Quick Answer: Google Takeout fails for one of four reasons:
- Your export is too large.
- Internet dropped mid-download.
- Your PC doesn’t have enough free space to unzip file.
- You have hit Google’s own storage limits.
Good news is each one has clear fix, most of them under five minutes. Here is how to tell which one is yours.
Here is real example: one reader was backing up legal emails for a closed project. Takeout was continuously stopping halfway, with no way to filter by date either. If this sounds familiar, keep reading, you will know exactly what is wrong by the end of this page.
To address the user query and other similar requests, let’s see the cause of Google Takeout failure.
Reasons Why Google Takeout is Not Working
No permission to export: If you are on a work/school account, you may not have the necessary permission to begin a takeout yourself. You must ask your IT admin to allow the data download or ask them to conduct a data export on your behalf.
You have hit your request limit: You can’t make unlimited Takeout requests. At most 3 export requests daily, with a maximum of 7 per week.
Download attempts ran out: Even when a download link forms, you typically have 5-6 attempts to download the files.
Your PC do not have enough free space: This is almost everyone misses. Unzipping file needs roughly double space of the download itself. A 10GB export needs, 20GB free just to open.
Another reason why Google Takeout has a high failure rate is the large data volume. To solve this, we would employ Gmail’s in-built advanced search, apply custom labels (Gmail’s folder equivalent), and use the Takeouts selection feature to export only a surgical slice of our entire mailbox. So, let’s see how to attempt a better Takeout.
Related Read: How to Export Gmail to MBOX File
Facing Google Takeout Failure? Filter Gmail Mails
Step 1. Log in to Gmail and click the “Show search options” icon (looks like sliders/tuning controls) at the far right of the main search bar.
Step 2. In the search pop-up window, find the “Date within” row. Pick a time range from the first dropdown (e.g., “1 day”, “3 days”, “1 week”, etc).
Step 3. Then, click the calendar icon next to the date field and select a date from the calendar pop-up.
(Optional: You can fill in any other search criteria like ‘From’, ‘Subject’, ‘Has the words’ if needed).
Step 4. Click the blue “Search” button at the bottom right of the Advanced Search module.
Step 5. Click on the Round + icon in front of Labels in the left pane.
Step 6. Type a name for your new label (e.g., “Takeout these Emails“) into the text box at the top of the dropdown.
Step 7. Select the Emails from Search Results (either one by one or use Ctrl + Cursor to staggered multi selection or Shift + Cursor for a continuous bulk mail selection or click the topmost check box to select all search results together. Then, drag and drop it into the newly formed label.
This completes the steps you need to perform in Gmail. Now hop on to Takeout and continue from there.
Related Read: How to Export Gmail Emails to PST
Redo Google Takeout
Step 1: In Google Takeout, click Deselect all products.
Step 2: Scroll to Mail and check its box.
Step 3: Click the All Mail data included button under Mail.
Step 4: Uncheck Include all messages in Mail.
Step 5: Click on Select all then Deselect all (labels within the Mail options pop-up).
Step 6: Check the box next to your specific label (e.g., Takeout these Emails).
Step 7: Click OK.
Step 8: Scroll down and click Next step.
Step 9: Choose your Destination (e.g., send download link via email).
Step 10: Select Frequency Export once.
Step 11: Choose the File type .zip.
Step 12: Select desired File size limit (e.g., 2 GB).
Step 13: Click Create export.
Related Read: How to Export Gmail Emails to PDF
Alternative for Google Takeout
As Google Takeout is not working fast for huge data, one can try a robust solution like SysTools Gmail Backup tool and download all the Gmail emails in four different email formats, i.e., EML, MBOX, MSG, PDF & PST.
So you can access the emails in any email clients like MS Outlook, Thunderbird or any other email client that supports the above four file formats.
- Download, install, and run the software on your machine.
- Gmail will be auto-selected as source. Select email as your workload station and your desired format in which you want backed up data.
- Decide your date range if you want data from specific time range.
- Sign in to your Gmail account. This will be done on Gmail’s screen only.
- Grant necessary permissions and click Continue.
- Select folder in which you want backed up data to go.
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- Click on Start to begin the backup process of your Gmail backup.
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Related Read – How to Save Gmail Emails as MSG File
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is it safe to provide my Gmail credentials to this application?
A: Yes, you just do not need to worry while logging in with your Gmail credentials. Your credentials are only required to connect with Gmail and not for any other purpose.
Q: Does this tool take quick backups as I was facing a speed issue in Google Takeout?
A: The speed of data backup only depends on your Internet speed and the amount of data.
Q: Is there any effect on the backup process due to poor internet connectivity?
A: No, the tool provides you the Pause and Resume options in case of any internet interruption occur.
Q: Will I be able to export emails of a specific date using this software?
A: Yes. The date filter of this software allows you to take a backup of selected emails.
Final Words
Google Takeout not working fast for huge data is one of the most frequently faced issues by numerous people. This problem can occur due to multiple reasons such as file size or heavy folders. Moreover, Google Takeout is associated with the MBOX file format, which is also a problem for most of the users who are using email clients that do not support the MBOX file format. Thus, to help out all the users, we have explained a smart way to take a backup of Gmail items.