I have a lot of emails (~200k). I want to be able to access any of them even if the internet is down.
My current device runs GrapheneOS with stores like PlayStore, Obtanium and Fdroid.

My plan is: mass download the emails once, then when that is done, we sync the increments. E.g. I have 200k emails so first download all 200k. Then say tomorrow i have 5 new emails, so only syncs those instead of redownloading the full 200k.

If anyone has done this, what is your preferred app?
I am trying on Fairmail right now. When select "Sync ALL messages", it looks like it is downloading all the messages. However, this would suck if Fairmail is your only email client; because while downloading all messages, you cant even view the latest emails (notifications do come through btw)

No idea if POP3 is supported by google, but that email protocol is basically what you're looking for

Have you tried Thunderbird? I feel like I didn't run into this when I got on the bird from fairmail

POP3 has a niche use case that is mostly obsolete: it's typically used to keep mail on a single device, deleting the messages from the server after downloading.

IMAP lets you download everything for offline use as well, but allows your mail to be synced with the mail server across multiple devices.

In Thunderbird, you can download the full contents of your server-side mailbox by going to Settings > Accounts > {your mailbox name} > Fetching Mail > Local folder size > all messages, and then initiating a sync.

Just tested and it does sort of freeze that particular mailbox up while it's downloading, which for 200k+ messages could be a while.

When they said to "download once and sync", I assumed they meant to remove it from gmail at the same time, hence the suggestion. Re-reading i see that removing from the source was not part of the ask, so thanks for the additional context

ust tested and it does sort of freeze that particular mailbox up while it’s downloading, which for 200k+ messages could be a while

i've had gmail since 2006 and tried doing this and it took almost a week to download all of them because of this

so you always have your whole gmail database on your phone? After download all Any downsides at all like slow network?

on my server and i have a 300meg connection -- thunderbird seemed frozen the entire time, but i let it run (because i forgot about it lol).