Backup Google Vault Emails to Hard Drive – Expert Guide [2024]

What is Google Vault?

Google Vault is part of Google Workspace and a key tool for businesses and organizations to manage, retain, and archive emails and other data for legal and compliance purposes. Vault lets you search for emails, preserve them for specific legal holds, and export data to ensure it’s accessible and secure in the long term. With an effort to set legal holds and search items in G Suite, Google Vault plays a key role in protecting your Saas data.

However, there is always a need to secure the data which is kept in the Google Vault. It is likely to get prone to malware, viruses, or any unsolicited action by an unknown user.

Key Use Cases:

• Legal Compliance: Many organizations use Google Vault to meet eDiscovery and compliance needs.
  Data Retention: It’s critical to ensure sensitive or important data is archived for future access.
• Archiving Emails: Sometimes, businesses need emails in formats outside Google Vault’s ecosystem, such as PDF, for legal documents, offline records, or internal reviews.

Why Export Emails from Google Vault to PDF?

• Universal Format: PDF files are readable on almost any device without needing specific software, making them ideal for sharing or archiving.
• Compliance: Many legal systems require documents in PDF format for authenticity.
• Offline Access: Once emails are in PDF, they can be accessed offline, helpful for backup purposes or sharing outside the organization.
• Cost of Google Vault: The cost of using the Google Vault is very high. The cost per month per user is $5 and the cost per year comes to be $120 per user per year. This becomes quite difficult for the bigger organizations every time.
• Does not Restore all Messages to Inbox: The Google Vault cannot restore all the messages into the Inbox folder. It creates problems for the user when they need to get back their data from the inbox folder.
• Incomplete Data Archiving: Google Vault only archives the data present in the Inbox folder. However, the emails in the Spam folder are not archived. This becomes a major drawback for the users as in most cases the emails are present in the Spam folder.

So these are the reasons why users choose to export Google Vault emails to PDF format. Now, let us move further in the article and check out the solutions to accomplish that.

How to Manually Export Google Vault Emails to PDF?

Access Your Google Vault

Start by logging into Google Vault through your organization’s admin panel. You must have the necessary permissions to access and manage Vault data. If you don’t have access, reach out to your admin.

Create a Search Query

Once inside Vault, you’ll need to create a search query. This query is how you narrow down the specific emails you’re looking to export.

Review and Hold Data

After running your query, review the results to ensure that you have selected the right email messages. You might want to hold this data if you’re conducting legal reviews or need time for further examination.

Export Emails

Now, export your data. Vault allows you to export emails in formats like MBOX or PST. For this guide, you’ll use MBOX as it’s commonly used for email migrations and conversions.

Convert to PDF

Here’s the tricky part. Google Vault doesn’t directly export to PDF, so you’ll need to convert the resultant file/s to PDF format. Therefore, you can use an automated solution such as the Corbett MBOX to PDF Converter to efficiently convert your Google Vault emails into PDF documents.

Steps to Export Google Vault Emails to PDF Documents

• Install and launch the Corbett IMAP Backup Software on your Windows computer.
• Next, click the “Open” tab located on the top left corner of the software interface.
• From the dropdown menu, select “Email Account” >> “Add Account” and proceed to add your Google Vault account by entering your username and app password.
• Preview your Google Vault data in the dedicated panel and use the “Quick” and “Advanced” search settings as per your requirements. (This is in case you wish to backup selective emails into PDF format.)
• Afterward, click the “Export” tab and select the “PDF” option from the dropdown menu. Lastly, click the “Save” button to initiate the backup process.

Prominent Features of the Professional Method

• Save Data in Different File Formats: By using this tool you will get the most prominent features by converting Emails files into multiple file formats such as EML, MBOX, PST, etc.
• Export/Save Bulk Emails: This tool is the best choice in terms of saving bulk data into your hard drive locally. You can easily download Google vault emails to a hard drive directly without any hassle.
• No Limitation on File Size: The tool offers you to save and export data without restrictions in the File Size and file data.
• Maintain Folder Hierarchies: This tool exceptionally maintains and preserves folder heirarchies throughout the backup process from Google Vault to PDF format.

Conclusion

Exporting Google Vault emails to PDF can seem daunting, but by following these steps and using the right tools, it becomes a smooth process. Whether for legal, compliance, or archiving purposes, knowing how to navigate Google Vault and efficiently convert emails to PDF is invaluable for businesses today.