Show all gmail accounts

My email inbox acts as my to-do list. Some of my emails are threads around a pending project, some are about a relationship I'm working with a new writer, and each one requires a certain response and prioritization in my day.

That's where Gmail's "Multiple Inboxes" can help.

Can I Have Multiple Gmail Accounts?

The short answer is, "Yes, you can have multiple Gmail accounts." Many professionals have both a personal Gmail account and a work Gmail account tethered to their CRM. If you're a salesperson, you might organize certain account sizes or lead stages into different Gmail inboxes or accounts.

Many people also keep a separate Gmail account for spam mail. That way, when you need to enter an email address to gain access to gated content or receive a special offer, you won't receive marketing emails to your professional inbox.

First, let's define some terms:

• Primary Inbox: This is the main Gmail inbox most users currently have. It stores all your email as it comes in and only leaves this section when you archive an email or move it to another folder.
• Multiple Inboxes: These are the new mini inboxes we are creating alongside your primary inbox to organize your inbox into multiple sections based on the email type. They can only be implemented for accounts that do not use Gmail's Promotions/etc tabs.

Interested in multiple inboxes? Below are the seven steps I took to organize and implement mine.

As result, I'm saving hours of time in my daily email routine -- and you can too.

1. Navigate to your Gmail settings.

Simply click the gear icon at the top right of your primary Gmail inbox. Under the drop-down that appears, select "Settings."

2. In the top navigation that appears, click "Advanced."

3. Scroll down to "Multiple Inboxes," and select "Enable."

Be sure to click "Save Changes," after which Gmail will automatically re-direct you back to your inbox. But we're not done just yet

4. Create labels for each email type you'd like to bucket.

In the left-side panel of your inbox, scroll down and click "More", "Create new label," you can create the various groups you'd like to bucket your different email types into. Enter your label name and click "Create."

I enjoy organizing my inboxes based on the priority of the email. Some of my emails need a response, even if I can't get to them right away. Others are to-do list items I simply can't forget. The remaining emails end up being items I can store in a backlog to return to.

5. With your labels created, navigate back to "Settings."

Navigate to and click the gear icon, "Settings", and then click "Multiple Inboxes" in the top navigation.

6. Now, set the labels you'd like to appear in your inboxes.

Under "Current searches for the multiple inboxes," I input the additional inboxes I'd like in my inbox. These correspond with the labels I mentioned in step four. In order to properly display these inboxes, be sure to use the format "is:label-name." Your queries will need to be lower-case and use dashes instead of spaces.

You can also select the max number of emails that can appear in each inbox at a time under "Maximum page size". I also opt to have my new multiples inboxes appear to the right of my main inbox (as shown in the visual in step seven).

7. Click "Save Changes" to head back to your organized inbox.

Voila! Your new inbox should now look something like the one below.

If the multiple inbox panes don't appear, navigate to the gear icon, "Settings", "Inbox", and make sure "Primary" is the only selected option in the "Categories" section.

If you have multiple Gmail accounts, you can pick a primary inbox to send from and merge your secondary accounts to the primary one. Below, we'll take a look at the steps to set this up.

1. Navigate to your "Accounts" settings.

If there's one Gmail account you check more frequently than others, use this as your primary inbox. Navigate to the gear icon, click "Settings", and then click "Accounts" in the top navigation.

2. Add the secondary Gmail account to the primary Gmail account.

In the "Send mail as:" section, click on the "Add another email" link.

Then, type your full name and the secondary email address you'd like to add. You can choose to either check or uncheck the box to the left of "Treat as an alias" is checked" (check out this Google article for more information).

Checking the box means that emails sent to the secondary email address appear in the primary Gmail account's inbox, which is the goal we're trying to achieve in this example. Once you've checked the box, then click the "Next Step >>" button.

3. Click the "Send Verification" button.

Click the "Send Verification" button to send a confirmation email to your secondary Gmail account's inbox.

4. Enter the verification code.

Once you receive the confirmation email, copy the verification code, paste it in the field that says "Enter and verify the confirmation code", and click the "Verify" button.

5. Navigate to the secondary account's "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" settings.

The next step is to forward the emails from the secondary account to the primary account. Navigate to the secondary account's "Settings" and click the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab in the top navigation.

6. Add the primary account's email address to the "Forwarding" settings.

In the "Forwarding" section, click the "Add a forwarding address button". This is where you'll enter the email address for the primary account. Click the "Next" button and then the "Confirm" button. A pop-up window will appear, you'll click the "Proceed" button, and a confirmation email will be sent to your primary Gmail account.

7. Confirm the forwarding email address.

Copy the confirmation code from the email and paste it into the confirmation code field in the "Forwarding" settings in your secondary Gmail account. Click the "Verify" button.

8. Select a forwarding option.

Finally, click the checkbox to "Forward a copy of incoming mail to … " and select a forwarding option from the drop-down.

Once an option is selected, emails from your secondary Gmail account will be forwarded to your primary Gmail account. Having all of your emails in one place will save you time and make it easier to manage multiple inboxes.

If you want to be even more productive, check out these Chrome keyboard shortcuts next.

Are you using multiple Gmail accounts for separate projects but don’t want to miss any email as it comes in?

With Gmail, you can easily connect multiple accounts and email addresses with its native features. No add-ons or paid plugins necessary.

It’s the perfect solution if you have aliases (like a published author), or you want an assistant to handle urgent emails while focusing on work that matters.

Gmail alone makes up 26% of all emails sent on the internet, so there’s a good chance anyone you’re working with already has an account. Plus, for companies, there’s an even easier solution in Google Workspace.

In this article, we’ll show you exactly how to manage multiple Gmail accounts from a single inbox.

Click to Tweet

How Do I Have Multiple Gmail Accounts in One Inbox?

If you’re wondering how to have multiple Gmail accounts in one inbox, it’s easy, and you can use the built-in features of Gmail to set it up in a few steps.

Just follow along.

1. Send a Request to Your Second Account in the Gmail Settings

Start by navigating to the accounts menu in the settings (you need to go to the All Settings section to do this).

Note: Make sure you start from your primary Gmail account before you follow any more instructions.

Gmail inbox

Then switch to the Accounts and Import tab.

Gmail ‘Accounts and Import’ settings

Fill out the name and email address for your other account.

Gmail ‘Add another email address you own’ setting

Confirm the information before you move on to the next step. Next, send the verification.

Verify your other email address

Now you need to navigate to your other Google account and confirm the request you sent from your main one.

2. Accept the Request From Your Other Accounts

To accept the request, start by switching to your second Gmail account. Click your face (or the first letter of your name) in the top right corner to open the menu.

Switch between different Google accounts

Find the confirmation email in your inbox. It should be at the very top unless you’ve changed how you sort the emails.

Go to your other Gmail account’s inbox

Open the email and click the confirmation link that starts with . As always, be wary of any phishing links.

Click the verification email link

And finally, Confirm the request by clicking the button.

Confirm additional account

That’s it. You should now see a “Confirmation Success!” message.

Gmail account connection success

You’re all connected.

Note: The change doesn’t just affect the browser version. It automatically works on all devices you’re logged in to, including the Gmail app on Android or iOS.

Now, all that’s left is to test that it works.

3. Test That It Works

First, click the Compose button to create a new email message. Click the “from” area to see if you can select another email besides your main one.

Gmail multiple ‘from’ addresses

If you can see a drop-down menu of multiple email addresses, it worked. That’s the first part. Now you know you can send emails as your alias.

But how about receiving them? To test that, you need to send an email to the new address and check if it shows up.

Sending a test email

If you can see it, that proves the connection beyond any reasonable doubt.

Verify email deliverability

Success! The email shows up, even though addressed to a different account.

You’ve officially confirmed that you have multiple Gmail accounts in one inbox. And all without multiple sign-ins or any extra effort.

4. Rinse and Repeat

Rinse and repeat the process above for as many accounts as you would like. You no longer need that long list of passwords.

One Google account to rule them all!

Options for Non-Gmail Email Addresses: POP3/SMTP

Do you want even more power from a single Gmail inbox? You can also connect it with your business email using POP3 and SMTP.

Navigate back to the account settings in Gmail (for the primary account). Then click the add email in the “Check mail from other accounts” section and type in your email address to continue.

Adding a third-party address

If it’s your business email address from your hosting provider, you need to connect it with POP3.

Connecting email address via POP3

Click Next to continue to the stage where you need to fill out your POP3 information.

POP3 settings

You can search for “my host POP3 server,” and you’ll find the page with the relevant information right away. You can also log in to your hosting dashboard and find the information there.

In cPanel, the information looks like this.

cPanel POP3 information

Make sure you tick the “always use a secure connection” box and choose the appropriate settings.

If you entered all the information correctly, you should see this confirmation message.

Gmail POP3 confirmation

If you want to send the emails, not just receive, you need to repeat the steps, but this time for SMTP and outgoing email. If so, keep the yes checked, click the Next button.

Fill out the relevant fields, choose the right port, and click Add Account.

Successfully adding an SMTP server

To finalize it, visit your business email inbox and click the link in the confirmation email.

How to Organize Emails From Multiple Gmail Accounts

Now that you’re receiving emails from multiple Google accounts, and maybe even your work email, the inbox is probably a lot to handle.

So now we’ll show you how to organize them into different folders to make your email inbox easier to browse.

Switch to the Multiple Inbox View

Switch to the multiple inbox view by opening the quick settings and clicking the customize link under “multiple inboxes.”

Gmail’s quick settings

Then, you’ll want to single out email addresses by using the “to:[email&#;protected]” filter. That will sort emails by the recipient, and you can give each new section a name (optional).

Gmail’s multiple inbox filters

Scroll down to save the changes to the new settings.

‘Save Changes’ in your Gmail settings

You should immediately see the new layout.

Gmail’s multiple inbox layout

If successful, the section you created for the email address will show your test email. It’ll populate as soon as you receive more email messages.

If you weren’t (because of a typo or other mistakes), you wouldn’t see any email messages in the section.

You can also use some of these 22 Gmail add-ons and extensions to make it easier.

Bonus: Managing Signatures for Multiple Emails in Two Easy Steps

In Gmail, adding signatures to your emails is a breeze. Multiple Gmail accounts in one inbox doesn’t change that. You can easily assign each signature to a unique email address.

Here’s how you do it:

Head over to the general settings page, and scroll down to the signature section.

If you don’t have any, create a new one, and choose an easily identifiable name. For example, if you only use one address for business purposes, set it to “business signature.”

Create a new signature in Gmail

Then you can assign a default email address to each signature.

Set the email signature’s default email address

Repeat this process for all of your email addresses. It’s that simple.

Note: Make sure you set your primary signature for your default account. An inaccurate email signature doesn’t precisely convey professionalism.

Why You Need Multiple Email Accounts

There are many different use cases for integrating multiple accounts, and this solution isn’t suitable for all of them.

Suppose you want to set up a personal assistant with your emails, no problem. This method lets them scan and reply to emails without outright handing them your personal email account.

But if you want to use multiple emails for business purposes, there’s a better way.

With Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), you can easily create aliases for every user or email address in your business account.

And none of your email addresses have to be branded with “gmail.com.” Instead, you can use your domain name.

That will give potential customers a much better first impression.

Plus, it’s not like you’re just paying for the business email features. You also get access to cloud storage, file management, spreadsheets, and more. Your company may even use Google Workspace already.

For Businesses: Use Google Workspace Aliases Instead

With Google Workplace, the process is even faster. You can easily set this up for your employees rather than instruct them how to do it themselves.

Let’s jump right into it.

How to Set Up Google Workspace (Previously G Suite) Aliases

The quickest way to set up Google Workspace aliases is to assign them when you create new users.

Sign up for a new Google Workspace account and follow along with the tutorial.

Adding new users in Google Workspace

Google Workspace lets you add the email aliases by just typing them out.

Add a new user alias in Google Workspace

If you have existing corporate email addresses, this is the fastest way to transfer them. For more info on moving them to Google Workplace, see the section in our guide on setting up a professional email address.

If you’re already using Google Workspace, follow these steps:

Navigate to the Users section.

The Google Workspace dashboard

Then click the user for who you want to add alternate email addresses or aliases.

The Users panel in Google Workspace

Click the User information box to expand it.

The Profile section in Google Workspace

Next, expand the Alternate email addresses box.

‘User information’ screen in Google Workspace

And finally, add as many email aliases as you want.

Setting email aliases in Google Workspace

Once set up, you can precisely use these aliases from your Gmail inbox, as demonstrated in the previous section.

How Many Emails Do I Get With Google Workspace (G Suite)?

Every Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) user can have up to 30 aliases. That makes it easy to address all email addresses for administrative work to a specific person.

Even if your startup only has one assistant, you can still convey a large organization’s image. Just set up different emails to match the various departments and requests.

For example, you can have custom emails such as:

Take full advantage of that.

Click to Tweet

Summary

Whether you want to do it for business purposes or have additional email addresses for personal projects, Gmail makes it easy to manage multiple accounts.

All you need to do is to send an email confirmation and accept it. You can have it done in a few minutes. With Google Workplace, it’s even easier than that.

The hard part is to stay in control of all the emails from all those sources. To help manage your new multi-account inbox efficiently, make sure you get better with Gmail search operators… they could save you so much time!

Nowadays, an average person in the US has online accounts. Some of these we use daily, others – once (10 years ago). The ability to sign into various services using your Google or Facebook account has made the situation worse. Now, you don't need any effort to create hundreds of throwaway accounts!

So why is it important to keep tabs on your online accounts?

Well, for one thing, accounts mean all sorts of data, some of it sensitive – you don't want it in the wrong hands! So, in this article, we'll discuss how to find all accounts linked to your email and revoke those you don't wish to be linked. Moreover, we'll share some additional tips on staying private online.

Short on time? Here is how to find all accounts linked to your email address:

1. Find linked accounts via your email platform
2. Look for accounts linked to your social media
3. Check the saved logins on your browser
4. Search your mailbox for account-creation keywords

Why is finding linked accounts important?

Identifying accounts that are linked to our email is necessary for protecting our personal information. Here are the main reasons why you should spend time to find all accounts linked to our email:

1. To enhance your privacy. As the number of data breaches increases daily, doing all you can to stay private is non-negotiable. This includes identifying the accounts that are linked to your email, and deleting some of them if needed.
2. To avoid unnecessary money spending. Say, years ago you signed up for a photo editing program, and stopped using it almost immediately. Despite that, you are charged monthly for that service. While the amount of money may not seem big eventually it adds up. Taking care of such subscriptions will prevent you from wasting money.

Now, let’s take a look at what steps you could take to enhance your safety.

How to find all email accounts in my name?

There are several different ways you can find the accounts that are linked to your email account. Take a look at the most reliable ones.

1. Find accounts linked to your email

The ways to find the accounts linked to your email may differ depending on which email platform you use. Here, we’ll discuss two of the most popular ones – Gmail and Outlook.

To find all the linked accounts, Gmail users will have to complete the following steps:

1. Click your Google Account button at the top-right
2. Click Manage your Google Account
3. On the left menu, choose Security
4. Scroll down to Google apps with account address and click Manage access
5. Scroll down to the very bottom to edit Password Manager and Linked Accounts

Here you’ll be able to see all the websites that you login to with your Google Account. You’ll also find a list of Google apps that have access to your Google Account. Review it carefully, and remove the no longer needed ones.

For Outlook users the process is as follows:

1. Sign in to your Outlook account on your browser
2. On the top right, click the Settings cogwheel
3. On the bottom right, choose View all Outlook settings
4. Click Sync email on the second column
5. On the third column, find Manage your connected accounts section
6. Review all the linked accounts – Edit, Remove, or Refresh

2. Check the accounts linked to your social media accounts

You can also find the accounts linked to your email by checking your social media accounts. Doing so is key if, say, your Facebook is attached to third-party services that require your permission to see your contact list or contact details.

By identifying accounts linked to your social media profiles, you can manage them more wisely, and revoke access to those that are potentially harmful to your privacy. Let’s see how to do that on the most popular social media sites.

Facebook users can find the linked accounts by completing these steps:

1. Click your Account icon at the top right
2. ChooseSettings & Privacy and then Settings
3. Click on Apps
4. On the left menu, choose Apps and Websites
5. To revoke access, tick the box next to your chosen app and click Remove

If you’re on Twitter, complete these steps:

1. On the top left menu, choose More
2. Click on Settings and privacy
3. In the third column, choose Apps and Sessions
4. Review all the apps linked to your Twitter account, and if needed, remove them.

For LinkedIn users, the steps are as follows:

1. On the top right, click Me icon
2. Choose Settings & Privacy
3. In the top menu, select Account > Partners and services
4. Review the list of all third-party services
5. To remove access, click Remove

If you use Instagram, you’ll have to complete the following steps:

1. Click your profile icon at the top right
2. Go toSettings
3. Click Authorized Apps on the left
4. To remove access, click Remove

3. Check your browser

To find linked accounts, you can also check your browser for saved accounts. Let’s see how to do that on Google Chrome and Firefox.

Chrome users should complete the following steps:

1. Click Customize and control Google Chrome at the top-right corner
2. Go toSettings
3. Click on Auto-fill
4. Click on Passwords

In this window, you’ll be able to see all the passwords that your Chrome browser remembers. This is the place where you can remove the passwords you no longer wish to stay in your browser.

To identify linked accounts, Firefox users need to:

1. Go toOptions
2. Click on Privacy & Security
3. Scroll to Login and Passwords
4. Click on Saved Logins

As with Chrome, here you’ll be able to remove the passwords you no longer want to be saved on your Firefox browser.

We highly recommend you would delete them all as keeping passwords in your browser is not safe. As an alternative, consider using a reliable password manager.

4. Searching through your emails

There is another way to find all the linked accounts, and that’s by looking through the emails in your mailbox.

To make it easier, try typing in the most common words to find the linked accounts:

• Verification
• Subscription
• Activate
• Confirm
• Welcome
• Unsubscribe

You can also type in your username in the search bar. Keep in mind, though, that this step may give you a larger result list, and most of the results will not be relevant.

Can you find the accounts linked to your phone?

The bad news is that finding accounts linked to your phone number is not easy, as there is no database where you could be looking to find them.

More often than not, you know that certain apps or websites use your phone number when you receive a recovery request. Therefore, whenever you get some kind of confirmation text message, make sure it’s from an app or website you actually use.

Check if your email has been hacked

As our data is the new currency, it’s important we take good care of it. One of the best ways to do that is to regularly check whether your most sensitive information (e.g., your email) is safe.

To do that, you can use our data leak check. After entering your email address, you’ll be able to know if your account has been hacked by online fraudsters.

As this tool is completely safe (meaning, we don’t track and store your data) you can use it once in a while for prevention purposes. It will help you know if an email address that you are using is safe. And if not, what to do to recover it.

Things you can do to protect your online privacy

Once you find all the linked accounts, make sure you take all the necessary steps to protect your online privacy. Some things to consider are as follows:

• Signing up for a secure and encrypted email account.

One of the first steps you should take when protecting your online privacy, is opting for an encrypted email account. Doing so will enhance the security of your most sensitive information.

Make sure you update your passwords so that you are not using the same one on more than two accounts. When creating a password, make sure you include both capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

If you want to go one step further, consider investing in a high-quality password manager that has a built-in password generator.

Choosing a reliable password manager is key when it comes to keeping your credentials protected. Check our guide on the best password managers on the market today.

A built-in password generator will create the strongest password possible, preventing fraudsters from hacking it.

• Tracking your activity on your most visited websites and apps.

While this task may seem tedious and time-consuming, it’s something you should do once in a while to prevent losing your data.

For example, you can check your activity on Google account by heading to myactivity.google.com. If you’re on Facebook, you can go to your profile, press the three dots icon, and click on Activity log.

Bottom line

Altogether, finding all the accounts that are linked to your email is key when it comes to protecting your identity.

You can do that in various ways – starting from looking for linked accounts in your email or social media accounts to checking your browser or the entire mailbox. Whichever way you want to choose (or combine), take this process seriously as it protects and strengthens your privacy.

Once you are done with that, make sure you take extra steps to enhance your privacy. That includes, strengthening your passwords and keeping them in the password manager, and using an encrypted email account.

You don't need a desktop email client to manage multiple email accounts. Gmail can seamlessly handle all your private and professional email addresses. We'll show you how you can check all your Gmail accounts from the same interface, all at once.

1. Open Gmail in Multiple Browsers

To log in to two or three different Gmail accounts at once, you could simply run two or three different browsers or browser profiles, each with a different user account logged in.

This is a workaround for when you want to keep your accounts separate. It's also extremely simple as it doesn't require much of a setup, other than installing different browsers or browser profiles.

If you're using Chrome on your desktop, jump to the third suggestion below for a more detailed rundown of how to set this up.

The multi-browser method works both on the desktop and on mobile, though if you're on a phone or tablet, using the Gmail mobile app would be easier. Here's how you can manage multiple Google (and Gmail) accounts on Android.

2. Switch Between Gmail Accounts With Google's Multiple Sign-In Feature

Google's account switcher lets you sign in to multiple accounts at once and within a single browser. This feature works in any browser, meaning you don't have to use Chrome.

To set up switching between email accounts from within Gmail, log in to your main Gmail account, click on your profile picture in the top right, and select Add another account.

A new window or tab will open where you can go through the sign-in and verification process. Once you're done, you'll see that account's inbox in a separate browser window or tab. From now on you'll be able to switch between your Gmail accounts from the list of accounts, as shown in the screenshot above.

Rather than just setting this up within Gmail, you can take it up a notch and switch between your Google (and Gmail) accounts with a Chrome browser profile.

3. Use Google Chrome's Account Switcher

In Chrome, you can create a separate profile for each of your Google accounts, and so also each of your Gmail accounts. It's the best option if you want to maintain separate bookmarks, browser settings, saved data, or extensions for each account.

To create a new Google-account-based browser profile in Chrome, click the user icon in the top right, select Add, then create the profile, and sign in to your Google account.

When you switch to a different Google account, Chrome will open a separate window and browser session. Be sure to enable sync for your Google accounts to back up and access your open Chrome tabs, bookmarks, and other browsing data on other devices.

4. Add Email Accounts and Aliases to Your Main Gmail Account

The above solutions work well if you want to keep your accounts separate. If you want to control all your Gmail accounts from a single inbox or interface, it's best to add these email addresses to your main account; you can even add third-party email addresses.

Here's how you can manage multiple email accounts in Gmail:

Set Up Forwarding From One Gmail Account to Another

To forward all incoming emails from one Gmail account to another, click the cog icon in the top right of the respective Gmail account, select See all settings, and switch to the Forwarding POP/IMAP tab.

Before you can start forwarding emails, you have to Add a forwarding address. Enter the target email address, click Next, and then Proceed to confirm the address. Switch to the target account inbox to fetch the confirmation code, then enter it to Verify your forwarding address.

Once you have confirmed a forwarding address, you can choose to Forward a copy of incoming mail to your target email account. You can also choose what should happen to the original copy of the email in the source account.

Check Mail From Other Accounts

Instead of forwarding emails, you can also pull emails into your Gmail inbox using IMAP or POP3.

To enable IMAP or POP3 in the source account, click the cog icon and go to See all settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Enable POP download, choose your preferred settings, then click Save Changes at the bottom. If you're setting this up for a non-Gmail account, you might also be able to use IMAP.

Related: Get help with choosing between POP3 and IMAP

Back in the target Gmail account, head to Accounts and Import > Check mail from other accounts and select Add a mail account. Follow the steps in the popup window, have your username and password ready, consider labeling incoming messages, then click Add Account.

If you choose this route, Gmail will offer to add the email to your "send mail as" list. To finalize the setup, Verify the source email with a confirmation code.

Note: If your setup attempts fail, you might have to enable less secure app access in the source Google account security settings.

Send Mail Using Another Email Address

To set up additional "From" email addresses in Gmail, click the cog icon and go to See all settings > Accounts and Import. Under Send mail as, click Add another email address and follow the setup steps in the popup window to add and verify the email account.

You can make any of the added emails your default "Reply to" address. You can also choose whether to reply from the same address the message was sent to or whether you'd prefer to always reply from your default address.

We provide a more thorough walkthrough of the above methods in our article on How to Import and Manage Multiple Email Accounts in Gmail.

5. Use a Browser Extension to Manage Gmail

Is your head spinning after reading that last section? If all you want is to stay on top of incoming email without having to check your inboxes, a Gmail browser extension might be a better solution.

Checker Plus for Gmail (available on Chrome or Firefox) can automatically detect all the Gmail accounts you're signed in to. You can customize your notifications based on labels, set do not disturb preferences, and more. Then go about your day and forget about Gmail until the extension alerts you of incoming emails you care about.

When you receive emails from any of your accounts, you can manage them directly from the extension popup.

Image Credit: Peshkova/Shutterstock

ShareTweetEmail

Read Next

Tina Sieber ( Articles Published)

While completing a PhD, Tina started writing about consumer technology in and never stopped. Now also an editor and SEO, you can find her on Twitter or hiking a nearby trail.

More From Tina Sieber

Just about everybody these days has more than one email account, usually more than can be counted on one hand. Personally, I have 5+ accounts with different email service providers, including Yahoo, Gmail, Cox, my office email address, my website email, etc, etc. Currently, I use Outlook to check all of my accounts from one client application since it makes it easier to manage.

If you&#;re ok with Outlook, then you have no problem. However, if you prefer to use Gmail for everything, since its web-based and has better spam filtering and security, then you might be interested in setting up all of your email accounts in Gmail and managing them from there.

In this article, I&#;ll explain the steps for using Gmail as a master account for collecting email from all of your other online accounts. First, log into your Gmail account and click the little gear icon at the top right. In the menu, go ahead and click on Settings.

Now click on the Accounts and Import tab and you&#;ll basically see two different options for importing emails into Gmail. One option it to Import mail and contacts and the other is to Check mail from other accounts (using POP3).

It&#;s a bit confusing, but luckily Google has a short page written about the different ways to move email into your Gmail account. Basically, you have to decide whether you want to import only old emails, only new emails, or both old and new emails.

Option 1 is for getting old emails from a different email provider into Gmail and for that you&#;ll click on the Import mail and contacts link under Accounts and Import. You can import email from Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL or any other email provider that allows POP3 access. When you click on the link, a new tab will open and you&#;ll be asked for the email address for the other account.

Click Continue and you&#;ll get a message stating that you have to log into your other email account to confirm the import. It also says that a third-party company called ShuttleCloud carries out the process and that the transfer may be unencrypted.

Once you are signed into your other email account go ahead and click Continue. Depending on your email provider, a new window will pop up asking you to confirm that ShuttleCloud can access all your data.

Once authorization has been successful, it&#;ll ask you to close that window. Go ahead and do that and on the previous window that you were on before, it&#;ll update and move on to Step 2, which is to choose what you want to import.

The last option Import new mail for next 30 days is why this option is really only useful for importing older email from a non-Gmail client into your Gmail account. If you just want new emails to come into the account, you should choose the second option way above, which was Add a POP3 mail account you own. I&#;ll explain that option next.

For now, click Continue and the process of importing will begin. If you are trying to migrate all your old email from another email provider and you also want all the new email to come to your Gmail account, then the best thing to do is to uncheck Import new mail for next 30 days and then setup the add POP3 account separately. That way your old mail will be imported and new mails will be checked too.

If you have a ton of old email, it could take up to several days for the emails to import into your Gmail account. So where does all those imported email go? Well, glad you asked! Basically, when you expand the list of folders and labels on the left side of Gmail, you will see it listed in alphabetical order along with everything else.

The really nice thing about importing using Gmail is that it converts all the folders from your other accounts into labels into of just taking all the emails and dumping them into one giant Inbox. Now when you go back to Accounts and Import, you&#;ll see a few new options.

Firstly, you&#;ll be able to see the progress of the import here. Since I had a whopping three emails in my Yahoo account, it finished the import almost immediately. Under Send mail as, you&#;ll see that you can make your other email address the default for sending mail, but I&#;m not sure why you would want to do that.

Lastly, when replying to a message, it will automatically reply from your Gmail address because it assumes you want people to start using that email to contact you. However, if you don&#;t want that, you can choose Reply from the same address the message was sent to and when you reply to an email from the other email account, it will also reply from that email address instead of your Gmail address.

It should also be noted that you can click the delete button under Send mail as for the other email account, but that will not delete the actual emails that had been previously imported. If you want to delete all the imported mails, you have to go to the label and click on the arrow next to it and choose Remove label. It will then show you the label and any sub-labels and confirm whether you want to delete the emails.

To get new emails into your Gmail account, you should start with the Add a POP3 mail account you own from Accounts and Import. You&#;ll be asked to enter the email address for the other account.

However, the next step is different than what we had did when importing emails. Here you will enter the password and usually Google can figure out the POP server settings automatically. You&#;ll also have several options like whether you want to leave a copy of the email on the server, whether you want to use SSL (recommended), whether to label the messages and whether you want to archive them.

If you leave the default setting as shown above, the emails will just show up in your Gmail inbox like normal email. When you are done, click the Add Account button. Also, it&#;s worth noting that any new unread emails in your Inbox will also be imported into Gmail. In my case, I had an unread email in my Yahoo account from one year back.

In addition to new emails importing, it imported that email and I couldn&#;t even find it in Gmail unless I searched for it because it was way in the back on my inbox. So it&#;s worth labeling the incoming messages so you can easily find all the emails from the other email account in case a bunch of unread ones are also imported.

The last thing you can do to get email into Gmail is to simply set forwarding on the other email account to your Gmail account. You could set it up that way, but I prefer to use the two methods included in Gmail for getting old and new emails. If you have any questions, post a comment. Enjoy!