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Import mail into Gmail with the Gmail Loader

applications.linux.com — So, you've turned your back on traditional mail clients and get your mail fix via Gmail these days. The only problem is getting to all those old message that are stuck in your old email client. One way to stuff that old mail into your shiny and capacious Gmail account is to use Mark Lyon's Gmail Loader.

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  • The55Gon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1awesome program, been looking for something this
    • Wisgary, on 10/12/2007, -11/+6What makes gmail so untraditional? I mean it's just another webmail client. Sure it's nice but most of its features have been copied already.
    • Vrail, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10In the computer industry, anything that is successful is apparently innovative..
    • Pile, on 10/12/2007, -8/+6You know, I was just thinking the other day... Google doesn't have enough personal, intimate information on me. I need to share even more personal information with Google because they are a big corporation and they promise not to do anything improper with it, so why not?

      PT Barnum must be smiling.
    • syncosoftkerala, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@joshuapechter

      As all the spam is in your email, you could still use that account for calendar, bookmarks, search history, and picasa albums. Create another gmail id if you have to, but do you actually get spam in your Gmail inbox?! Maybe its about time you started using the 'Report Spam' button, as recommended by Google ( http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6602&topic=1520 )
    • sameerb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I am no tech guy, but a simple question, instead of pushing old mails to gmail, why cant we run a POP server and let Gmail pull those old mails we have in our computers?
    • chubbstar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2excellent. now all i need is a program to import all my old emails from my retired hotmail account.
    • vortec, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0sameerb: Because many people don't have the option "Leave messages on the server" activated in their mail clients.
  • darkfate, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Wow, 60 diggs and no comments? This is an amazing program though. So long Outlook!

    EDIT: Someone beat me to it!
    • OverloadUT, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I've been thinking about ditching Outlook for gmail for a long time, and this made me curious. Here's what the author of this program says:

      Importing mail from Outlook is a bit spotty. I recommend one of two things. Either import your Outlook mail into Outlook Express and then into Thunderbird, or pay a little for a copy of PST Reader, which should save your Outlook mail as a mBox file.
    • nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Don't you just love opaque file formats?
  • Cerpin_Taxt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Anyone know a good way to do the reverse of this (download and backup all Gmail messages)? Not that i think my pc's hard disk is a safer place to store my messages than on gmail servers... i just feel cozy knowing i have a backup
    • SoxFanNH, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Ya go into the POP Settings and tell it to download all mail. Open up Outlook/Thunderbird and download the messages. Will prob take a bunch of Send/Receives as it only gets 300 messages/request i think.
    • norz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1nb: pop allows you to backup your messages, but you won't get any labels that you might have used to tag your messages.
      Time for a new protocol?
  • VeryAngryJim, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3Doesn't Gmail have this already? I've been getting my hotmail and Purdue school address mail delivered straight to gmail for months now.
    • mykelefty, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14and how bout them messages before that? you gettin those? didn't think so
    • VeryAngryJim, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2I don't give a ***** about those, I read them all before I had gmail.
    • MScrip, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Gmail went back and got all my old mail, after I set up POP access to my old webmail account. I didn't really want it to grab the old messages, but it was fine.
  • foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -29/+2Umm... I didnt know people still used email clients like Outlook and Thunderbird. Thought only OSX's mail app was still used...
    Opened my eyes in more than one way...
    I dont like the clunky interface of email clients like Thunderbird.
    • SoxFanNH, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17Funny mac user...

      How is Thunderbird clunky? Its a damn email client...
    • CrazedGeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Thunderbird is a damn fine email app for OS X. Like above, not sure what you mean by clunky.
    • nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2@foolfromhell: Well at least you live up to your name. You're a damn fool.

      "Umm... I didnt know people still used email clients like Outlook and Thunderbird. Thought only OSX's mail app was still used..."

      I prefer Mail.app to Thunderbird as well, but Thunderbird is still one of the best on the 4 major desktop platforms, Windows, OS X, Linux, BSD. I have yet to find an app to top Thunderbird on Windows or Linux. Well, I am a fan of mutt but haven't used it recently.

      Don't be so arrogant. Outside of Jobs' RDF Apple still only has 5% of the market no matter how much you, I, or anyone prefers OS X.

      @SoxFanNH: Try out Evolution, sylpheed, or GNUMail some time. I find them quite clunky.
    • foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I use Windows btw. I have not seen anyone use Outlook or Thunderbird, but have seen many people use the mail app on their MacBook (Pro)s. I do NOT use OSX or a Mac since I refuse to pay so much money for inferior hardware, and I prefer to build my own computers.
    • ohmar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i actually use gmail and them pop server it into mail. I used to use thunderbird before i got my MB. Both are great programs. Mail just integrates a bit more with spotlight. It also looks prettier (even though i make myself ill saying that)
    • nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1foolfromhell->foolishness *= 1000;
  • stisaac, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2All you need is a program to run a pop server and gmail will import your email via that.
    • stalefries, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7"Oh, a POP server? Yes, I have one in my back pocket!"
    • kpw1179, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@stalefries

      I just hope it's yours!
  • maks327, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5direct link to program's homepage:

    http://www.marklyon.org/gmail/default.htm
    • Lemon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Thanks.

      Would it have been too hard for the submitter to link to the ACTUAL site the app is from? ***** gets boring after a while.
  • statikuz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3As a sysadmin I've used this program to restore people's backed up e-mail - they might no longer have an account but they want any e-mail we can recover sent to whatever e-mail address they have. Works great for that purpose at least - sends a message every 2 seconds so it might take awhile depending on how much mail you have. You can send to any e-mail address (not just Gmail).

    I had problems with it at first so I highly recommend the mbox cleaning script he has on the alternate downloads page. It solved some problems the program was having with reading the mbox files I was dealing with.

    http://www.marklyon.org/gmail/cleanmbox.zip
  • wirelessguru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've used Outlook to load messages into GMail by simply dragging messages to my Fastmail IMAP inbox, and setup GMail to retreive messages from my Fastmail account via POP3. What's cool is it keeps the original timestamps and sender info.
    • gkrodg00, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@wirelessguru

      thanx wirelessguru for the fastmail.fm IMAP server tip. this solves a huge problem that has really been annoying me. i had ~10+ years of email (700mb) stuck in outlook that i've been trying to find a way to import into gmail for over a year. i had used eudora from ~1993-1999, switched to outlook until 2004 and had imported all of those old *.mbx files into outlook only to have them stuck there since switching to gmail. i didn't want to forward for obvious reasons, the re-direct option from thunderbird i thought would work but while it preserved the original date internally it still showed up in gmail as when it was redirected. yes, i know the search feature in gmail will still find it, but i wanted it loaded in gmail as if i received an email originally in gmail in 1994. for $19.95, i get a fastmail web account for 1 year with 600mb of storage, IMAP to "drag and drop synchronize" fastmail with 10+ years of email held hostage by outlook. with gmail's new ability to access other accounts via POP3 all of that mail is now in gmail, attachments and all. beautiful solution and well worth the $19.95. this should work with any IMAP account that can also be accesed by POP3. EXCELLENT, thanks wirelessguru!
  • anthropocentric, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Gmail desperately needs to make the "conversations" view OPTIONAL. That is, you should be able to choose whether or not your e-mails are automatically grouped in conversations. You should be able to view your e-mail in a way that is like every other e-mail client (with a "FROM" column)!
    • mxcl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If you don't like the conversations feature, use yahoo! mail or hotmail.
    • DCstewieG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Come on, conversations MAKE Gmail. They make so much more sense.
  • hotspot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For windows- http://marklyon.org/gmail/gmlw.zip

    More Gmail utils: http://marklyon.org/gmail/gmailapps.htm
  • victorycig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hmmm, I've been trying to run the Windows exe, but it doesn't start the application. Anyone else having this problem?
  • TrAvELAr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This program is great! I found it about a month ago and switched my domain to gmail for domains. It worked as advertised.
  • jeezus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2And if you want to walk out of Best Buy without showing your receipt, this program will defend you!

    (Gmail Loader is not a lawyer. Specifically, it is not YOUR lawyer.)
  • lamestory, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1BS app - doesn't work for Outlook. Create an app that does something hard/useful the repost on digg
  • jmacdonagh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I haven't tested this application, but I believe it will reset the "received" date for all your messages. The original date will still be in the headers, but I think GMail shows you the date you transfered on the Inbox screen. I've found that the GMail fetcher is a much better solution. I *had* a personal IMAP/POP server that I had set up, so it was easy for me to transfer (including my Sent Mail).
  • puppetj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0just forward the emails??!!!
    • victorycig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Right, all your emails from the past 5 years. One at a time.
  • crossers, on 07/23/2008, -0/+0haha I use yahoo. so I have no problems with my mails yet!
    http://www.shpe-sac.org
    http://www.ocflex.com/
    http://www.trgovinca.org
    http://www.chasr.org/
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