How to backup your @mines Gmail via Mozilla Thunderbird

Introduction

Once you graduate or withdraw from school, you will only have access to your @mines account for a few months before it gets deactivated.

Here are two methods of "backing up" your Gmail before you lose access:

1. via Mozilla Thunderbird
   • Pros
     • Works for any email provider.
     • You can transfer specific emails instead of the entire inbox.
        
   • Cons
     • Multiple steps are involved.
     • Need to install Mozilla Thunderbird.
     • If the Thunderbird app is closed, the transfer process will terminate. 
        
2. via Google Transfer
   • Pros
     • Minimal steps involved.
     • Can transfer both or either of your Gmail and Google Drive.
   • Cons
     • Works only for Google Accounts.
     • Transfers the entire email inbox and doesn't have the option to specify.
        

This article goes through the steps of copying over your emails from your @mines Gmail account to another email account via Mozilla Thunderbird.

Go here if you want to use the Google Transfer method.

NOTE: Transfers like these can take multiple hours to days depending on the size of the transfer.

Environment

An internet-connected desktop or laptop with the ability to run the Mozilla Thunderbird app.

Instructions

Quick Overview of the Steps

1. Download and install Mozilla Thunderbird.
2. Add your @mines email account.
3. Add your personal email account where you want the transferred emails to live.
4. Select and copy over the emails that you wish to transfer.
    

Detailed Steps

1. Download Mozilla Thunderbird from here and once installed, open the app.
    
2. Next, we need to add the two email accounts - the one from where you want to copy over the mail (@mines) and the one where you want the copy to live (personal). 
   There are two ways of getting to Account Settings
   • From the menu , go to Account Settings.
     
     
     OR
      
   • Click on the settings/gear icon and then click on Account Settings.
     
      
3. Under Account Actions, select Add Mail Account.
   
    
4. Enter your email credentials and then hit Continue.
   
    
5. Choose IMAP as your configuration.
   
    
6. You will need to grant access to your account.
   
7. Click Finish and you are done setting up your first account. Follow the same steps for the second account as well.
   
    
8. Once you have both your email accounts set up with Thunderbird, we can now proceed to copy over your emails.
   
    
9. Select the folder under your @mines account that you wish to transfer. In this example, I will be selecting a Label that contains specific emails that I wish to transfer. You can transfer your entire inbox as well.
   Note: This will be time-consuming depending on how many emails you are transferring.
   
    
10. Select all the emails by clicking on the right-hand panel and hitting ctrl + a.
    
     
11. Next, right-click on the selection and select Copy To and then choose the account you want to transfer to and then the particular location/folder.
    Note: I created a Label in my personal email account which I will be using as the destination for the transferred emails to live. You can just directly transfer into the inbox as well.
    
     
12. You're all set and Mozilla Thunderbird will take care of the rest from here.
    Note: You can minimize the app, but do not close it because the transfer process will terminate.