Email Backup

Since the decision to use a Google Gmail account as a backup repository for my email I've since rationalised how and what I backup to online storage. At first I thought I'd just forward all mail from my Outlook inbox to the Gmail account. I don't get much spam since Demon introduced their free spam filtering service but there's still a lot of crap arriving from various sources which is I suppose legitimate but not of much interest and certainly doesn't need to be backed up.

So, to introduce selective forwarding I have removed all automatic rules from Outlook. Instead I've used the "label" feature of Gmail to categorise the mail to be forwarded and then to have Gmail automatically file it into the correct categories upon arrival. This results in a very clean Gmail inbox and all the really important stuff all neatly filed away. Here's how I did it:

1. In Outlook create a new contact. For this example I want to forward any email that arrives relating to eBay to my Gmail account.
2. In the Contact form give the contact the name of eBay.
3. Fill in the email address for the contact as yourgmail+ebay@gmail.com Obviously replacing "yourgmail" with umm, the name of your Gmail account.
4. Log onto you Gmail and create a new label called "eBay".
5. Select "Settings"--"Filters"--"Create a new filter"
6. In the "To" field type yourgmail+ebay@gmail.com then click "Next Step"
7. Tick "Skip the Inbox" and "Apply the label" selecting "eBay" as the desired label.
8. Now back in Outlook when an email relating to "eBay" arrives in your inbox all you need to do is "Right Click" it and select "Forward". In the "To" field just type "eBay", Outlook will automatically select the full email address from your "Contacts". Then send the email.
9. When Gmail receives the message it will automatically apply the filter you just set up. The mail will be removed from the inbox and neatly filed away with the "Ebay" label. You'll see 1 unread message in that category in bold.

This works perfectly for me and allows me to read the mail in Outlook before deciding what to do with it. I've set up various "Labels" in Gmail and their associated "Contacts" in Outlook for this purpose. So far it works well and I've piece of mind that all the information I really don't want to lose is safely stored on Google's servers should the worse happen to the Outlook .pst files stored on my hard drive. Gmail's search function is an absolute gem I must say and makes retrieving information a piece of cake.

I really enjoy logging onto Gmail to see the mail already nicely sorted and filed away for posterity.