In an urge to get my hands on Gmail Labs’ most recent experimental functionality and due to the fact that the Google decided to roll it out exclusively in the US and the UK (I don’t even care why this time), I had to come up with a way to dupe the system.
It is really quite simple.
- Route all your http and https traffic through a US or UK proxy (find those e. g. here)
- Go to your Gmail Settings » Labs
- Now, the first feature should be “Offline”. Enable it.
- Switch back to your regular proxy settings (disable the proxy)
- Get some coffee while Gmail downloads mail after mail (five years in my case)
Almost forgot: of course, you need Google Gears installed. But if you came this far, you’re probably aware of this imponderability.
For anyone arguing “this was pretty obvious”.
Duh! I know I haven’t found the holy grail but to those who were wondering if it was worth spending half an hour finding a reliable proxy to even get to Gmail Labs’ Settings: Yes, certainly!
By the way, I changed my password before using the proxy. It’s probably just paranoia but you’ll never know.
There is a simpler way.
1. Switch to US English
2. Enable offline in labs
3. Switch back to your language of choice
4. Install offline
Thanks for your comment, Erik.
My account is set to US English. But no luck here. That’s why I fiddled around with this.