When I created my Gmail account within the 2000s, I did not assume I might ever refill my inbox. That appeared very true after Google elevated the quantity of free Gmail storage to 15GB in 2013. But quick ahead to 2025 and I’m receiving extra e mail than ever. File sizes have elevated over time and I have never been clearing these dozens of undesirable messages I get each week. Before I knew it, my inbox was full. I did not need to undergo my emails one after the other and I positively did not need to pay for extra storage. Luckily, I did not must: I discovered a method to filter out large quantities of storage in minutes, and I did not lose a single vital e mail within the course of. All I needed to do was create a second Gmail account to retailer all of my present messages. There’s no restriction on the variety of free Google accounts you may personal, which suggests I might set one up as a devoted archive account after which switch all of my outdated emails to it. Transferring your Gmail messages can also be an excellent technique you probably have a faculty or enterprise Gmail account that you just will not be capable of entry completely. Most universities and companies will deactivate your account when you’re not a scholar or worker so if you wish to view your outdated messages and recordsdata, you may must port them to a private account earlier than you lose entry. Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content material and lab-based opinions. Add CNET as a most well-liked Google supply on Chrome.Completing the entire means of transferring your Gmail messages to a brand new account would not take too lengthy however it should depend upon simply what number of messages you’ve gotten. I’ll stroll you thru the straightforward means of transferring your emails out of your outdated account to a brand new one (together with the vital step of backing every part up first). For extra about Gmail, study its new AI summaries or how one can use emoji reactions. How a lot information are you able to retailer on Gmail? Fifteen gigabytes of free storage might sound like rather a lot if you make a Gmail account nevertheless it will get crammed up rapidly. For starters, the 15GB is not simply used for e mail: It additionally consists of the recordsdata you have saved in your Google Drive and Google Photos. If you regularly ship or obtain messages that comprise giant recordsdata, similar to movies, or if you end up importing plenty of photos and movies to your Google Photos, then it will not be lengthy earlier than you may see the “Account storage is full” notification. This implies that you’ll not be capable of ship or obtain emails on this account so you may need to do one thing ASAP. The quickest resolution is to improve to a Google One account. Even should you select the least costly plan — 100GB for $20 a yr — you may nonetheless find yourself paying cash to retailer outdated emails that you just may not even want anymore. If you do not need to purchase extra storage, you may all the time delete your outdated emails. You can get again a shocking quantity of space for storing by placing giant recordsdata within the trash. Gmail makes it straightforward so that you can establish and delete recordsdata by measurement. Even so, that possibility may appear tedious; perhaps you do not need to spend hours sifting via correspondence from a decade or extra in the past, deciding which reminiscences to maintain and which to do away with eternally. There’s all the time the choice to obtain giant recordsdata to your desktop earlier than you delete them out of your Google account however in some unspecified time in the future you may in all probability run into the identical situation along with your native recordsdata and must handle the space for storing in your machine. This brings us to our “nuclear option:” Transferring all of your emails to a brand new Gmail account. How to switch your Gmail messages to a brand new e mail account Before you begin the Gmail switch course of, I like to recommend that you just again up your emails. You can do that by downloading your emails both to your laptop or an exterior onerous drive. You can delete the backup after you end transferring the emails to your new account should you like, nevertheless it’s all the time a good suggestion to have an additional copy saved domestically. To again up your Gmail messages, go to Google Takeout. Using my check Gmail account that held about 75,000 messages, I received a obtain from Google Takeout in about 2 hours. Once you have saved a replica of your emails, you are prepared to start transferring them. Here are the steps you could take: 1. Start by logging into your unique Gmail account, clicking the “gear” icon within the prime proper and clicking See all settings. 2. Select the Forwarding POP/IMAP tab after which choose the choice Enable POP for all mail (POP stands for Post Office Protocol). 3. You’ll have a number of choices underneath When messages are accessed with POP. To mechanically delete the emails out of your unique account after the switch, choose delete Gmail’s copy. 4. Select Save Changes. Screenshot by CNETNow it is time to create your new account and switch all of your messages there: If you have not already finished so, create your model new, inbox-zero Gmail account — we’ll name this your archive account. 1. Login to your new archive account, click on the gear icon on the prime and choose See all settings. 2. Select the Accounts and Import tab on the prime, then choose Add a mail account subsequent to Check mail from different accounts. 3. In the pop-up window, enter the identify of your unique Gmail account. Select Next. 4. Select Import emails from my different account (POP3) and choose Next once more. 5. Enter the password of your unique Gmail account. You may also be required to create a Google app password (see word under). 6. Select 995 underneath Port. 7. Check these 3 containers: Always use a safe connection (SSL) when retrieving mail, Label incoming messages, Archive incoming messages (Skip the Inbox)8. Select Add Account. Screenshot by CNET You’ll in all probability have to create a Google app password to switch Gmail messagesI examined this Gmail message switch course of twice and each instances the usual password for the Gmail accounts didn’t work. After a little bit of analysis, I decided that I’d have to create a brief “app password” to sync the accounts. Google app passwords are 16-digit passcodes created for “less secure” apps or gadgets to entry your Google account. They work precisely like your Google password. If your common Google password would not work for syncing Gmail accounts, go to https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords to create an app password. Simply create a reputation for the password — I used “Transfer Bulk Email” — after which hit the Create button. You’ll get a pop-up window along with your new 16-digit passcode. Screenshot by CNETOnce you have created the app password, return to step 6 of the directions above and use that new app password as a substitute of your ordinary password. Important: Google will solely show your app password as soon as. After you have created it, you may’t ask to see it once more so you should definitely write it down or in any other case document it after it has been created. Google’s personal Help Center mentions that “app passwords aren’t recommended and are unnecessary in most cases.” So as soon as you have accomplished transferring your Gmail messages, I like to recommend deleting your app password. What occurs after my Gmail accounts are synced? Once you have efficiently linked your new Gmail archive account to your unique account, your emails ought to start to switch mechanically. The course of might take a number of hours or days, relying on what number of emails you’ve gotten. In my check account with about 75,000 messages, I discovered that it took Gmail about 2 full days to switch all of them from the unique account to the brand new archived mail account. Important: After transferring your Gmail messages to your archived mail account, your unique Gmail account will place all these messages within the Trash folder, which you may have to empty manually. Clearing out these 75,000 messages from the Trash took about an hour. Screenshot by CNETBefore transferring Gmail messages, my check account was utilizing a bit of greater than 12GB, or 80%, of Google’s free 15GB. After transferring, the account was solely utilizing 0.66GB, of which 0.06GB was from Gmail. What Gmail messages will not be transferred? I discovered that Gmail transferred all of my messages besides for 2 classes — Drafts and Spam. You’ll have to determine what to do along with your Drafts manually. Spam messages are mechanically deleted each 30 days so you may let Gmail deal with that or go into the Spam folder your self after transferring your mail and delete or ahead these messages. Once your whole emails have been imported to your new account, benefit from the expertise of inbox zero. You’ve given your unique account a brand new lease on life. At this level, there are two final steps: You’ll need to cease the automated switch course of as a way to proceed utilizing your unique account and you may need to delete that app password should you needed to make one. 1. Login to your new account, go into your Settings and choose See all settings. 2. Select the Accounts and Import tab, after which choose delete in your unique account (underneath Check mail from different accounts.) 3. When prompted to Confirm delete mail account, choose OK. If you needed to create a Google app password and need to delete it now, return to https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords and click on the garbage can icon subsequent to the password you created. Congrats, you are completed. One vital closing word: Google will delete accounts which were inactive for greater than two years. So ensure you do not fully ignore all of your outdated emails after transferring them. If you do not plan to frequently use your archive account to ship e mail, you may nonetheless preserve the account lively by signing in at the very least as soon as each two years.
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