gmail-yr-archiver 0.1.1

Archive a full year of Gmail to mbox/Maildir and remove from your account

gmailarchiver

Archive all Gmail messages from a given calendar year to an mbox or Maildir file, then permanently delete (or trash) them from your account.

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Features

• Downloads every message in a year via the Gmail API (all labels, including Spam/Trash)
• Saves to standard mbox or Maildir format — importable into Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Dovecot, etc.
• Permanently deletes after archiving (or --trash to use recoverable Trash)
• Idempotent-safe: archive written to disk before deletion is issued
• Batch deletes (up to 1 000 IDs/call) to stay within Gmail API quotas
• Exponential back-off on transient 429/5xx errors
• Progress bars via rich
• --dry-run to count messages without downloading

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Setup

1. Google Cloud credentials

1. Go to Google Cloud Console.
2. Create a project → enable the Gmail API.
3. Create an OAuth 2.0 Client ID → type Desktop app.
4. Download credentials.json and place it at:

~/.gmailarchiver/credentials.json

Or pass --credentials <path> at runtime.

2. Install

pipx install gmailarchiver     # recommended
# or
pip install gmailarchiver

3. First run (OAuth consent)

The first invocation opens a browser tab for Google OAuth consent. After approval the token is cached at ~/.gmailarchiver/token.json.

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Usage

gmailarchiver <year> [options]

Options

Flag	Default	Description
--output / -o PATH	./<year>.mbox	Archive destination
--format / -f {mbox,maildir}	mbox	Archive format
--no-delete	off	Archive only; keep messages in Gmail
--trash	off	Move to Trash (30-day recovery) instead of permanent delete
--dry-run	off	Count messages, do nothing else
--credentials PATH	~/.gmailarchiver/credentials.json	OAuth credentials
--token PATH	~/.gmailarchiver/token.json	Cached OAuth token
--label LABEL_ID	all mail	Restrict to label (INBOX, SENT, custom ID); repeatable

Examples

# Archive 2022 to mbox, permanently delete from Gmail
gmailarchiver 2022 --output ~/mail/2022.mbox

# Archive 2021 to Maildir, move to Trash instead of hard-delete
gmailarchiver 2021 --output ~/mail/2021/ --format maildir --trash

# Dry run: count 2023 messages without touching anything
gmailarchiver 2023 --dry-run

# Archive only INBOX and SENT from 2020, keep in Gmail
gmailarchiver 2020 --output ~/mail/2020.mbox --no-delete \
  --label INBOX --label SENT

# Use a specific credentials file
gmailarchiver 2022 --credentials ~/secrets/gmail_oauth.json

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Archive formats

Format	Best for
mbox	Single file, easy to move/compress, Apple Mail, Thunderbird
maildir	Dovecot / Postfix import, per-message files, fast random access

Both formats are RFC-standard and widely supported.

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Safety notes

• Messages are written to disk before any delete call is issued.
• --trash is the safer option if you want a 30-day grace period.
• Permanent deletion via batchDelete is irreversible.
• If the run is interrupted mid-way, re-run the same command — already-archived messages will be re-downloaded (mbox gets duplicates), but nothing is lost. Use --no-delete on a re-run if you only want to fill gaps, then delete manually.

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Gmail API quota

The default Gmail API quota is 1 billion quota units/day. Each messages.get call costs 5 units; messages.batchDelete costs 50 units per call. Archiving 50 000 messages ≈ 253 000 units — well within limits. If you hit quota, the tool backs off and retries automatically.

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Development

git clone https://github.com/youruser/gmailarchiver
cd gmailarchiver
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

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License

Apache 2.0