This script lets me sync GMail to .mbox via the API (not IMAP), allowing me to analyze it offline.

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/sanand0/gmailmbox.git
cd gmailmbox

On Google Cloud Console, download credentials.json into gmailmbox/:

• Create a new project
• Enable the Gmail API
• Create OAuth2 Client ID for a Desktop app
• Download the JSON as credentials.json

Then install and run:

# Fetch all emails (excludes spam, trash, and invites by default)
uv run gmailmbox.py --mbox emails.mbox

# Refresh only new emails
uv run gmailmbox.py --mbox emails.mbox --update

# Refresh only new emails matching a query
uv run gmailmbox.py --mbox emails.mbox --update --q "from:user@example.com"

This will sync all emails that match the query to the .mbox file.

Parameters:

• --mbox: Path to the .mbox file (default: "emails.mbox")
• --q: Gmail search query (default: "in:anywhere -in:spam -in:trash -invite")
• --update: Only update new emails (default: False)