Manage Multiple Email Accounts In Gmail

With a little set-up effort, you can manage all your email accounts in one Gmail interface.

Once upon a time I couldn’t imagine needing more than one email address. Now I use several for different purposes. Most of my accounts are through Gmail, and anytime I need a new email address, such as for a project or client, I create another one there. But I also have two accounts outside Gmail; one is on a client’s corporate server, and another is an old Compuserve account to which people still occasionally send mail.

This assortment of emails would be impossible to manage if I had to use a different interface and log-in for each. Instead, I manage them all easily through one Gmail interface. How do I do that?

In short, I have forwarded all my email accounts to one Gmail address, created filters and labels for each, color-coded the labels, and tweaked some settings so that every account works seamlessly from one interface. The process involves several log-ins and –outs and some details, but it’s quite easy, and the results are worth the effort.

Let’s start by assuming you have at least one Gmail address. If not, it’s quick, easy, and free, so create one. If you have more than one Gmail address, choose one as your primary account to which you’ll log in and direct other accounts. I suggest you make it the one that gets the most mail; other accounts will be color-coded, and they’ll catch your eye more quickly if fewer are colored. Now sign out of that account.

To forward email from another Gmail account:

Sign in to the second Gmail account we’ll call Gmail2.

Go to the gear icon in the Gmail interface’s upper right corner and click Mail Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP > Add a forwarding address. Enter the Primary Gmail address. A confirmation email will be sent to your Primary Gmail address to allow the email to be forwarded. Sign out of Gmail2, sign in to Primary Gmail, and click the confirmation link. (Note: while Gmail now allows you to stay signed in to two accounts and switch back and forth between them, I found that this process did not work well in that way. While it takes some extra steps, it’s more productive to sign in and out each time.)

Now go back to Gmail2. Go to Mail Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP, and click the button beside Forward a copy of incoming mail to (Primary Gmail) and (archive copy). Since the forwarding address has now been confirmed, the Primary Gmail address should automatically appear in the blank or in a drop-down menu. What you choose in the second blank is up to you; I use the “archive” choice. Be sure to click Save Changes when you’re through. Sign out.

You’ve now taken care of forwarding the email from Gmail2 to your Primary Gmail account. Next is setting up the Primary Gmail account to handle incoming and outgoing mail on behalf of Gmail2.

In Primary Gmail, go to Mail Settings > Accounts and Import > Add another email address you own. This is where you enter the new “from” and “reply to” address, i.e., Gmail2. Follow the prompts for verification.

You may wish to move mail and contacts from an existing inbox in your Gmail2 account. In the Accounts and Import tab, go to Import mail and contacts and click Import from another address. Enter the Gmail2 address and follow the prompts.

Organizing your consolidated inbox:

Next you’ll probably want to organize your inbox in a way that you can see at a glance when you get mail sent to each account. We’ll use color-coded Labels, or what other email programs call Folders, for this. There are two steps to this: telling Gmail to label the forwarded email when it comes in, and color-coding the labels.

Go to Mail Settings > Filters. Click on Create a new filter. (If you already have some filters set up, you’ll find this link below them.)

In the “To” line, enter the Gmail2 address from which email is being forwarded. (Yes, this sounds backwards, but trust me.) Thus, if mail is addressed to Gmail2, this filter will pick it up. Do Test Search to verify; you should see any imported email and/or test messages you’ve sent. Then click Next Step. Click the button next to Apply the label _____ and create a label for the forwarded email address. You might use the actual email address as a label, or some nickname that represents how the address is used, i.e., Family or XYZ Corp. You may also want to check some other boxes in the list, such as Never send it to spam or Always mark it as important, depending on your needs. Finish by checking the box Also apply filter to conversations below and clicking Create Filter.

At this point your email is being forwarded from Gmail2 to Primary Gmail, and a label appears beside it in the inbox. Now let’s color-code it so it’s easy to identify. In the left sidebar, you’ll see the Labels list. Beside the account label, click the faded box for a drop-down color box. Pick the color you want the label to appear in your inbox.

You’re done! Send a test email, if you haven’t already, and if everything is working as it should, you’re ready to move to the next email account.

To forward email from a corporate account, Yahoo!, AOL, or other ISP:

Most of the steps are the same as forwarding a Gmail account, but there are a few additions.

Start at Mail Settings > Accounts and Import. Go to Check mail using POP3, then Add POP3 email account. Enter the alternate email address and follow the prompts. When you’re importing addresses from outside Gmail, there can be many variables, so I suggest you review more details and troubleshooting tips here.

After this set-up, go back to the Mail Settings > Accounts and Import page, then Import Mail and Contacts > Import from another address. This will import all your contacts and everything that’s currently in that email inbox.

Set up the filters and labels just as in the Gmail2 explanation above.

Other Settings:

Once Gmail has assimilated all your accounts, there are a few other settings you should address.

Default send-from address: Go to Mail Settings > Accounts and Import > Send mail as. You should see a list of all your email addresses. Choose the one you want as the default send-from address. In my case, it isn’t the same as the main account; while I receive more email in that box, I send more from another, so that’s the one I set as default.

At the bottom of that section, also mark Reply from the same address the mail was sent to. You can always change these choices on an individual email if you want to reply/send from a different address. In the “Compose Mail” or “Reply” window, just choose another address from the drop-down list next to “From.”

Email signatures: Go to Mail Settings > General to create the signature to appear on your outgoing email. The drop-down list lets you create a custom signature for each address from which you’ll send mail, an awesome feature for managing multiple email addresses.

Priority Inbox: This is a relatively new Gmail feature that I love. It’s especially helpful to those who are organizing several email accounts or have a high volume of email. As the name implies, it helps you prioritize your email so that, say, a business email is given higher priority than a shopping site newsletter or blog subscription. To learn more about it and decide if it would benefit you, go to Mail Settings > Priority Inbox and watch the short video. If you decide to use it, click Show Priority Inbox and save the changes. It will take you to your inbox, but you should then go back to the Priority Inbox tab to make some other changes. You can set up to four sections; mine are Important and Unread, Starred, Important (and read), and Everything Else.

Priority Inbox quickly “learns” how to prioritize your email preferences by taking into account which ones you open, which are addressed only to you, and other factors. You’ll give it some guidance by making corrections in its assumptions, but you’ll soon find almost every email in its proper place.

And that’s how I tamed my email. You’ll find many other options for tweaking your Gmail, and I suggest you spend some time looking at your options. It’s a very powerful program that can be customized for any user.