Filtering emails has definitely allowed me to segregate important emails from the other not so important ones, and deal with important things first, at last count I have 89 filters which allow me to auto-archive emails ^[1], send a custom auto-reply ^[2] to them, apply labels, delete them and so on.

However, creating those filters has taken a lot of time and losing them would mean, that I would have to spend hours and hours to create them again, but like all the nice features in Gmail Labs ^[3], users will now get a option to import/export their filters ^[4] and save it to their computers.

To activate the import/export feature for filters, go to Settings > Google Labs and enable the Filter import/export feature.

Once you have done that, visit the filters page and select the filters you want to export and click on the export button at the bottom of the page. To import the filters again, you can choose the file containing the filters and click on the open file button.

So if you were looking for a way to backup ^[5] your filters, go ahead and get it done now. Looking for more tips with Gmail? Visit the Gmail Tips ^[6] section to get more useful Tips and Tricks ^[7].