There is a majority of users who use Gmail and wonder how long does Gmail keep emails.
It doesn’t matter if you are using Gmail for your personal use or business purpose. Gmail will always keep your emails for as long as you want to use it.
Even if you are close to fill out your storage space, Gmail doesn’t delete or archive you emails like that.
There is a storage space of 15 GB that is provided to the users of the basic Gmail account. Those using Google Apps for Business get a storage space of 30 GB which can be upgraded later.
Even if you are reaching the limit, you will be warned with an alert message that your storage is getting full. You can then clear up the storage space as per your needs.
An easy answer to the question – Gmail keeps emails for how long, is that it keeps it for as long as you do not delete any of them.
The emails that are kept in the inbox or archive folders are shown in the “All Mails” folder. These mails are not touched until or unless you yourself move or delete them.
Although, there are a few folders in Gmail that keep the emails for certain period of time. Such folders are already storing the emails that have been deleted or marked as spam.
Let’s find out for how long are emails stored in Gmail’s trash and spam folders.
How Long Does Gmail Keep Emails in the Trash/Spam Folders?
Sometimes, when you delete your emails from the inbox, the emails are sent to the Trash/Spam Folders. These emails are recoverable for a short period of time and are then removed from the trash.
Also, if you have marked any email as spam, it will be moved to the spam folder and stay there only for a little time.
In both the folders, Gmail keeps these emails for about 30 days from the day on which the mails were deleted or marked as spam. If you want to retrieve any files from the trash or spam folder, it should have been deleted within a month. If not, you will not be able to find that file.
Gmail Keeps Emails for How Long after Permanent Deletion?
The emails that are permanently deleted from Gmail are stored by Google in their servers. These emails being sent and received over the cloud-based email client; are stored in data centers.
Once you have lost all the emails, there is no chance of getting these emails back. You can learn How to Recover Deleted Emails from Gmail after 30 Days since the data is stored on the cloud servers for about 60 days. The data is irrevocably deleted after the given time duration.
Now, “for how long does Gmail keep emails” after deleting the emails permanently cannot happen since the data is stored on the servers.
The emails for that are stored in backup which are additionally encrypted are retained on the servers for about 6 month.
What if you have lost your emails from the trash folder as well? There is no way of getting them back but you can be careful for the next time. How? Let’s find out.
Best Solution to Keep the Emails Safe
Now that all the emails that you wanted to keep safe are gone, you must be feeling terrible. Well, there is nothing that can be done to retrieve the emails now but you can always be careful for future.
How can you do that?
It can simply be done by taking a backup of your mailbox using a third-party backup tool.
In the next part of the blog, we will be giving a brief about the software that you can use. How that tool help and what features it provides will be mentioned along to give you a clear picture.
Convenient Application to Answer the Query – For How Long Does Gmail Keep Emails?
This nifty tool that we have brought to you help in taking the backup of all the emails from Gmail and save them in various file formats. The file formats include PST, MBOX, EML, EMLX, and MSG. This is the Gmail Email Backup Software that is capable of exporting emails from Gmail on Mac OS X.
As is aforementioned, the emails that have been deleted and sent to the trash folder are then permanently deleted after a time period of 30 days. The same is the case with the emails in the spam folder. It would be wise for you to always have a backup of your emails no matter what.
These are just the situations where you can retrieve your emails within 30 days of deletion.
Just in case, you mailbox has been hacked or something, you can delete your email account as soon as possible and still have your emails.
Gmail keeps emails for how long
Find out the features of the tool.
Noteworthy Features of the Tool
Following are the features of the software that can help you overcome the reason to look for solutions on Gmail keeps emails for how long:
- Attachments that are associated with the emails are downloaded along
- Use the Date Filter option to export certain mails
- The data integrity and folder structure is maintained during the backup process
- Emails from specific folders can be saved
- To regain the storage space use the Delete After Download option
- The software supports exporting emails on Mac OS 10.8, 10.9, and above versions
In a Nutshell
There is no doubt that Gmail doesn’t ever delete the emails that are stored in one’s mailbox. So the straightforward answer to the question – How long does Gmail keep emails? – is that it can keep the emails for years even if the storage space is full. Gmail doesn’t automatically delete any of the mails from any folder.
Yes, the mails from the trash and spam folders are deleted after 30 days but those emails were already meant to be deleted.
If you have by mistake deleted any emails or marked it as spam and have now lost them forever, you can never get them back.
Recommendation – Use the top-rated software for backing up your emails to avoid such case scenarios.