This Automator script has but one Action: Get New Mail.
Launch Automator and start a new Custom workflow. Automator has three main panes: the Library on the left, a list of Actions in the middle, and the Workflow on the right. In the Library, click Mail, then in the list of Actions, find Get New Mail. Drag it over to the Workflow area. In the dropdown menu labeled For, choose your Gmail account.
Every day at 9:49 a.m., iCal will launch our Automator script MrSparkle, fetching our new mail.
Still in Automator, choose File > Save As Plug-in. Name the plug-in something awesome (ours is MrSparkle), and in the Plug-in For dropdown menu, choose iCal Alarm. When you click Save, iCal will launch. A new event will be created for just about now. And instead of an alarm, it will run your Automator script. Click Edit and set the event to repeat as often as you like. I picked once a day.
If you want to back up your backup, use the Archive Mailbox command.
Your Gmail backup is accessible and easily searched right there in Mail. But if you want to back it up yet again, open up Mail, select your Inbox, and choose Mailbox > Archive Mailbox from the menubar. Save the mailbox archive (an MBOX file) anywhere you like. We could automate this with an AppleScript (not with Automator), but that’s another how-to.
If you’re already using Mail to manage your email, you might want a separate client just for this Gmail-backup jig. Download Thunderbird for free from www.mozilla.com, and you can do nearly the same steps.
To set up Thunderbird for your Gmail account: Use pop.gmail.com for incoming server, and smtp.gmail.com for outgoing, although we won’t be sending anything. Unfortunately, we can’t use Automator to schedule Thunderbird, so Mail is the best choice if you can use it.
Wondering what the difference is? POP (Post Office Protocol) will download a copy of all your email from Gmail’s servers to a client on your Mac and leave it there. The local copy stays put even if the message is later delivered from the server, so it’s better for backing up.
On the other hand, IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) syncs your email between the server and the client, so whatever changes you make on the server (meaning the Web version of Gmail) are reflected in the local client (Mail on your Mac). IMAP is better when you’re trying to keep your accounts, messages, and mailboxes synced across two devices, like your Mac and your iPhone.
Clandestiny
February 28, 2011 at 3:48am
In fact, there IS a way to use Thunderbird (or any other POP email client) with this method and still schedule it with Automator. I just did it, and it works. I've done this under Snow Leopard, so if you have an earlier version of the OS, you may want to adjust the instructions to fit...
1. Launch Automator and select "iCal Alarm" as your workflow template.
2. Add "Launch Application" as your first action, and select "Thunderbird" from the pull-down menu of available apps. (You can find this or any other action using Automator's search bar.)
3. Now we'll want Thunderbird to pause long enough to check for new email. So the next action to add is "Pause." You can set this for any amount of seconds, minutes, or hours that you wish. I set mine for 3 minutes, which should be more than long enough for Thunderbird to check for any new mail and bring it down.
4. Now that Thunderbird has checked for mail, you can either choose to let it remain up, or have it automatically quit. If you want Thunderbird to remain up, skip to step 5. If you want it to quit automatically after checking for mail, do the following:
-Add "Quit Application" as your final action in the workflow and select "Thunderbird" from the pulldown menu.
5. That's it! Now you select "Save", and Automator will prompt you to give a name to your new iCal alarm. Once you enter the name, iCal will launch automatically and, as noted in the above article, will give you options for your new event. Edit those as shown in the article, and you're done.
For extra security, I use this in tandem with a freeware program called Email Backup 2.5, from Squashed Software. This will allow you to back up your email profile from all of the major Mac email programs, including Apple Mail, Microsoft Office (versions X through 2011), Thunderbird, and Eudora 6. Email Backup 2.5 is available at Squashed Software's website. (I can't include the URL, because MacLife's spam filter treats my post as spam if I try; but just search for Squashed Software in Google and you should have no trouble finding it.)
kennethlion
December 20, 2010 at 8:11pm
Backup Gmail Address book is also the big issue,isnt'it.
How do you backup them? By vCard/CSV export?
But we have to know we can't save photo by vcard/csv.
I searched for a good tool for backuping, and found.
http://www.egg-on-egg.com/
It can Backup/restore photos. Wow! This is it!
How do you rate this?
deeizme
July 29, 2010 at 11:28am
I mistakenly deleted all the emails I thought I didn't need anymore. Well you know how that goes...
I used the Thunderbird method. Not only did this clear my gmail backup problem, but also recovered all my emails from when I first signed up for my account. And with attachments. Wow! Thanks!
mbateson
March 18, 2010 at 5:04pm
This is working great but I'm not getting any of the attachments. How can I have the backup include those as well?
mad48
March 07, 2010 at 1:27pm
>now we have a copy of every Gmail message ever sent or received in Mail
No, we don't. I followed the instructions in setting up Mail to download all my Gmail messages, but it only downloaded the ones from 2008 -- nothing since. Does Mail (2.x) have a limit on the number of message sa mailbox can hold or something? Any help appreciated. I really need to have local copies of all my Gmails for my records. Thanks.
lavinpratap
February 17, 2010 at 12:27pm
gmail is a really cool stuff.. and the new buzz in gmail is similar to yahoo buzz. and the themes are also cool and the best thing is, it is simple to use and faster too.
mallorca-properties
