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How to: Merge several Gmail accounts into one

Elena Santos

Elena Santos

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As of this morning, I’m the lucky owner of an Android-powered HTC Magic, and though I still haven’t had time to start twiddling with it, I’ve already done some of the necessary arrangements to make the most out of this great device, like merging my three currently active Gmail accounts into one – which will the one I use with the HTC.

If, like me, you have various different Gmail addresses for diverse purposes (webware registrations, work, personal and so on) but need to centralize them all into a single one, don’t worry. Merging several Gmail accounts into one is easier than it seems and takes only a few minutes, as well as a bunch of logins and logouts.

How to: Merge several Gmail accounts into one

The first and most important step is deciding which of your accounts is going to be the primary email address. Once you’ve done that, all you have to do is login to your secondary account and go to Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Once there, activate the Forwarding option and enter your primary email address. You can also choose whether you want to keep a copy of those messages in the original inbox, archive them or trash them.

How to merge several Gmail accounts into one

Log out of this Gmail account and repeat this step with any other secondary email addresses you may have. When they’re all forwarded to your main account, login to it and go to Settings > Accounts. Click on Add another email address you own and enter the name and address of your secondary account. Gmail will then send an email to that secondary account with a code, in order to verify you really own it. Luckily as you’ve already forwarded those emails to the main one, simply check the inbox of the account you’re currently logged in, copy the code and paste it into the window.

How to merge several Gmail accounts into one

Again, repeat this step with any other secondary email addresses you’ve forwarded to your main account, and you’re done! Just remember to select the option Reply from the same address the message was sent to so that your emails don’t get all mixed up. One last tip: as you’ll be now receiving emails from two or more different email addresses, I’d advise to use filters to distinguish them. Simply go to Settings > Filters and create a new filter where all messages sent to your secondary email address are marked with a colored label. It works great to spot messages sent to other email accounts.

How to merge several Gmail accounts into one

Elena Santos

Elena Santos

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