Cannot download all emails from Gmail
Hello! I am trying to download a backup of all of my emails from Gmail since 2006. I am using Thunderbird and pop3 to do download the emails (roughly 90GB) and all emails are left on the gmail servers for now. The server is conacted every 5 minues and like this over a few weeks every 5 minutes some emails are downloaded. In the beginning it was thousands of emails every time, but it slowed down quickly, to only around 10 emails every 5 minutes in the end. On my first try, I successfully downloaded all emails between 2006 and 2016, then Thunderbird announced there were no more new mails. Gmail online shows that emails between 2016 and 2023 are well present on the server. I went into the gmail settings, re-marked all emails as eligible for pop3 and started to download everything again. This time it downloaded all emails 2006-2014 (again, requesting every 5 minutes and with diminishing new emails on every request). Again Thunderbird announces "No new emails to download" even though theres plenty between 2016 and 2023 that can be found through the gmail web application. Using the "recent" setting (adding 'recent:' in front of the pop3 user-name, I manage to download the past month worth of emails but nothing more.) Google Support said all my settings looked correct, they couldn't help and I should ask Thunderbird Support. Could you help me?
All Replies (5)
Gmail allows 1250 MB per day through POP. Does that explain the issue?
https://support.google.com/a/answer/1071518
It might be better to use the Takeout service.
Thank you for your answer. After several days/weeks of downloading Thunderbird does not find any new emails younger than 2016 even though there's still all the emails 2016-2023 left. That means before posting here, for weeks there was no download happening whatsoever. So it does not appear to be a bandwidth issue.
Do you have the POP account set up on any other device? That's the reason for 'recent mode'.
I only use pop3 in this one instance to try and download all mail. I only use the gmail app otherwise. Google Support suggested trying "recent mode" but that didn't help. Using it, I managed to download the very last month of emails but nothing more.
re : 'recent' mode That means: In POP recent mode, Gmail will present all messages from All Mail (Spam and Trash are excluded) from the last 30 days.
So perhaps the recent mode would not be the best setting to download older emails. I'm assuming all those emails are only in the gmail 'Inbox'.
In Thunderbird pop account,
Either : create some new folders. eg: Family, Friends, Online Orders, Bills etc and move emails from Inbox into those folders, so the single text file that is receiving those emails does not get too big. The single mbox file must be getting quite large. This means it could be very difficult to compact an enormous file or open it to rescue emails. And it's more risky putting all your eggs in one basket!!
OR access pop 'Account Settings' > 'Copies & Folders'
- Select 'Keep message archives in:'
- Select 'Archives folder on' and choose 'pop account name/email address'
- click on 'Archive Options' button and set to use 'yearly archived folders' and click on 'OK'
- Then select batches of emails and click on 'Archive'
When emails are all in Archives or other folders,....
- Right click on Inbox and select 'compact' to remove all traces of moved emails.
Now you should have a clean fresh Inbox ready to receive emails.
Now try 'Get Messages' to see if this will force a download.
If still no joy, logon to gmail webmail account and move all the emails you have already downloaded into another suitably named folder.