How to transfer emails between two Gmail accounts

Posted on May 11, 2009 at 5:28 am

Recently, a friend of mine created a new Gmail account that included her full name instead of a generic screen name she had been using for the last several months. She called me up and ask me how she could move emails from one Gmail account to another.

After fiddling around with it a bit, I figured it out and it’s not very hard. Of course, it would be cool if Gmail just had a button called Import that let you connect to your old Gmail account and import all the emails, but it’s not that simple.

In order to move emails from one Gmail account to another, you have to follow the steps below:

Step 1: First, log into the old email account (current one you are using) and click on Settings, then Forwarding and POP and choose Enable POP for all mail. Make sure to click Save Changes at the bottom.

move emails between gmail accounts

Step 2: Now log into the new email account and click on Settings again. Then click on Accounts and click the Add a mail account you own link.

transfer email gmail accounts

Step 3: Now type in the old Gmail email address into the text box and click Next.

move gmail to another account

Step 4: Now type in the password for the old email account and choose pop.gmail.com from the POP Server drop down list. Click Add Account.

gmail transfer email

Step 5: Next you’ll be asked if you want to be able to send email as oldaddress@gmail.com. This is useful if you want the mail to come into the new account, but be able to respond using the old email address.

swtich email address

Step 6: Type in your name for the old email address and choose whether you want the reply address to be the old address or you can optionally change it to the new one, which is a good idea so that people will eventually stop writing to the old address.

new email address

Step 7: Finally, you will have to verify that you actually own the old email address by clicking the Send Verification button. You can then log into your old email account and copy the confirmation code in the email. Paste that into the appropriate box. Click Verify.

verify email

swtich email accounts

Step 8: Now just sit back and watch all your emails get imported into the new Gmail account. If you have a lot of emails, it could take several hours, so be patient!

So that’s all the steps required to transfer emails from one Gmail account to another. If you have any questions, post a comment! Enjoy!

» Filed Under Google Software/Tips

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Comments

33 Responses to “How to transfer emails between two Gmail accounts”

  1. MJ said on : May 11th, 2009 at 8:38 am

    Extremely useful post.

    Thanks a bunch. You come up with very relevant topics to write about.I think that’s one of the reasons your blog is doing so well.

    Good Luck and keep up the great work!!!


  2. Arun Agrawal said on : May 11th, 2009 at 8:33 am

    Wow! Another thing you can do is to archive all emails from your present address to an archive account you just created and then delete from the present address. Very useful for those nearing the maximum space limit.


  3. Sid said on : May 11th, 2009 at 11:52 am

    Yup man.

    Actually i hav created another a/c in gmail. Was wondering how to transfer my mails from old a/c.

    Your site is doing well. May God help you more.


  4. Tung NGUYEN said on : May 12th, 2009 at 5:31 am

    It’s very useful for me in this time. Thanks very much !!! Have a nice day !!!


  5. Jonathan said on : May 22nd, 2009 at 1:14 am

    Hi, thanks for the tip! I’m looking to do this, but two concerns:

    Once the mail from old gmail is in the new gmail, will the original mail dates be retained? Or will all the imported mail’s date be replaced with the date of the import?

    Any idea on how to import the Google chats from old Gmail to new Gmail?

    Thanks!!


  6. fany aji said on : June 6th, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    Thanx….. good job! Was able to port over my emails from my old Gmail account to the new one.


  7. Alex said on : June 16th, 2009 at 5:43 am

    Will mail that has been archived in gmail also transfer?


  8. Kurgeb said on : July 26th, 2009 at 2:08 am

    Is it possible to transfer the lables attached to the mails from the old account to the new one?

    What about the date of the transferred emails: are they kept in the new account or are they reset to the date of the transfer?


  9. GAURAV said on : August 17th, 2009 at 12:42 pm

    Hii…

    Thanks a lot for this! However, I would like to know if the same thing can be done for Gmail chats?


  10. Anil Kumar said on : November 1st, 2009 at 5:51 am

    It did not work. Because, at step-2, in “setting” second option is “Accounts & Import” and there is no option like “Add a mail account you own”. I want to fetch my mails on a gmail account from another gmail account.


  11. Kappas said on : November 21st, 2009 at 3:40 pm

    @Anil Kumar: In “Accounts and Imports” go to the “Check mail using POP3″. Leave server as it is (It should be smtp.google.com, if I can remember right)
    I’m doing the transfer right now :-)


  12. Mehrnaz said on : December 12th, 2009 at 6:19 am

    Great ! It really solved my problem, storage of old emails that I didn’ want to delete them !!
    I also had “Accounts and Imports” instead “Accounts” option in the setting section !


  13. lucapost said on : January 5th, 2010 at 1:42 pm

    Thanks for this simple how-to post on moving emails between two Gmail accounts! LP


  14. Katie said on : January 6th, 2010 at 3:37 pm

    I think there is a new app for importing emails, but I’m not sure. That is not one of my questions, however. I wanted to ask about this method you describe here.

    Does this method transfer folders to be organized exactly the same from one account to the other, or does one have to re-organize it all over again?

    Can I delete old emails from the old account that have already been transfered the the new account, or delete the old account all-together, and still have the old emails on the new account?

    Will I continue to recieve the same mail, say from a subscription, that has been transferred (and then delete the old account) or am I unable to have future mail sent to the new account instead of the old one (without re-suscribing or changing email notifications, etc. on other internet accounts)?

    I would like answers ASAP as I am planning to change gmail accounts very soon. Any help you can give me would be very much appreciated. Thankyou in advance.


  15. Dora Bella said on : January 16th, 2010 at 5:34 pm

    Having read the above comments, I would appreciate help from your obviously highly regarded site.

    I do not want to receive more e-mails from an old boyfriend who continues to write. I feel I should create a new address to block him at last but for sentimental reasons would like to keep our old e-mails.

    Please advise,

    Dora


  16. Sandeep3 said on : February 7th, 2010 at 10:51 pm

    Hello

    This is sandeep. Nice information for me because some person was causing problems in my gmail a/c but now I transferred my email to a new account. Thanks.


  17. iseure said on : February 11th, 2010 at 1:30 pm

    3 words: Thanks very much! It worked like a charm.


  18. Jakob said on : February 12th, 2010 at 2:43 am

    is there a way to check another gmail account from one gmail account? I dont want to import, just want to check/see the inbox of the other gmail account? makes it easier ..


  19. Don said on : March 10th, 2010 at 2:58 pm

    This did not work. gmail will not let you import from another gmail account. My accounts tab says; “accounts and import”. NOT just “accounts” like in the example. Please help.


  20. Al Fella said on : April 6th, 2010 at 1:00 pm

    This is a great process but does it copy the emails into the new account or move them? I want the emails to be in both accounts.


  21. Guna said on : April 9th, 2010 at 9:34 pm

    I selected the option “Enable POP for all mail (even mail that’s already been downloaded)” and clicked save changes.. but the option selection is not saved. can any one help me. all the website showing the same method to transfer mail..Is there any other way to transfer mail.


  22. thl said on : April 17th, 2010 at 7:33 am

    when I enter login and password of old gmail account, I get an error message: there was a problem connecting to pop.gmail.com.

    any suggestions?


  23. void said on : May 7th, 2010 at 5:22 am

    Ciao, ho scritto una guida molto simile alla tua.
    Il tuo metodo però non permette di ricevere i messaggi in tempo reale.
    Consiglio di usare un filtro per inoltrare le mail, come descritto su

    void.comuv.com/blog/2010/05/unificare-piu-account-di-post-gmail-su-un-unico-account/

    Mi scuso per il link (nel caso fosse considerato come spam) e spero possa essere utile a qualcuno.


  24. Kleinhans said on : May 13th, 2010 at 2:04 pm

    Supertipp. Klappt, wie am Schnürchen! :-)


  25. Yusuf Raja said on : May 13th, 2010 at 11:55 pm

    Transfer from old gmail account to new gmail is well understood. But what if i want to transfer only old emails from my existing gmail account to new gmail account.

    For eg if want to transfer only last years email to new gmail account and keep current years email in the existing gmail account.

    Is this possible? Please clarify.

    Regards


  26. Yusuf Raja said on : May 20th, 2010 at 6:09 am

    Well noted the steps for transfer of emails from 1 account to another, a small doubt needs to clarified.

    When the emails are transfered to new account does it literally transfer all the emails or does it keep a copy emails in old email also.

    Secondly once the emails are transferred to new email account can we still continue using the old email for sending and receiving the mails

    Thirdly can we initiate this transfer after regular intervals.

    Please clarify.

    Regards
    Yusuf Raja


  27. Salespro said on : June 1st, 2010 at 10:38 pm

    Hello,
    Just wondering if u could answer this question?
    How can I add more then 5 pop3 email accounts to my gmail?

    I currently have 5 emails added via pop3 to my gmail, and I needed to add 2 more.

    If I purchase more gmail space (upgrade my gmail storage) will I be able to import more emails to my gmail account?

    Thank you for your help:)

    Regards,
    Salespro


  28. Siddharth said on : July 5th, 2010 at 2:45 am

    Hi.

    I did the same steps, and now I am getting my emails on my old account and my new account.

    How do I stop getting email on the old account?


  29. Ros said on : July 21st, 2010 at 6:30 pm

    Thanks so much for this post. I was having the exact same issue as your friend and you cleared it right up for me.


  30. Cheeko said on : September 8th, 2010 at 9:51 pm

    thanks for the post….its vry useful…bt please help me on how to import chats.


  31. sho said on : September 12th, 2010 at 9:07 am

    that worked so well! may God bless you !! Question – how can I import labels and “sent” mails to the new gmail account?


  32. jennifer said on : November 8th, 2010 at 11:29 pm

    as long as you follow the instructions this works perfectly, its a really great tip thank you!


  33. Manoj Saini said on : August 13th, 2011 at 11:32 pm

    Thanks for the wonderful and useful tip……..


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