About

We think the users should have sovereignty over their data. Horcrux Email Backup is the first step into our goal. Horcrux Email Backup lets you easily backup your emails onto your hard drive and make sure the data stored will be usable in case of an emergency.

The Story

Back in 2012, Google disabled my account for no apparent reason. As they aren’t particularly good at customer support, I lost all access to my email. The frustration led me to build the app. You can read more about why we built it.

The application is built with a focus on being able to use the backups. You can easily migrate the emails to another provider, restore the emails using the “Undelete” functionality, export the emails into mbox.

As the emails are stored in a simple folder structure and using open formats, the backups are future-proof. All backups created are packaged with a little Ruby script that can restore emails even if Horcrux is not around.

Privacy is another pillar. No data from the application ever leaves the local computer. The passwords/authentication tokens are securely stored inside the Keychain.

Right now, after a decade of building the app we are confident that you’ll love how easy it is to make sure you still have control over your data.

Word of practical advise

If you are in the 21st century, your email communication is vital. Just think about how many people you have given out your email address. Now, imagine you lose all control over it overnight. It would be a massive campaign to get your peers to change their address book.

Email ID: Always use an email ID with your personal domain

You can buy a domain for $10 a year from any domain registrars like Namecheap, Gandi.net and set your email address. So, no matter what happens, you will still have access to [email protected]. You can change hosts whenever you want but if you lose a gmail.com ID, you lose a gmail.com ID. You cannot do anything about it.

Email Server: Ideally, host your own mail server or use third party hosts like Google Apps

For most people, hosting their own server is too much trouble. If you can do that, it’s ideal. Otherwise, use Fastmail or Google Apps to manage your email.

Email Backups: Always have email backups

If you host your own server, you might lose data due to misconfiguration or server issue. If you use gmail, you might lose data because you don’t own the infrastructure.

Either ways, you absolutely need a backup. Horcrux Email Backup helps you here. If you lose access to your host, you can easily switch email providers. If you delete an email by mistake, it lets you undelete.

The app was built with personal needs into account. I do hope it’ll help you guys stay safe.

Cheers 🍻
Suhas

PS: For those who don’t understand why the app is named, Horcrux Email Backup.

This is a scene from Harry Potter and the Half blood prince.

Horace Slughorn:
[Stares at Tom for a second] A Horcrux is an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul.

Tom Riddle:
But I don’t understand how that works, Sir.

Horace Slughorn:
One splits ones soul and hides part of it in an object. By doing so, you are protected, should you be attacked and your body destroyed.