Or just turn off the network connection. Gmail offline handles the rest, right in your browser: you can still read all mail in your Inbox and much archived mail to boot, compose messages and have them sent automatically once you reconnect.
Access Gmail Offline in Your Browser
To read and send emails on line and off in your browser:
- In Google Chrome:
- Install the Offline Google Mail browser app.
- In Safari:
- Visit https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/?mui=ca.
- Make sure you allow "https://mail.google.com" to store data on your computer when asked.
- Make sure Allow offline mail is selected under Allow offline mail.
- Click Continue.
Access Gmail Offline in Your Browser Using Google Gears
To access Gmail offline in your browser with the help of the Google Gears add-on:
- Make sure you have Google Gears installed.
- Google Gears is available for Windows (Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox), Mac OS X 10.5 (Safari, Mozilla Firefox, OmniWeb) and Linux (Mozilla Firefox).
- Follow the Settings link in Gmail.
- Go to the Offline tab.
- Make sure Enable Offline Mail for this computer is selected under Offline Mail:.
- Click Save Changes.
- Click Next.
- If an authentication dialog appears:
- Verify "https://mail.google.com" or "http://mail.google.com" appears as the site's address in the authentication dialog.
- Make sure I trust this site. Allow it to use Gears. is checked.
- Click Allow.
- Optionally click OK to have a link to Gmail appear on your desktop.
- It's safe to deny this and click Cancel or select Never allow this shortcut, of course.
- Wait for Gmail to finish initial synchronization.
- Click the x in the offline status pane to close it.
- This will not interfere with Gmail downloading mail in the background, and you can continue using Gmail while that happens.
- You can check synchronization status by hovering the mouse over the offline Gmail icon in the status bar.
Specify How Much Data to Keep Offline
Gmail automatically sets a date range depending on how much mail you have in your account to avoid caching several GB of data. It might synchronize all mail exchanged in the past year, for example, plus mail in labels you frequent.
To choose manually how much recent mail and which labels Gmail offline keeps on your computer:
- Follow the Settings link in Gmail.
- Go to the Offline tab.
- Pick how much back you want to have all mail available offline under Recent message range: (under Download options:).
- Click Change Label Settings to pick a different timeframe (no offline messages at all or all labeled mail) for individual labels.
- Choose a maximum file size for attachments to keep offline under Specify maximum attachment size:.
- Click Save Changes.
On a Shared or Public Computer? Delete the Cache
Gmail offline can be useful even temporarily. If, on the flip side, somebody else temporarily has access to your machine and account, delete Gmail's cached data — temporarily.
