How to Export Gmail Email to Hard Drive In 5 Ways?

These days it is very important to export Gmail email to hard drive. Thus, it helps in various things such as getting the backup of your crucial data, organizing the emails, or freeing up the storage space.

Moreover, there are various ways to copy Gmail emails to external hard drive using manual and professional methods. In addition to this, exporting the Gmail emails also brings ease of access and effortless data sharing. Therefore, to learn about each of the methods in detail, read the article till the end.

Reasons to Download Gmail Email to Hard Drive

There are a lot of reasons and causes that instigate a Gmail user to save all the emails to hard drive. Some of the most common and prior ones are as follows:

• Takes a backup of all the Gmail emails in case of data loss or breaching.
• Helps in organizing crucial data and accessing them even offline when needed.
• Allows easy sharing of Gmail emails to any platform.
• Maintains data privacy by exporting Gmail emails to hard drive and deleting them from Gmail.
• Free up the used 15 GB storage space of Gmail and protect it from data corruption or loss.

Various Ways To Export Gmail Email To Hard Drive

After getting a quick glimpse of the reasons to export Gmail emails to hard drive, it is high time to learn about the different methods to copy Gmail emails to external hard drive. Therefore, read and follow the below-shared methods accordingly.

#1 Save Gmail Emails to Hard Drive Using The Print Option

One of the most common ways to download all the Gmail emails to hard drive manually is by using the print option. The steps for this method are mentioned below:

1. Begin with logging into your Gmail account. Once done, click on the email that you want to save on your hard drive.
2. After that, select the “Print” icon.
3. Now, on the print preview page, click on the drop-down arrow of the destination option and choose the “Save as PDF” option.
4. At last, tap on the “Save” option and choose the destination of your hard drive where you want the email to be downloaded.

Note: This is a very slow and frustrating process as it does not have the ability to batch download. Thus, a user has to download each email one by one to get the complete backup. 

#2 Export All Gmail Email to Hard Drive Using Google Takeout

This is the most preferred way to export Gmail emails to a hard drive in bulk. The appropriate and easy steps for using the method are mentioned here:

1. Firstly, go to the Google Takeout website and share the required credentials to log in.
2. Now, from the select data to include section, simply deselect all the items.
3. Next, search for Gmail in the list and check it.
4. Once done, tap on the “All Mail data included” option to save Gmail emails to hard drive. However, you can also personalize it by checking the files and folders that you want to save.
5. At this step, click on “Next” and further choose the file type as .zip and file size as 2GB.
6. Finally, select the Gmail email to hard drive sharing method and click on “Create Export”.

Note: The Google Takeout also has some drawbacks which limit its functionality. It includes less number of downloads, improper data download of large files, limited capacity, and so on.

#3 Download Gmail Email to Hard Drive With Download Message Option

One of the other manual methods to copy Gmail email data to hard drive is by using the default download message option that is present in Gmail itself. The steps to use it are as follows:

1. Begin with opening your Gmail account and selecting the email that you want to download to your hard drive.
2. After this, click on the three-dot icon and select the “Download message” option.
3. Now your Gmail email will get downloaded to your hard drive in EML format.

Note: One of the drawbacks of this manual method is that it downloads the Gmail email to hard drive in EML format only which makes viewing it a bit complex. 

#4 Export Gmail Email to Hard Disk Using Pro Tool

After learning about all the manual methods, it is evident that they are very restricted and have a lot of shortcomings. Thus, downloading the MailsWare Gmail Backup Toolkit can help you overcome all the limitations and save Gmail emails to hard drive seamlessly. The steps to use this professional and automated method are as follows:

1. The very first step is to install the above-mentioned tool and run it.
   
2. After that, choose the desired email source and fill in the asked credentials.
   
3. Once done, tick the folders that you want to export to hard drive and then select the desired file-saving option.
4. Further, browse the location to save Gmail email to hard drive and apply the filters according to your preferences.
   
5. Finally, click on backup and you are done with the task.
   

 

#5 Using Gmail Message Backup Plugin

Another very effortless and quick solution to export Gmail emails to hard drive is by using a plugin. Thus, the steps to run and use the Gmail Message Backup Plugin are as follows:

1. Install and activate the extension of the above shared plugin in your system.
2. Once done, open Gmail in your browser and click on the email that you want to download to hard drive.
3. Now, you will see the buttons “Download” and “PDF” right beside the Print option. So, simply click on them to export Gmail emails to hard drive in EML and PDF file format.

Note: One of the major drawback of this method is that it only works on brewer Gmail. Apart from this, there is no bulk transfer feature which makes this time taking. 

How Is Professional Method Better Than the Manual Method?

Of course, there are a lot of manual methods that support copying Gmail email to hard drive but unfortunately, they all are bound with some limits. Therefore, some of the points that make professional tools win over them are shared below:

• Has the ability to export Gmail emails to hard drive from multiple or single accounts.
• Make sure to download the attachments of the emails as well.
• Has 30+ file-saving options which include different file formats, email clients, and email actions.
• Allow easy sign-in using the Google oAuth feature which is unique and hassle-free.
• Has the feature of bulk export Gmail email to external hard drive which saves a lot of time.
• Shares advanced filters to make the export more personalized and to the point.

Read More: Easy Guide to Save Gmail Emails to Computer

Conclusion

In this blog, we briefly shared some manual and professional ways to export Gmail emails to hard drive. Hence, we can conclude that conventional methods have some limits whereas pro tools have solutions for everything. Thus, they not only help in copying Gmail emails to hard drive but also help in eliminating unwanted emails and freeing up the Gmail storage. Apart from that, automated software also brings other features that make dealing with email-related issues effortless.

FAQs

Q 1: Can I export Gmail emails to hard drive?

Yes, using the above-shared tool, you can easily export, backup, and share your Gmail emails to a hard drive in different file formats.

Q 2: Why should someone copy Gmail emails to external hard drive?

Some of the most common reasons to export Gmail emails to hard drive include freeing up Gmail storage, managing data, taking the backup, and keeping the privacy of crucial emails.

Q 3: Which is the best tool to download Gmail email to hard drive?

The above-mentioned tool is the best software to save Gmail emails to hard drive. It has different file formats, saving options, file destinations, filters, and so on.

Read Next: Ultimate Guide to Import Gmail Emails to Rediffmail