How to Backup Gmail Emails to USB (Top 4 Ways)

User case: How do I copy emails to a usb flash drive for email

How do I move an email folder and its content to a thumb drive? Is there any way to move an email folder and its 164 pictures to a thumb drive?

Gmail is one of the top email services offered by Google. It allows users to access it through a web browser or an official mobile application. Users can also use it to store personal information and send and receive emails over the Internet. But sometimes, there are chances of data loss for Gmail users. That's why many users consider backing up Gmail emails to their hard drives.

What’s more, USB drive becomes popular storage and transfer devices due to their light-enough-to-carry and easy-to-access features. Thus, users think about “How to backup Gmail emails to USB?” and finding ways to copy Gmail to hard drive. This article will offer users 4 efficient ways, both manually and professionally.

4 options to copy Gmail to USB drive

Option 1. Save Gmail email into PDF

Step 1. Open Gmail on your browser and sign in with the required credentials (Gmail email account and password).

Step 2. Choose the emails that you want to save from Inbox folder.

Step 3. Click on the Print All icon at the top right of your browser.

✦Note: you are available to preview the message on this page, including Destination, Pages, Layout and Color.

Step 4. Then click Print button to export your Gmail email.

Step 5. Then, a pop-up tab will open on your screen, enter the File Name, and press the Save button to complete the process.

Step 6. After saving the email as a PDF, copy the email from your PC and paste it to the target USB drive. This is one of the ways to backup Gmail to external hard drive.

Option 2. Export Gmail emails via Google Takeout

Step 1. Open Gmail and login with Gmail email address and password.

Step 2. On the dashboard that opens, click the Profile icon and select the Manage your Google Account option.

Step 3. Select Data & personalization from the left menu.

Step 4. In the Data and personalization Wizard, scroll down and choose Download your data and click on it.

Step 5. Then the Google Takeout page will open, click the Deselect all button.

Step 6. Now, scroll down the page and check the mail function. Tap on All Mail data included.

Step 7. Then in the pop-up menu, uncheck the Include all messages in Mail checkbox. Select the folder, and click on the OK button.

Step 8. After that, scroll the page and tap on the Next step button. Here, choose the file type, frequency, and destination section.

Step 9. Now click on the Create Export button and download the Archive files into the local system for further use.

Step 10. Once the archive files have been created, download them to your USB drive and use a file archiver like 7-zip to open it.

Option 3. Transfer via Microsoft Outlook

How to save emails to flash drive from Outlook? Gmail emails can also be backed up through the Outlook Desktop app to your USB drive.

Now please add your Gmail to the Outlook Desktop app first and also make sure your USB drive has been connected properly.

Step 1. Launch the Outlook client and navigate to the File tab. Locate and click on the Add Account button.

Step 2. Enter your Gmail email account and click on Connect. Then, enter your Gmail email password, and tap Connect again.

Step 3. Open the Outlook desktop client, and you should see the Gmail email in Outlook configured successfully.

Then you can export Gmail emails from Outlook to USB drive

Step 1. Click your Gmail on the left and then select Gmail emails that your want to save to USB.

Step 2. Navigate to File > Open & Export > Import & Export.

Step 3. Choose Export to a file and click Next.

Step 4. Select Outlook Data File (.pst), and click Next.

Step 5. Choose the Inbox folder to export from, don’t forget to tick the Include subfolders checkbox and tap Next to finish "how to copy Gmail emails to a flash drive".

Step 6. Browse and choose the USB flash drive as the destination, and click Finish to backup Gmail emails to the USB flash drive.

Option 4. 5 steps to backup Gmail via professional software

AOMEI Backupper is one of the best email backup software that can seamlessly run the Gmail email backup task professionally. One of the greatest advantages to use professional email backup software is saving users from laborious backup processes and avoiding unnecessary mistakes.

❀It can create auto backups for emails with options like Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Event triggers, or USB plug-in. Furthermore, you can schedule tasks to wake your computer at specific times for backup purposes.
❀This software offers an Email Backup feature to back up various mail services, including Yahoo Mail, Gmail, iCloud Mail, Exchange, Outlook Mail, Zoho Mail, etc. For example, apart from Gmail, you can also backup Hotmail email to hard drive.
❀It is not only powerful email backup software, you can also use it to run file and folder backup, and system, partitions, disk, and partitions as well.

Here are detailed steps about how to backup Gmail emails to USB, please read the following tutorial.

• Please first download AOMEI Backupper via the below download link, and install it on your PC.
• Connect your USB drive to your computer and make sure it can be detected properly.

Step 1. In the left tab page, choose Backup and then follow to choose Email Backup.

Step 2. Then click Add Email Data.

Step 3. Then click Add Mailbox, and the pop-up window will remind you to fill in the required info, including your Gmail email account, and authorization code.

Step 4. After choosing the source email you need to backup, you can choose Select a local path as the destination path to save your email backup image to USB drive.

Step 5. Select Start Backup to begin backing up your emails.

Conclusion

The question of how to backup Gmail to USB can be solved via the above 4 ways, in other words, save Gmail email to PDF, via Google Takeout, through the Microsoft Outlook Desktop application, and use AOMEI Backupper. For me, I kindly advise you to use professional third-party software to back up your emails due to its high reliability.