How To Migrate from One Gmail Account to a New One

Steve Larner February 20, 2021

One of the many great features of Gmail is that you can have more than one account. Gmail and your Google accounts have become much more than just email; It is where contacts, calendars, chats, backups of Android devices, photos, files, and more get stored. While other email clients are available, Gmail has made it very easy to use the entire Google ecosystem.

How To Migrate from One Gmail Account to a New One

Sometimes, however, you need to dump an old account for whatever reason. Luckily, that’s simple to do so. The potential reasons for bailing on a Gmail account are many. Maybe you changed your name, or your email address sounds out of date. Perhaps you want to avoid an ex or put a stop to someone cyberstalking you. In any event, it’s not difficult to leave an email account behind. Regardless, what if you want to keep the information that’s in that account? Google makes it easy to do that using the migration feature.

Transfer Old Gmail Messages to a New Gmail

To migrate from one Gmail account to another sounds complicated, but it is quite simple. There are numerous steps, but each is very straightforward. The entire process should not take more than five to ten minutes.

Log in to the old Gmail account where messages will get exported.
Select the cog icon in the top right section.
Click on “See all settings.”
Select the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab at the top.
In the ‘POP download’ section (#1), choose “Enable POP for all mail.”
In the ‘POP download’ section (#2), click the dropdown menu to choose what happens when old messages get accessed using POP in the new Gmail account.
Click on “Save Changes” in the bottom section to preserve your new settings.
Sign out of your ‘OLD’ Gmail account. Logging out is required, or you get errors when adding the old Gmail address to the new one.
Log into your “NEW” Gmail account or create one first.
Click on the gear icon to open the “Settings” menu.
Select “See all settings” to open advanced options.
Click on the “Accounts and Import” tab.
Go to the ‘Check mail from other accounts’ section and click on “Add a mail account.”
In the popup window that appears, enter your old Gmail address to import it, then click “Next.”.
Enable “Import emails from my other account (POP3)” and click “Next.”
In the ‘Username’ and ‘Password‘ sections, enter your OLD credentials. The username is the characters before the “@” symbol, and it is usually already present in the box. For “OLD” Gmail accounts with two-step verification, the password is NOT your actual password but an ‘App password.’ See Google account app passwords for more information.
Under ‘POP Server,’ leave the pre-existing settings alone. Uncheck the box next to “Leave a copy…”
Under ‘POP Server,’ check the box next to “Always use a secure connection (SSL)…”
Optionally, choose to label incoming messages to identify them from new ones with ease. Archive the “OLD” emails if you want to separate them from the “NEW” Gmail messages.
Click on “Add Account” to import all “OLD” Gmail account messages to the “NEW” one based on your chosen settings above.
In the new popup window, choose your sending option and click on “Next.”
Your “NEW” Gmail address now retrieves the “OLD” Gmail messages. After completion, you can choose to remove the “OLD” account from the “NEW” one (and delete it) or keep it in place for archival purposes and to send others to it.

In theory, your new Gmail account should now import emails from your old one and forward all new emails too.

Depending on your inbox’s size, this could take a few minutes, a couple of hours, or an entire day.

How to Stop Forwarding Old Gmail Messages

Once the Gmail import process completes and you have everything you need from your old address, you can stop forwarding old emails, if desired. The decision depends on why you’re shifting to the new one.

Log into your “NEW” Gmail account.
Select the cog icon in the top right section and click on “See all settings.”
Select the “Accounts and Import” tab.
Delete your old Gmail address found under “Check mail from other accounts.”
Click on “OK” to confirm.

Your old Gmail account will still store emails but will no longer forward them to your new Gmail account. Those already imported will remain accessible in your new account, though.