Same problem as LennyBoy above. Here is my error log:

Error: Error while saving e-mail
Ignoring this error message.
If you want, please report the following traceback at www.gmail-backup.com/forum
Thanks! (gmb.py revision 664):
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "gmb.pyo", line 1199, in backup
File "gmb.pyo", line 930, in store
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: u'I:\\Email Backup\\balaji.dutt@gmail.com\\2008\\12\\Re_[silk]_who_killed_bangalore_from_the_"churumuri"_blog_on_Karnataka-1.eml'

Version Info:
OS - Windows Vista Business SP1
Gmail Backup Ver - revision 664 (2008-12-03)

Perhaps something to do with the filename?

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "gmb.pyo", line 1199, in backup
File "gmb.pyo", line 930, in store
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: u'C:\\Documents and Settings\\a.bieber\\Desktop\\GMail\\2008/12/20081223-130257-aaron@thebailiwick.com-Re_FW_"Slay_Ride"-1.eml'

I also have the same problem and from looking at the above problems. It looks like the program is putting in 2 slashes (\\) when storing the file. That would explane the error, I am glad to see that other people have the same problem. Just hope that they can fix this problem soon.

Not sure that causes LennyBoy's problem, but the next two comments seems to be about the same problem as mine:

I have an email containing " chars in the subject thus resulting in Gmail Backup trying to create a file with " chars which does not fly on a Windows box.

Could we please get an automatic replacement of illegal file name chars? Tanks!

Keep up the good work, it's a great tool!

Same error again using Win XP home and GMail Backup revision 664 (2008-12-03):

[snip]

Stored 89.7%: **********@gmail.com - Re: Striped Iceburgs...
Error: Error while saving e-mail
Ignoring this error message.
If you want, please report the following traceback at www.gmail-backup.com/forum
Thanks! (gmb.py revision 664):
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "gmb.pyo", line 1199, in backup
File "gmb.pyo", line 930, in store
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: u'G:\\Gmail Backup\\2009/01/20090108-033030-googlealerts-noreply@google.com-Google_Alert_-_"Saint_John_Regional_Hospital"-1.eml'

Stored 92.3%: googlealerts-noreply@google.com - Google Alert - "Saint John Regional Hospital"
Stored 94.9%: lily@mailfromftd.com - Send a Basket of Cheer for Only $29.99!
Error: Error while saving e-mail
Ignoring this error message.
If you want, please report the following traceback at www.gmail-backup.com/forum
Thanks! (gmb.py revision 664):
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "gmb.pyo", line 1199, in backup
File "gmb.pyo", line 930, in store
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: u'G:\\Gmail Backup\\2009/01/20090108-041434-googlealerts-noreply@google.com-Google_Alert_-_"physiatry"-1.eml'

Stored 97.4%: googlealerts-noreply@google.com - Google Alert - "physiatry"
Error: Error while saving e-mail
Ignoring this error message.
If you want, please report the following traceback at www.gmail-backup.com/forum
Thanks! (gmb.py revision 664):
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "gmb.pyo", line 1199, in backup
File "gmb.pyo", line 930, in store
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: u'G:\\Gmail Backup\\2009/01/20090108-051248-googlealerts-noreply@google.com-Google_Alert_-_"Saint_John_NB"-1.eml'

Stored 100.0%: googlealerts-noreply@google.com - Google Alert - "Saint John NB"
Starting backup of labels
Backup of labels ended
Ending backup of account **********@gmail.com

It looks like the program isn't filtering/escaping characters which are invalid in Windows filenames:

\/:*?"<>|

Since it looks like you're using python, try adding the following code:

# Change invalid double-quote to two single-quotes
# (prettier than changing it to '-' below)
filename = re.sub(u'\"', u'\'\'', filename)

# Change all other invalid characters to '-'
filename = re.sub(u'[' + re.escape(u'\\/:*?"<>|') + u']', u'-', filename)

Thanks
Randall

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "gmb.pyo", line 1199, in backup
File "gmb.pyo", line 930, in store
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: u'D:\\Docs\\Old\\Gmail backup\\2009/01/20090107-142250-foo@bar.com-[funny]_"the_secret"_saved_my_life-1.eml'

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "gmb.pyo", line 1199, in backup
File "gmb.pyo", line 930, in store
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: u'D:\\Docs\\Old\\Gmail backup\\2005/12/20051215-175746-foo@bar.com-AA->D_AA->C_battery_adapters-1.eml'

Hello everyone,

I am encountering the same problem with filenames, certainly due to the presence of ":" and other special characters in the filenames, as I can see in the log.

What surprises me is that I am using the last version (0.106 on Windows XP), which is said to use "only characters allowed by operating systems".

What's more, the documentation says that :
The messages are stored in the local directory in files which names follow the format YYYYMMDD-hhmmss-nn.eml where YYYY is the year, MM the month number, DD is the day number, hh are hours, mm are minutes and ss are seconds when the e-mail was SENT. For the case there is more emails with the same timestamp there is the number nn which starts with value 1.

That feature doesn't seem to be implemented, what may be wrong ?

By the way, thanks a lot for this app which will be very useful once it works for me, maybe the only one in its kind !

Hello everyone,

I've just set up a new Gmail account to test out some things. Here is what I did:

I sent 5 mails to my own account.

The first mail contained no special characters such as : or " . Neither in the subject line nor the text.

The second mail contained no special chracters in the subject line, but : in the text.

Third one had no special characters in subject but " in the text.

Forth one had : in the subject line and no special characters in the text.

Fifth one had " in the subject line and also no special characters in the text.

I then created a backup and restored it to my new mail account. What I found was that mail number 4 was missing. So it looks like Gmail Backup has no problem with " at all but with : when it's in the subject line.

Since I have lots of mails with "Fwd:" or "Re:" in the subject line, I currently can't use Gmail Backup as effectivly as I would like to. Hope you guys can fix that and keep up the good work!

I am getting the same error. I am using XP and the latest version of this backup software.

When I rename the messages in error (which appear to be about 2/3 of my backed up messages) x.eml I have a blank message (if that is helpful), thanks.

This bug should be fixed in the 0.107 release. Can you test this?

Thank you for bugreport
Jan

Thanks ! It works now !

I'm just backuping for the moment, but I'll keep you in touch if ever there appeared to be a problem while transferring all this to my other account.

Great job and good reactivity !

Thanks for the quick response, Jan. I managed after some research to work round the problem in v0.106 by using the template facility to exclude the email subject, just using date, time and sender. That worked fine, and I spent the last few days successfully migrating a number of google apps accounts to a new domain name.

So I've finished my urgent task for now, but I'll test the new v0.107 and report back if any problems.

Many thanks for providing what looks like will turn into an excellent tool - I agree with other comments that there is an opening for a paid-for pro version (though not so sure about the suggested $100 pricing - I suspect $50 might be nearer the mark).

Just to confirm Guillaume's comment above, as far as I can see the problem caused by colons (:) in message subjects has been solved.

I tested by downloading from a live account with over 1000 emails, and restoring to another account. All went smoothly, using default parameters in the Windows xp gui version.

Well done!