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How do I forward all my Gmail email to another account?

How can I create a "Rule" in Gmail that will forwards any E-mail received to another E-mail account. I went to the filter section However I did not know what to do next. Would appreciate your help


Dave's Answer:

Filters in Google's Gmail service are very powerful, but it's not always obvious how to configure one to do exactly what you desire. First off, though, did you read the article Forward selected messages from Gmail?

Let's go through the steps for creating a broad filter here. First off, click on the small Create a filter text link just to the right of the "Search the Web" button near the very top of the Gmail page.

You'll see this:

gmail create a filter view
Click on the screen shot for a larger view

To have the filter apply to all your email, simply specify your own Gmail address as the "To" address. If you get lots of mail from lists where you're not an explicit recipient, you might create additional rules with the list name as the Subject for those specific filters too.

Click on the "Next" button and now you can decide what should happen next:

Gmail create filter action

To have these messages automatically forward to a different address, specify the address adjacent to the "Forward to" box, then either also check "Delete it" if you want the Gmail copy to vanish, or check "Skip the Inbox (Archive it)" if you'd like to keep a copy on Gmail, but archive it so it's not in your Inbox when you sporadically log in.

Done? Click on "Create Filter" and you should be good to go!


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Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics   (Article 5985, Written by )
Tagged: email filters, gmail, google gmail
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Reader Comments To Date: 9

Michael said, on November 7, 2007 8:48 PM:

I have been thinking of signing up for Gmail however, can I use Outlook to read Gmail?

jerry said, on June 12, 2008 10:18 AM:

Hello
how do I transfer my gmail address book to my incredimail account
Thank You
JERRY

shaman said, on September 8, 2008 12:41 PM:

that's not gonna working, because old messages are not forwarded…

rajasthan said, on October 2, 2009 11:12 PM:

hi

Rick L said, on January 19, 2010 11:20 AM:

I tried to apply this to all 15000 emails I have in an alt account. ( i have to save them for various compliance reasons, and I am trying to update to a more professional email address)

How long does it take. Most filters are instant.
I hit apply to all emails, but have yet to see anything.

Please help.

rajmurugan said, on July 31, 2010 7:08 PM:

i want to forward selected emails from one gmail id to another gmail id

Dave Taylor said, on July 31, 2010 9:26 PM:

Easily done, rajmurugan, but you're going to need to be able to set up rules for it or it won't work. If you can figure out what the messages you want to forward have in common then click on "create filter". I have tutorials on it here on the site too:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/about_gmail_filter.html

Good luck

Miljan said, on October 10, 2010 7:24 AM:

Dave,

I think it is not possible to sent an old email messages by filter with forwarding..

See this:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6579
Please note: When you create a filter to forward messages, only new messages will be affected. Any existing messages that the filter applies to will not be forwarded.

I tried to forward some old messages, but it not works !

Thanks,
Miljan

Gurj said, on September 13, 2011 5:31 AM:

Yeah can confirm it does not work, WTF GMAIL

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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