HOW TO… Save your emails to a USB stick

What you need: USB stick Time required: One hour

Many of us now use our email inboxes as ad-hoc filing systems, packed with holiday schedules, bank statements, and everything in between. It makes sense to back up that important information from time to time.

The so-called 3-2-1 rule advises that an effective backup strategy involves making three backups on two different storage types, and keeping at least one copy ‘off site’ (ie, not in your home). Email meets most of those requirements. Almost certainly there’s a copy of your messages online (in the ‘cloud’), or on your internet provider’s servers. And, if you’re using an email program like Outlook or Thunderbird, you have a second copy already, on your computer.

Here, we’ll show you how to make the vital third copy, by saving your most important messages to a USB stick. We’ll use Gmail, Outlook and Thunderbird as examples.

1 Delete unwanted emails

Start by using the search box in your email service to find messages you no longer need, and delete them. Naturally, you need to keep financial documents, receipts for important purchases, emailed insurance policies and similar, but this would be a good opportunity to clear out old