Summary: Backing up a free email account is best done by downloading it to a PC-based mail program. Some services support it, others need a trick or two.
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Yet another reason I intensely dislike relying on free email accounts for "important" things. There are so many things that can, and do, go wrong it's scary. I hear very sad "I've lost everything" stories on a regular basis.
So you're quite right to want to backup.
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I'd be remiss if I didn't start by recommending my original article Are free email services worth it?. If you're using a free email service as your primary email account, or even worse, as your only business account, you seriously need to reconsider what you're doing.
A pop3 account is, by far, your best way to backup your email. By downloading to your own machine, and then backing up the downloaded mail, you have everything under your control.
But what if, for whatever reason, that's not an option?
Well, your options are very limited. Basically you can try to automatically forward all email to another email address, or you can try to download your email. By forwarding your email to another account on a different free service, you basically got everything backed up at that service. Similarly, by using pop3 access to your free account, you can treat it like any pop3 account and download and back up your mail yourself.
Unfortunately from what I've seen, none of the free email services support either approach directly.
With one exception.
Google's GMail allows you to automatically forward incoming email to another email address, and it allows you POP3 access as well - meaning you can use a traditional mail client on your PC to download and read your email.
So if you're a GMail user, you could create a HotMail account and automatically forward all your mail to it. Or you could configure your PC's email client, like Outlook Express, and periodically download your email to your PC.
But what about other services like Hotmail, or Yahoo? How do you backup that email?
The best I've been able to find so far is that there are services on the internet that claim to be able to forward Hotmail and Yahoo mail, and services and tools that can provide POP3 access. I've not used any, so don't have any specific recommendations. Some are not free, and if you're going to spend money, I'd rather have you get a "real", supported, POP3 email account. I also believe that in most cases in order to use those tools, you'll need to provide your account information; something that, quite honestly makes me nervous. And in all cases, these approaches are not officially supported by Yahoo or Hotmail.
Related:
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Ask Leo! - Are free email services worth it?
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Ask Leo! - Is there an email forwarding service for MSN/Hotmail?
Article C2507 - December 31, 2005
I want to Hotmail membership
Posted by: Avinash Kumar at January 23, 2007 4:42 PMDo u happen to know why my email is being deleted from the yahoo server. I am using ypops in junction with outlook to retrieve my mail, but I still want a copy left on the server in cast of reformating or whatever. I marked save email on server under account settings in outlook but to no avail. Any ideas?
Posted by: elite_destiny at June 5, 2007 9:18 PMI am missing emails from one sender that I saved in hotmail folders only for specific dates. What can I do?
Posted by: Amy at January 5, 2008 6:56 AMThanks
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Rather than trust Gmail or any other free email provider, I like to set up pop services and manage the messages on my home client. Why let my messages sit on another server where they can be searched without my control? With pop, I can control the messages and can use the email client I like.
Posted by: shalitha hettiarachchi at July 9, 2008 9:24 PMHi Leo, Thanks for all the great advice!
Posted by: Lou at November 25, 2008 1:40 PMI have a lot of folders in gmail where I keep messages I want to refer to at some later date. Is there a way to get gmail to forward those to my computer e-mail program?
Thanks, Lou