How to Set Up Google Gears in 64-Bit Linux for Offline Gmail (Page 2 of 2)

Here’s composing an outgoing message in Gmail.

And here’s the message opened in the Outbox.

Where are the configuration files stored?

• /home/~user/.mozilla/firefox/<firefox's profile id>/Gears for Firefox

What do the files do? (This was obtained from the Google Gears FAQ.)

• localserver.db - This is a SQLite database that keeps track of all files that are stored in the LocalServer across all domains. This file is used in the internals of the Gears code, and cannot be accessed from within a Gears program.
• permissions.db - This is a SQLite database that keeps track of all domains that have been allowed to use Gears
• <domain>/http_80/<filename>#database - This is a SQLite database file that has been created by an application on <domain>
• <domain>/http_80/<filename>#localserver - This is a folder that contains files cached by either type of LocalServer store, a ResourceStore or a ManagedResourceStore, created by <domain >

How Do I Delete All Downloaded Email?

• Go to Gmail → Settings → Offline and click “Disable.” According to Google, “This will disable offline access for your computer and delete the mail that you've previously downloaded. If you decide to enable offline access sometime in the future, you’ll download messages you’ve received since you last synced but won’t have to start from scratch.” They go on to point out that when you enable offline mail on your laptop, it’s not automatically enabled on all the computers you use, even though the Offline selection shows whenever you connect to your account.

When I first heard about Offline Gmail, I thought that Google had taken a big, obvious step. Desktop users have long been able to work offline in applications like Microsoft Office Outlook and Thunderbird. Web email users of sites like Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail have not had this convenience until now.

Now we can take Gmail with us on our Linux laptop and work on our email in places where we can't connect like on the plane or in a taxi. And it’s all thanks to the Google Labs team and a generous Kubunto user named Niels Peen.