Backup your files for free using Gmail.
This is a very basic, very cheap (free in fact) way to back up your files off-site. This is not the best method and if you have the money you should probably invest in a better solution but for people just starting or for anyone that needs a simple backup method this way works great(I’ve been using it for three years).
First you need a Gmail account. If you don’t already have one shoot over to www.gmail.com and signup for one, they’re free. Once you have an account we’re going to create a new filter. A filter allows you to perform certain actions on email messages as they come in to your mailbox. For example, if you get a daily update from you bank and don’t need to read it every time you can have a filter set the message as read and archive it so you don’t see it in your inbox. We’re going to do something similar with our backup emails that come in so we don’t have to see them unless we want to plus they’re easy to find when we need them.
1.) Create a label.
Log into your gmail account. In the top right corner you will see Settings, click this. Now click on the Labels section. At the bottom under ‘Create a new label’ enter a new label name that will represent you backups. Mine is ‘Backup Files’ but you can name it anything as long as you remember what you called it. Click Create and your label should appear.
2.) Create the filter.
After you have your label setup you need to create a filter. At the top click on the Filters section(next to Labels). At the bottom click on Create a new Filter. Okay, now comes the fun part. In the From: and To: boxes you want to enter your email address. I’m assuming for this that you’re going to be sending from this gmail account, if you’re sending the backup files from another email address you will want to enter that email address in the From box but the To field should always be this gmail address. In the Subject field enter a subject that will let gmail now this is a backup. For instance, I send my messages with the Subject ‘Backup’, original, I know. As with the Label this can be anything but you will have to send all the files with this subject for the filter to work. Last but not least check the ‘Has attachment’ checkbox to the right.
Click Next Step. Now we have to tell gmail what to do with the messages. In my case I have it Skip the Inbox, Mark as read, and Apply the label ‘Backup Files’. I would suggest you do the same. By using these options you will never see the backup files as new email messages but instead they will go right to you email archive. If for some reason you don’t want them to do this don’t select the first two options but you will want to apply the label so you can easily find you backups later.
3.) Test the filter
Before you start to rely on it, test it. Send yourself a message now with Backup File(or what ever subject you used), attach a file and if you followed my rules above Gmail should get the message, mark it as read and archive it. To find the file you can search for the subject or you can click the Backup Files label in the lower left of the gmail interface.
You’re all set…to make the this is better I’ve included some tips that I currently use.
Tip: You can make more filters and have more control over your backups. For instance, say you want to label all backed up word documents with a certain label ‘Word Documents’. Create a new filter to scan the subject for the word ‘word’ and apply that new label. Now when you send word documents put ‘word’ in the subject and that tag will be applied(e.g. Backup word) When searching you backup files you can sort by the label ‘word’ to just see word documents. I do this for images, documents, pdfs, and zip files.
Tip: If you have lots of files it can be hard to find the one you’re looking for. Try adding more information about the file to the subject and body. For instance, when I backup an image my subject line looks like ‘Backup Image :: Birthday party 2008 :: Me, Ange, and mom’ that way when I’m scanning over the image files I can easily see what this image is of.
Tip: Setup multiple email addresses for you filters. Just duplicate step 2 above with different From address. I have it setup so I can backup files from three different email accounts but they all work the same.
[…] a week ago I wrote an article on how to use Gmail as a simple backup solution. All though I’ve used this solution for many years sometimes it’s not the right choice for the […]