Backup for Gmail

The release of version 1.0 beta of the free GMVault program has been released , which is intended for backing up the Gmail mail archive on a local disk and recovering data in the event of a crash on Gmail. Synchronization by set interval, cryptographic protection, several gmail accounts are supported.

GMVault is a good option for those who do not fully trust the reliability of Gmail cloud storage, but are not ready to abandon the convenient web interface. Shell / batch client is available for Linux, Mac OSX and Windows.

After installation, synchronization (downloading) of the mail archive is performed by the command:

$>./gmvault sync test_email@gmail.com 

The first time you need to log in through the browser, in the future GMVault will be able to log in automatically, saving the XOAuth token in the $HOME/.gmvault . The XOAuth method is used by default, but if you wish, you can log in using a password: in this case you will have to enter the password manually at the beginning of each synchronization session. There is an option -store-passwd to save the password in encrypted form, but the developer does not recommend using it for security reasons.
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By default, mail is added to the $HOME/gmvault-db folder, but with the -d you can specify a different path.

The author claims that the program correctly handles the errors of the Gmail native IMAP interface, which is known for its bugs. This is the difference between GMVault and programs like OfflineIMAP (well, not only this, of course - there is also encryption, XOAuth, etc.).

No databases (SQL or NoSQL) are used to store mail on a local disk. According to the developer, this is an advantage, because in this way email messages are easier to find and copy as files, manually delete letters and individual folders.

Although it does not have a graphical interface, GMVault is designed not only for geeks, but also for a wide range of users: the default settings allow you to start working immediately after installation, there is a step-by-step guide and detailed instructions .

GMVault on github (GPLv3 license)
By Guillaume Aubert

Interestingly, at the moment, according to download statistics , the client for Mac OSX is more popular than for Windows.