any way to back up emails?

[psywzrd]

I need to make an appointment to swap out my 16GB 3G for a replacement (mine has the light leak and also rattles horribly when it vibrates). Anyway, I understand the you can backup your email settings but is there any way to backup the actual emails? Basically I want to do some kind of backup before I go the Apple store so that when I come back with the new phone, I can just restore from that backup and have all (or most) of my data back.

I don't see an option to backup your emails in itunes but I'm hoping that there might be another way. If not, someone needs to develop an app that backs up your entire iphone so that you can easily do a restore after a hard resest, phone replacement, etc.

 

[Cynicalone]

I know you can forward them all to another email address I know not what you where looking for but it would be a way to save them if you wanted to keep them.

 

[soberbrain]

How is your email set up?

I use Gmail with IMAP and the emails aren't saved on my iPhone. They are saved on Gmail's servers so if I get a new iPhone or computer I can just set up my Gmail account and access my email on their servers.

 

[psywzrd]

How is your email set up?

I use Gmail with IMAP and the emails aren't saved on my iPhone. They are saved on Gmail's servers so if I get a new iPhone or computer I can just set up my Gmail account and access my email on their servers.

I use pop3 gmail that I forward to my ".me" email address (MobileMe).

 

[soberbrain]

This may help in backing up your MobileMe emails and other data

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1813

 

[glanv]

I use pop3 gmail that I forward to my ".me" email address (MobileMe).

If it's on MobileMe then it will be on the server ('cloud') anyway, so no need to backup. When you connect the new phone iTunes will ask if you want to restore the phone from a backup. When you do that the phone will be re-setup with your mobileme account, it will sync with the 'cloud' and hey presto your emails will be there.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I think this is correct.

Cheers!

 

[soberbrain]

If it's on MobileMe then it will be on the server ('cloud') anyway, so no need to backup. When you connect the new phone iTunes will ask if you want to restore the phone from a backup. When you do that the phone will be re-setup with your mobileme account, it will sync with the 'cloud' and hey presto your emails will be there.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I think this is correct.

Cheers!

It will be on the cloud, however, what happens if the cloud fails?

 

[glanv]

It will be on the cloud, however, what happens if the cloud fails?

Fair point, but a quick check that the web based email reflects the phone based before exchanging the phone would solve that. If the cloud did fail it would only be temporary and then be back again. Also, mobileme syncs with your desktop. So, if setup then it also 'backed up' there.

 

[psywzrd]

That's a good point about MobileMe. I thought the fact that I was forwarding my gmail to my ".me" email address complicated things a bit but it looks like I should be ok with my emails. I never thought I'd say this but thank God for MobileMe! Actually, I have to say that my experience with MobileMe has been pretty good so far but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

Anyway, my advance replacement comes tomorrow or Thursday so I should be good to go I think. One last thing though. When I get the new phone I know I should do one last sync with my current phone to make sure that everything is updated in my backup. Should I then restore my current phone to factory settings via itunes so that all my data is erased before I send it back? If so, will that effect my backup in any way?

Basically, I was planning on doing one last backup, restoring my current phone to factory settings via itunes and then restoring the new phone using my most recent backup. Does that sound right?

 

[Cynicalone]

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iPhone_User_Guide.pdf

Page 109 has the info you need

You don't need to do anything in iTunes to clear it. Hope this helps.

 

[tritonj]

why don't you just tell gmail to keep a copy of all e-mail before it forwards it out

 

[psywzrd]

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iPhone_User_Guide.pdf

Page 109 has the info you need

You don't need to do anything in iTunes to clear it. Hope this helps.

That helped tremendously. Thank you very much.

tritonj: I have gmail set up to just forward a copy of my emails to my .me email address (I also leave a copy of my messages on the server for a month). That should be adequate I think.

 

[psywzrd]

Does backing up via itunes back up your email account settings that you have on your iphone? I'm not referring to the option in itunes that transfers your mail account settings from your computer to your iphone. I'm talking specifically about my MobileMe account (with gmail set up as the outgoing mail server). Do those settings get backed up when you sync? Is there a document or an article anywhere that details exactly what is backed up when you do a backup via itunes? I'd like to know what's backed up and what's not so that I can write down any settings, etc. that I may need to enter again.