temporary system problem - please try again later - for a week

[bradwww]

hello

i have been getting this error for a week trying to download a backup
of all of my messages on gmail:

temporary system problem - please try again later

using Outlook express i got to 2007 before it gave this error.

using thunderbird, it stops in 2006.

using eudora it stops in 2005.

please advise how i can get a complete gmail backup if pop email
cannot download the complete copy? thanks

brad
bra...@gmail.com

[Zack (Doc)]

Are you allowing time for a second download attempt?  This quote is straight from the help center pages on setting up POP to download all your mail:

"After you first enable POP in your Gmail settings, your messages become available in batches as our servers communicate with your mail client. It may take some time for all of your mail to download if you have lots of messages."

--

Cyril Connolly  - "Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing abou...

[JohnW]

As I've previously advised, you can use 'Gmail Backup' (Google for
it!) to create a full backup of your entire mailbox (less your
Contacts details). It doesn't come from Google: it's presently a Beta
and it's currently free.
This will allow you to hold a Backup of the messages (and to perform
incremental backups) but your Backup is just that - a Backup. It is
NOT a working mailbox. [I use this to hold a backup on an 8GB USB
pendrive - purely for safety's sake!]. Or there's Gmail Keeper -
similar, but the author's chargng for the program.
Other than as a satisfied user [of Gmail Backup] myself, I have no
relationship with either author or their products!

> brad...@gmail.com

[bradwww]

Hello John and Zack

What should i use of POP poops out? Now it has changed it's tune - i
have downloaded all messages up to December 13 2007 at 5am, it stops
at exactly the same place as before but now gives an "unknown error"
in Outlook Express. What should i try now?

I will try Gmail backup - hope it does not use POP! thanks

brad

[bradwww]

JohnW

thanks but how do i keep Gmail-backup from talking to the internet and
reporting my gmail password to the programs developers? i have seen
posts that indicate there is some 2 way communication not only to
googles servers but to the developers web site as well, how do we keep
this process safe?

brad

On Oct 30, 10:37 pm, JohnW <john.westb...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Zack (Doc)]

Well... two things...

a) According to what I've read, if you leave it alone, then after a short while it will again be able to download, and should pick up where it left off, getting the next batch.  If you start messing with it, it will pick up from the beginning again.

b) I wouldn't use POP; I'd use IMAP.  This will preserve your label structure in the form of folders, and is interactive with your mail so if you later decide to delete something, you could delete in either place, and when synced up, it would delete from the other.  If you set your IMAP client to be available off-line, it will make a local copy of everything you tell it to.

--

Muhammad Ali  - "My toughest fight was with my first wife."

[JohnW]

Brad,
I don't understand your point "how do I keep Gmail Backup

from talking to the internet and reporting my gmail password

to the programs developers?" It's a stand alone program, which
only connects to the internet when you initiate a backup session.
As Zack suggests 'is best' Gmail Backup uses IMAP to
download everything.
You install the program, and give it your login details.
It connects, downloads everything and then when it has
downloaded everything "you" tell it to Quit.
Thus you've not actually given anyone anymore details than
if you were logging on. It never goes anywhere near the
program developers.
You initiate each update session (there's no Schedule facility as
yet),
but remember to tick the 'Newer messages only' or it'll try to
download everything again - pointlessly!

I hope that's clear(er).

[Andy]

> a) According to what I've read, if you leave it alone, then after a short
> while it will again be able to download, and should pick up where it left
> off, getting the next batch. If you start messing with it, it will pick up
> from the beginning again.

POP downloads don't run on their own. You need to tell it to start
downloading. Either that, or have your email program configured to
periodically check for mail. Clicking on the Send/Receive button in
O.E. does exactly the same thing. It shouldn't start all over from
the beginning, unless you tell Gmail to do that.

While it's true that POP downloads only some of the messages (if there
are a lot), you shouldn't see an "unknown error" message. Since you
do, something must be wrong. How is the disk space on your computer?

In any event, I do think IMAP would do this better than POP.

What happens if you go into Gmail and look for messages starting at
Dec. 13, 2007? I'm wondering if there are some messages on the server
that are corrupted or inaccessible for some reason. Yes, it shouldn't
happen, but like they say, 'stuff' happens.

(I had that sort of thing once in a while from my old ISP. When it
happened, my daily email downloads would repeatedly fail at the same
point. I got around it by clicking the "Stop" button a little before
the point where it aborted, then logging into the ISP's webmail page
and finding the bad message and deleting it.)

Andy