Best way to transition to a new gmail account?

March 17, 2015 2:05 PM

Beyond auto-forwarding all my emails, what are the best practices in switching to a new gmail address? Is there a way to move all my archived emails to the new account so I don't have to switch when searching for old emails?
posted by jsmith78 to Technology (9 answers total)

I've done this. One way is to set up your old gmail account under "check mail from other accounts (using POP3)" under gmail settings for your new account. Depending on how many messages you have it may take a while (it took several days for mine) to move all your messages, but they'll show up eventually.
posted by sevenless at 2:09 PM on March 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

I guess I should add you don't need to forward anything from your old address. You can just continue to get messages from your old address with your new account.
posted by sevenless at 2:12 PM on March 17, 2015

The way I moved all my emails from one GMail account to another was to use IMAP. I set up both accounts in Thunderbird then dragged and dropped to my heart's content.
posted by 724A at 2:18 PM on March 17, 2015

I'm doing it right now too -- what a horrid pain, especially if you use lots of Google products. GOOGLE, IF YOU'RE LISTENING, AND I KNOW YOU ARE, PLEASE ALLOW US TO CHANGE OUR GMAIL USERNAMES. FOR GOD'S SAKE, YOU MADE A SELF-DRIVING CAR. /endrant

Anyway, I'm using the same method as sevenless for email, and it will probably end up taking about 1.5 weeks to complete (email goes back to 2007). You can also export everything you want from your old account (YouTube videos, G+ stuff, contacts, etc.) with Google Takeout. Some of that stuff will be importable into your new account, some won't.
posted by nosila at 3:02 PM on March 17, 2015 [4 favorites]

My way of doing this was to not actually change what account I logged into. I kept logging into my old gmail, and added the new one as another account I could send and receive from.

Everything comes to the same inbox, and when I compose I get a dropdown to choose which account to send from. The only occasional drawback is someone sends eg a link to a google doc which is shared to the newer account, and clicking on the link shows I don't have permission unless I sign in explicitly with the new account.

But in general, they've done a good job of separating the idea of an "account" from the idea of an email address.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:28 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Lifehacker: How to Migrate Your Google Data from One Account to Another

or

Backupify Migrator
posted by bluecore at 4:54 PM on March 17, 2015

I do what drjimmy11 does -- set up the new account that actually just forwards to the old account. The only time it's an issue is when I'm replying to messages on my iPhone and it comes from old account even though someone sent it to new account. People, for the most part, seem to get that they are both the same account. Now the other echo0720 who keeps giving out my new email account as hers, doesn't appear to get it at all.
posted by echo0720 at 7:29 PM on March 17, 2015

If you want all your past emails in your new account: I download Mozilla Thunderbird and set up both accounts, and then I just literally drag the old inbox into my new inbox, and drag all the sent items into my new sent items, etc.

For future incoming email: You can also set up your new account to receive all email from your old address in settings without resorting to forwarding.
posted by AppleTurnover at 7:53 PM on March 17, 2015

The only time it's an issue is when I'm replying to messages on my iPhone and it comes from old account even though someone sent it to new account.

Yes, this is annoying. It is possible to change the "from" on iOS, but you have to do it explicitly each time, as opposed to desktop which by default replies from the address the message was sent to.
posted by drjimmy11 at 11:00 AM on March 18, 2015