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Losing my Google account would probably destroy my life, I'm in so deep switching would be extremely difficult


Then get out now before you potentially lose it all. It's not actually that difficult. I still use Google services on a daily basis (Android phone, Google Maps, Music, etc), but have migrated off anything that I can't live without (e.g. Gmail, Calendar, Contacts -> Fastmail. Google Drive -> Syncthing.)

Google, to their credit, makes it very easy to download all your data: https://takeout.google.com

I had close to a decade of data on Gmail. I created a new email address on my own domain using Fastmail and set a vacation responder on my Gmail notifying people of my new address. I changed my email address on all my online accounts to my new address, and after probably six months or so took the plunge, downloaded all my Gmail data for archival and deleted my Gmail.

It was remarkably painless, and there are two tidbits that make it even easier: 1) You can delete your Gmail while keeping your Google account, and you can even use your new email address as your username for your existing Google account, so that things like Google Docs sharing still work seamlessly. 2) You don't lose your Gmail address, and you can re-enable it at any time (just in case you discover a critical account or something that you forgot to switch over).


Start identifying components you can move, and start moving them. Start backing up your data. Tackle this a bit at a time.


If Gmail is your main concern, try this:

Forward all emails to your new email address and reply from the new one.

Also use your email signature as an ad for your new email. Like this, "Please send all emails to my new email new@email"

Lastly, you can bcc your entire contacts - 20-40 per day informing them of your new email.

Hope this helps.




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