How to Export Emails from Gmail to a PST File or ZIP File
Want to export emails from Gmail? You can do it with Outlook client or Google Takeout. Scroll down to get detailed steps.
By @Lily Last Updated October 29, 2024
Why export emails from Gmail to PST/ZIP?
Gmail is one of the most widely used email clients in the world. If you are a Gmail user, you may want to export Google mails to a PST file or ZIP file for the following reasons:
Email data protection: your email data security is threatened by cyberattacks and hacking. You can backup your emails by exporting Gmail to a PST file or ZIP file.
Free up space: you only get 15 GB of free storage shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. You can archive old emails to a PST/ZIP file to free up space.
All-time access: you may lose your access to Gmail due to technical glitches like server down and Internet issues. A PST/ZIP file in the local system provides all-time access without any interruption.
How to export Gmail mailbox to a PST file with Outlook client
Outlook for Windows comes with a range of functionalities to fulfill all your email requirements. Follow the instructions below to export Gmail to Outlook PST:
Open Outlook and click File > Add Account. Enter your Gmail login credentials and finish its setup.
Now go to File > Open & Export > Import/Export.
Click Export to a file, and then click Next.
Click Outlook Data File (.pst), and click Next.
Find your Gmail account, select the email folder to export from and click Next. Check the box Include subfolders if needed.
Note: It's not allowed to select multiple folders to export from at once. Thus, if you want to export both the Inbox and Sent folders, you will have to repeat the process for each one individually.
Save the PST file to the default location C:\Users\Username\Documents\Outlook Files. Or click Browse to select another location. Also, name the PST file as per your need. Then click Finish.
Enter and confirm a password if there are sensitive files you want to protect and click OK to begin exporting Gmail emails to PST.
Note: If you don't want to password protect the PST file, leave both fields empty, and click OK.
How to export Gmail to a ZIP file using Google Takeout
Google Takeout is a free tool used to export Google data for backup. It supports 51 types of data including mail, Drive content, calendars, browser bookmarks, and even your activity on YouTube. Learn how to export Google Mail as follows:
At the top of the page, click on Deselect all. Then go through the list and check the Mail option.
(Optional) Click All Mail data included, and you can see Include all messages in Mail is selected by default. This option will export emails from the Archived, Chat, Drafts, Inbox, Sent and Starred folders. You can uncheck Include all messages in Mail and choose your desired folders to export from.
Click Next step to continue.
In the next screen, do more export settings:
Destination: choose Send download link via email. It will send you an email with a download link. You'll have one week to download your files.
Frequency: choose Export once or Export every 2 months for 1 year as per your need.
File type & size: choose .zip under File type so that it can be opened on almost any computer. You can also set the maximum file size.
Click Create export to start the export process.
Note: The speed of the data export process depends on the number of mailbox items and the Internet bandwidth. It can take hours or even days to complete. You’ll receive an email when your export is done.
Bonus tip: automatically backup Gmail emails
To create a backup for Gmail emails, you can also try a reliable third-party tool - AOMEI Backupper Professional. It offers you all-around backup solutions:
It enables you to backup all of your emails, contacts, notes, calendars, and tasks in Outlook to a local, external, or network drive.
It supports Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, and any other email accounts added into Outlook client.
To have the backup task run automatically, you can make use of the “Schedule Backup” feature.
After add your Gmail account to Outlook, you can follow these steps to backup Gmail emails with AOMEI Backupper.
Launch AOMEI Backupper, click Backup and select Outlook Backup.
Name this backup task as per your need. Then click Add Outlook Data. In the popup window, select the email folder(s) under your Gmail account as the backup source.
Note: You are allowed to select multiple folders to be backed up at once.
Select a destination path to save the backup image. You can backup emails to external hard drive, local disk, USB flash drive, and NAS device, etc.
Click Schedule Backup and choose your desired backup frequency. There are four options available: Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Event triggers.
Finally, click Start Backup > Add the schedule and start backup now to begin backing up Gmail emails immediately. You can also choose Only add the schedule to run it later.
To sum up
This page offers you stepwise guides to export emails from Gmail to a PST file or ZIP file. However, both of them have drawbacks. When exporting Gmail to Outlook PST, you are not allowed to select multiple folders to export from at once. When exporting Google Mail with Google Takeout, the process can take hours or even days to complete.
If you just want to backup your Gmail data, AOMEI Backupper meets your needs best. It enables you to automatically backup your Gmail emails, contacts, calendars and tasks, etc. Besides, AOMEI Backupper is powerful disk clone software which enables you to clone dynamic disk to basic without disk conversion. Just give it a shot!