When I made my Gmail account in center college, I wasn’t eager about how I’d sometime run out of cupboard space. But as my inbox crammed up with receipts, promotions and forgotten threads, I lastly hit Gmail’s restrict of 15GB of free storage. I did not need to spend hours deleting messages or begin paying for extra space. Luckily, I did not should: I discovered a method to filter huge quantities of storage in minutes, and I did not lose a single vital electronic 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you’ll be able to personal, which meant I might set one up as a devoted archive account after which switch all of my outdated emails to it.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 important technique when you have a college or enterprise Gmail account that you simply will not be capable of entry completely. Most universities and companies will deactivate your account when you’re not a pupil or worker, so if you wish to view your outdated messages and information, you will should port them to a private account earlier than you lose entry.Completing the entire strategy of transferring your Gmail messages to a brand new account does not take too lengthy however it can depend upon simply what number of messages you have got. I’ll stroll you thru the easy strategy of transferring your emails out of your outdated account to a brand new one (together with the vital step of backing every thing up first).For extra about Gmail, study its new AI summaries or find out how to use emoji reactions.How a lot information are you able to retailer on Gmail? Fifteen gigabytes of free storage could sound like so much once you make a Gmail account however it will get crammed up shortly. For starters, the 15GB is not simply used for electronic mail: It additionally contains the information you have saved in your Google Drive and Google Photos. If you ceaselessly ship or obtain messages that comprise giant information akin to movies, or if you end up importing numerous photos and movies to your Google Photos, then it will not be lengthy earlier than you will see the “Account storage is full” notification. This signifies that you’ll not be capable of ship or obtain emails on this account, so you will need to do one thing ASAP.The quickest resolution is to improve to a Google One account. Even if you happen to select the least costly plan — 100GB for $20 a 12 months — you will nonetheless find yourself paying cash to retailer outdated emails that you simply may not even want anymore.If you do not need to purchase extra storage, you’ll be able to all the time delete your outdated emails. You can get again a stunning quantity of cupboard space by placing giant information within the trash. Gmail makes it simple so that you can determine and delete information by dimension. Even so, that possibility might sound tedious; possibly you do not need to spend hours sifting by way of correspondence from a decade or extra in the past, deciding which reminiscences to maintain and which to do away with without end. There’s all the time the choice to obtain giant information to your desktop earlier than you delete them out of your Google account however sooner or later you will in all probability run into the identical problem together with your native information and should handle the cupboard space in your system.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 electronic mail accountBefore you begin the Gmail switch course of, I like to recommend that you simply again up your emails. You can do that by downloading your emails both to your pc or an exterior onerous drive. You can delete the backup after you end transferring the emails to your new account if you happen to like however 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 take a look at Gmail account that held about 75,000 messages, I obtained 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 it’s essential to take:1. Start by logging into your unique Gmail account, clicking the “gear” icon within the high 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 executed 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 high and choose See all settings. 2. Select the Accounts and Import tab on the high, 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 packing 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 CNETYou’ll in all probability must create a Google app password to switch Gmail messagesI examined this Gmail message switch course of twice and each occasions the usual password for the Gmail accounts didn’t work. After a little bit of analysis, I made up my mind that I’d must create a short lived “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 does 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 together 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 standard password.Important: Google will solely show your app password as soon as. After you have created it, you’ll be able to’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 have got.In my take a look at 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 will must empty manually. Clearing out these 75,000 messages from the Trash took about an hour. Screenshot by CNETBefore transferring Gmail messages, my take a look at account was utilizing just a little 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 must resolve what to do together with your Drafts manually. Spam messages are mechanically deleted each 30 days so you’ll be able to let Gmail deal with that or go into the Spam folder your self after transferring your mail and delete or ahead these messages.Once all your 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 with the intention to proceed utilizing your unique account and you will need to delete that app password if you happen to 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 to 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 ultimate word: Google will delete accounts which were inactive for greater than two years. So be sure you do not utterly ignore all of your outdated emails after transferring them. If you do not plan to recurrently use your archive account to ship electronic mail, you’ll be able to nonetheless maintain the account energetic by signing in a minimum of as soon as each two years.
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