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Now you can store your Gmail Offline

When Gmail came out a few years ago extremely was very pleased with the brand new shiny email service that came up in competition with Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail.

However, off late using Gmail has been a real pain. The problem is amplified on slow internet connections. So, now this new announcement has definitely made me a happy.

Gmail has a new Lab feature that uses Gears allows you to store your email offline on your computer. Simply navigate to Settings > Labs and enable Offline support then hit the little Offline button in the top left. You’ll see a screen below.

Install offline access for Gmail

Hit Next and authorize Offline Gmail to use Gears. Then begins the long wait while Gmail downloads your email to your computer.

GmailOffline2

From the blog post:

As long as you’re connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you’re used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection. And if you’re on an unreliable or slow connection (like when you’re “borrowing” your neighbor’s wireless), you can choose to use “flaky connection mode,” which is somewhere in between: it uses the local cache as if you were disconnected, but still synchronizes your mail with the server in the background. Our goal is to provide nearly the same browser-based Gmail experience whether you’re using the data cached on your computer or talking directly to the server.

This is a good feature indeed. I’ll be able to give it a good test drive when I check Gmail on my slow internet connection. I really hope that this solves the irritating message stating that Gmail hasn’t loaded properly.

And, if you are using Gmail for your Domain, you can enable offline support for that as well.

Remember, do not install offline support if you are using a public computer.

So, have you enabled Offline support for Gmail? How has it been working for you?

6 Comments

    1. It is stored by Gears. I don’t believe this can be transferred to another PC.

      I’ll have to check if Gears allow this, but it does cause a major security problem if you can just move the data elsewhere.

  1. Still, where is the data stored? I’ve looked all over my c:drive and searched for google, gears and gmail, and can’t find the data-store? Thanks.

  2. psyche7;

    Windows Vista
    * Internet Explorer: C:Users\\AppDataLocalLowGoogleGoogle Gears for Internet Explorer
    * Firefox: Database files are stored in the user profile directory. C:Users\\AppDataLocalMozillaFirefoxProfiles{PROFILE}.defaultGoogle Gears for Firefox
    * Google Chrome: Database files are stored in the user profile directory. C:Users\\AppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser DataDefaultPlugin DataGoogle Gears

    Windows XP

    * Internet Explorer: C:Documents and Settings\\Local SettingsApplication DataGoogleGoogle Gears for Internet Explorer
    * Firefox: Database files are stored in the user profile directory. C:Documents and Settings\\Local SettingsApplication DataMozillaFirefoxProfiles{PROFILE}.defaultGoogle Gears for Firefox
    * Google Chrome: Database files are stored in the user profile directory. C:Documents and Settings\\Local SettingsApplication DataGoogleChromeUser DataDefaultPlugin DataGoogle Gears

    Mac OS X

    * Firefox: Database files are stored in the user profile directory. Users//Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/{PROFILE}.default/Google Gears for Firefox
    * Safari: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Google Gears for Safari

    Linux Firefox: Database files are stored in the user home directory. /.mozilla/firefox/{PROFILE}.default/Google Gears for Firefox

    Microsoft Windows Mobile Internet Explorer: Database files are stored in the Application Data directory. Application DataGoogleGoogle Gears for Internet Explorer

    I took those information from http://www.paulspoerry.com/2009/01/29/offline-gmail-is-it-secure/

    iltermutlu

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