Imap between Gmail And Outlook Or Thunderbird

With the recent problem google had with gmail servers I decided to backup my gmail using Outlook. I set up imap in gmail enabled in preferences then set up my gmail account in outlook by using imap. Everything showed up fine in outlook but my question is what if gmail lost my emails. How do I transfer my gmail account from outlook to gmail. From what I have read all that needs to be done is enable imap in gmail and everything gets copied over to gmail.

Reply 1 : Imap between Gmail And Outlook Or Thunderbird

IMAP automatically mirrors all changes made, which is very convenient but also potentially problematic. For instance, in the case of Google deleting all of your emails, it is quite possible that Outlook would say, 'the latest change is the deletion of everything; let us mirror that change locally,' in which case you would lose your 'backup' automatically. For that reason, any backup is better off being made via POP3, which would ensure that your backup would be a true backup, protected from mistaken deletions on the other end.

Then, to restore, one option is to add that email account to Outlook again as an IMAP account and simply drag-and-drop the emails from the POP3 one to the IMAP one. That would copy all of the emails back to the server as well as any other email programs you're using to access that email account via IMAP.

Hope this helps,
John

Reply 2 : Imap between Gmail And Outlook Or Thunderbird

I always heard Imap was better than pop, what about backing up imap to external hard drive would that keep my emails intact locally. I am currently using Thunderbird for Gmail backup. If I just backup Thunderbird profile folder everything should be safe.

Reply 3 : Imap between Gmail And Outlook Or Thunderbird

Since Outlook creates a separate set of folders for your Gmail account, you should be able to tell your backup software to back up those folders for you whenever you want. Instant Gmail backup through Outlook.

Reply 4 : Imap between Gmail And Outlook Or Thunderbird

If you backup Thunderbird's profile it should backup everything including folders just like Gmail. Thunderbird has cool extensions too like duplicate emails.

Reply 5 : Imap between Gmail And Outlook Or Thunderbird

Though IMAP is not necessarily better than POP3; it is just designed for people with different usage habits.

John

Note: This post was edited by forum moderator on 03/03/2011 on 8:42 PM PT