Gmail is a common email provider because it's available for free, and most people already own a Google account for the company's other services. Though many don't think about their Google account as a digital storage option, it truly is one of the best cloud storage services in 2023. Google's offerings are all tied together in Google Workspace, a grouping of productivity apps with the likes of Gmail and Google Drive found within.

However, free Google accounts only come with 15GB of cloud storage, and that's shared across the company's services. Things like emails, files stored in Google Drive, photos saved in Google Photos, and audio recordings in Google Recorder can all fill up account storage space fast. But before you go and delete a bunch of emails to free up space, you can download them, so you have a copy for your personal records.

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Why should you save your emails?

Most of our inboxes are full of spam emails and company promotions, and we'd happily delete them all if we could. But we also get a ton of important emails through our Google accounts, with information that should be saved long-term. It's possible that in the process of deleting all the old spam and promotional emails in a Gmail account, important emails get accidentally deleted. Instead of saving every single email in your Google account — or painstakingly saving or starring important emails manually — you can download all your emails from Google for your records. That way, when you delete your emails from the cloud, you have a physical copy saved on a computer or flash drive.

How to download your data from Google

Downloading data from Google of any kind happens from a central webpage in the company's Google Account Help support documents. To export your Google Photos data, you'll need to open this website first. While it is possible to download your photos and videos to a mobile device, we recommend doing this on a laptop or desktop computer.

  1. Start by opening the Download your data page in Google Takeout. Click this link to access the page.
  2. Sign in to your Google account in Google Takeout. (You may already be signed in)
  3. Click the Deselect all button under the Select data to include the section.
    Google-Takeout-Deselect-All-Screenshot
  4. Scroll down to the Mail tab and select the checkbox.
    The Mail checkbox in the Google Takeout webpage.
  5. Click Next step to continue.
    Google-Takeout-Next-Step
  6. Choose the transfer destination. You can send your photos to a download link via email, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box.
    Google-Photos-Transfer-Destination
  7. Choose the export frequency. You can either export once or schedule exports every two months for one year.
    Google-Photos-Export-Frequency
  8. Choose the file type and size. We recommend .zip files and the largest possible file size so your photos aren't split up between multiple files.
    Google-Photos-Export-File-Size
  9. Click the create export button.
    Google-Photos-Create-Export

What comes next for your export

Gmail exports will not process immediately, so you'll have to wait a bit before accessing the zipped version of your photos and videos. Google says that it can take "a long time," per its support pages, and adds that it could take hours or days. However, in our testing, the export only took about 15 minutes and was in our inbox shortly after requesting to download our data. When the export is complete, you will receive an email with either a download link or a confirmation that the export has finished. If you've selected a recurring export, the download will occur every two months, and you'll receive an email each time an export is ready.

Anytime you consider deleting your data, you run the risk of accidentally losing something important forever. That's why it's worth downloading your emails before offloading some of the spam and promotional emails, just to make sure you have a copy in case it's needed. It's also useful if you're trying to switch to one of the other best email clients in 2023.

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