Google Takeout Not Working Fast for Huge Data – Here is the Solution

User Query: “A few days back, one of our client projects was finished. My boss gave me the responsibility of saving a record of all the legal emails related to the project from Gmail. I used the inbuilt Google Takeout method for the same. Honestly speaking, Google Takeout not working fast for huge data. I was stuck in the middle of the process. So, I thought to backup only particular emails. Sadly, while using Google Takeout, I also found there is no option to filter out emails according to a specific date.”

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

Lack of permissions: 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.
Exhausted the Google Takeout request limits: You can’t make unlimited Takeout requests. At most 3 export requests daily, with a maximum of 7 per week.
Even when a download link forms, you typically have 5-6 attempts to download the files.

If these attempts fail(faulty network, hardware failure, etc), the link may become invalid, requiring a new export request. Moreover, the total request count is tied to your account, so no matter where you put a download request from, it counts towards your quota.

Besides a limit on the number of attempts, there is also a time limit. The export link only remains active for 7 days. After this, you must make a new one from scratch.

Google treats each Takeout request as completely new, so you can’t fast-track your selection by favoriting a set of workloads that you use the most.

Your browser cache, extensions, and network speed can all affect Takeout, so check their health before applying for a new request.

Although there hasn’t been any known correlation between using your account while a Takeout is happening and the failure rate, you may get better results if you log out and let the Takeout take its course

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.

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 Advance 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.

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 the desired File size limit (e.g., 2 GB).

Step 13. Click Create export.

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 & 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

• Provide email and app password to the software for backup process

• After successfully connecting, select category: Email, Calendar, contacts, Documents

• Similarly, select an email format like EML, MBOX, MSG, or PST to export Gmail Items

• Provide the destination path by clicking on Browse

• Click on “Apply Filter” to export selected Items from Gmail

• Click on Start to begin the backup process of your Gmail account

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 takea  backup of Gmail items.