup your backup so when your hard drive crashes, you have a backup!
Post a Comment