Corbett
Corbett Google Workspace Backup Software copies a Workspace mailbox on your company domain to your own drive as PST, MBOX, EML, MSG, PDF, HTML, CSV or TXT. It signs one user in over IMAP with an app password, mapping Gmail labels to folders on the way out. Windows only.
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Your mailbox is read on your own machine. Nothing is uploaded to a Corbett server.
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Lifetime licence from $99 Free trial saves 10 emails per folder
Per user
Google Workspace bundles mail, Drive, Calendar and Chat under one business account. Google Workspace Backup Tool takes the mailbox side, one user at a time. Here is what lands on disk and what belongs to the other Workspace apps.
Comes across
Labels read
Not included
A business account, not a personal Gmail address
Google Workspace mail sits on a custom domain such as name@yourcompany.com and is managed in the Admin console. A free name@gmail.com address is a personal account with its own page, the Gmail backup tool.
Core features
Five screens that carry a Workspace user from the app password to the file on disk.
Connect
Pick Google Workspace and the server details fill in for you. In the password box goes a 16 character app password, made from that user's own account under Security, not the normal login. Basic passwords stopped working for third party mail software in 2025, when Google moved managed accounts to OAuth, so an app password is the way in for IMAP.
Label selection
Gmail keeps mail under labels rather than folders, and the tool shows each one as a branch with a message count. A single project label can be lifted out, or the whole account taken across with the label names kept as folder names in the output.
Message preview
A message opens in the reading pane with four analysis tabs next to it. When a mailbox is copied for an e-discovery request, the header and raw views prove which server a message really passed through.
Selective backup
Filters run before the copy starts. The common Workspace task is a departing employee's mailbox up to their last day, or one client's thread across a single financial year, and both come out on their own.
Output options
The destination is the last choice. Land the mail in a folder, an external drive or a network share, or feed it straight into another account. A naming scheme on document output keeps a folder of thousands of files searchable.
Before you connect
A managed Google account has two switches an ordinary Gmail address does not. Three things to line up before the first run.
User side
The app password comes from the user
Only the account holder can create an app password, and only once two-step verification is on. An administrator can allow or block them across the domain but cannot generate one for someone else. The user makes the 16 character code under Security and hands it over.
Admin side
IMAP has to be on for the domain
In the Admin console under Apps then Gmail then End User Access, IMAP has to be enabled for the organisation unit the user sits in. If it is off, no app password will connect. It is a one-time switch an administrator sets.
One at a time
No domain-wide admin mode
Google Workspace Backup Tool copies one signed-in mailbox at a time and does not use a service account to sweep the whole domain. For every mailbox in the organisation without each user present, Google Vault and the admin Data Export are the route, covered below.
If the sign-in is refused, IMAP is usually off for the organisation unit, or the account has no app password because two-step verification is not on. Both are fixed in the account or the Admin console, not in the software.
Free demo
Try it on one user first
Install it, paste an app password, tick a label and pick a format. Nothing reaches the disk until you press start.
Download free demoWhy a copy
Google runs the service under a shared responsibility model, which puts keeping the data on the customer. For a business account, three moments make that plain.
Offboarding
A licence removed deletes the mailbox
When someone leaves and their Workspace licence is reclaimed, the mailbox goes with it unless it was moved or held first. Saving that user's mail to a file before the licence is pulled is the usual reason the tool is bought.
Compliance
A file an auditor can open
An audit or a legal request often needs a mailbox handed over as a self-contained file, not a login. A PST or PDF on a disk, with headers intact, is something a reviewer can open without touching the live account.
Control
A copy outside Google's walls
A billing dispute, a mistaken deletion or a locked admin account can put a whole domain out of reach at once. Mail written to your own drive stays readable whatever happens to the Workspace subscription.
Google keeps the servers running. Keeping a copy of the mail is the organisation's own duty. To read a saved file without changing it, use the free email viewer software. To put a saved file back into a mailbox, use the email recovery software.
Before you buy
An administrator on the right plan can export mailboxes through Google Vault at no extra cost. That is the free route for a whole domain. The table marks where the two part ways.
| Task | Google Vault export | Workspace Backup Tool |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Included on eligible plans | $99 one time |
| Every mailbox in the domain at once | Built for that | One signed-in user at a time |
| Who can run it | An administrator with the Vault privilege | Anyone with the user's app password |
| Where the export lands | A Cloud Storage bucket that expires | A file on your own disk, kept as long as you like |
| Output format | MBOX and PST, no reading formats | Eight formats, from PST to PDF |
| Date, sender or subject filter | A search query, but no reading preview | Filtered and previewed before it writes |
| Plan needed | Business Plus, Enterprise or Education editions | Any Workspace plan with IMAP on |
Rows tinted green are the ones where Google Vault wins.
A whole domain with an eligible plan and an administrator to hand: Vault does it for nothing. For a single mailbox, a reading format, a filtered slice previewed before it writes, or a plan without Vault, the paid tool is worth it. Recasting a finished file into another format later is the email converter software.
Specifications
Download details
System
Supported editions
Runs on Windows 7 to 11 in 32 or 64 bit, and on Windows Server 2008 to 2025.
No macOS or Linux build.
A small Windows shop shipping email utilities since 2020, where the same hands write the code and answer the tickets.
Working process
Would rather read it? The written guide lays the same run out in screenshots.
Common questions
App passwords, admin switches and where Google Workspace Backup Tool draws its line.
No. Google Workspace Backup Tool signs in one user at a time with that user's app password. It does not use a service account or domain-wide delegation to sweep the whole organisation. For every mailbox without each user present, Google Vault or the admin Data Export is the route.
Google switched off basic passwords for third party mail software on managed accounts in 2025. A user who wants a tool to read their mailbox over IMAP generates a 16 character app password under Security, with two-step verification on, and pastes that in place of their login.
The user. Only the account holder can generate an app password, and only once two-step verification is enabled. An administrator can allow or block app passwords across the domain and can revoke one, but cannot create it for another person.
Almost always IMAP is off for the user's organisation unit, or the account has no app password because two-step verification is not turned on. Enable IMAP in the Admin console under Apps, Gmail, End User Access, and have the user create the app password. Neither is set in the software.
Yes. Gmail stores mail under labels rather than folders, and each label becomes a folder in the saved copy with its name kept. Nested labels keep their structure, and the All Mail view is skipped so a message tagged with several labels is not written more than once.
No. Google Workspace Backup Tool saves the mailbox. Drive files, Shared drives, Google Chat and Calendar are separate Workspace services with their own stores and are not part of a mail backup.
Only while it can still sign in. A suspended account usually cannot generate an app password, so back the mailbox up before the person leaves, or before the licence is removed. After the licence is reclaimed the mailbox is gone, and Vault is the only route left if a hold was in place.
Go with PST if the mail might return to Outlook or another account. Go with PDF for a copy meant for reading, an audit or a legal file that opens anywhere. The run repeats with a different format, so keeping both is common for a compliance copy.
No. The paid edition sets no ceiling on the amount of mail copied. A large mailbox is slower because Google limits read speed on a single connection, but the run finishes, and it resumes from the last message if the connection drops.
No. Google Workspace Backup Tool runs on your machine and connects from there to Google over IMAP. The finished file is written to the drive you name. Corbett stores nothing and relays nothing.
No. Google Workspace Backup Tool is a Windows application only, from Windows 7 through Windows 11 and Windows Server 2008 through 2025. There is no macOS or Linux build.
It signs a user in with an app password, loads every label and gives the full preview and all the filters. The backup stops at 10 emails from each label, enough to open the output and confirm the labels came across as folders.
Step by step
Each guide below runs a single Workspace task from the opening click to the written file.
Getting the mail out
Moving between suites
Related backups
Sibling provider pages: Yahoo backup tool, Outlook.com backup tool, Hotmail backup tool and iCloud backup tool. Every provider is covered on the email backup software page. Moving a Workspace account into another account is the email migration tool. Opening a saved file to read it, with nothing written back, is the free email viewer software.
User testimonials
Across 683 reviews of the backup and restore wizard.
Collected across 683 reviews from software directories and direct customer feedback. The three set out here are unedited.
HR gave me two days notice that a manager was leaving. Had the user make an app password, pulled the whole mailbox to a PST with the labels intact, then reclaimed the licence. The copy is filed away in case anything comes up.
Was worried Gmail labels would turn into a mess in Outlook. They mapped straight to folders, nested ones included, and All Mail did not duplicate everything. Clean PST our accountant could open without a Google login.
We are on a plan without Vault, so a whole-domain export was not an option. For one mailbox this was far quicker anyway. App password, tick the labels, choose PDF, done. No console wrangling for a single user.
Get started
Download the free demo, sign a user in with an app password and save 10 emails from every label at no charge. A full licence is a one time $99 with a 30 day refund.
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87.4 MB · Windows 11 to 7 and Windows Server 2025 to 2008 · 30 day money back