Syncing Two Gmail Accounts – A Step-by-Step Guide

This method provides a way to synchronize two or more email accounts, whether they are Gmail or from other email service providers, into a primary Gmail account for unified access. Here’s a comprehensive guide to achieve this:

1. Access Your Primary Gmail Account: Begin by logging into the primary Gmail account, the one that will serve as your central hub for accessing emails from other accounts.
2. Access Gmail Settings: Click on the gear wheel icon in the upper-right corner of your Gmail interface and select “See all settings.”
3. Navigate to Forwarding and POP/IMAP Mail: In the settings menu, go to the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab.
4. Add a Forwarding Address: Within the “Forwarding” section, click on the “Add a forwarding address” button.
5. Specify the Secondary Email: A window will prompt you to enter the email address where you want to receive emails from the secondary account. Enter the email address of your primary Gmail account.
6. Verification Process: To ensure the legitimate ownership of the account you are forwarding from, you will need to go through a verification process.
7. Confirmation Email: After successful verification, you will receive a confirmation email in your primary Gmail account. Click the provided link in the email to confirm your intent to automatically forward emails.
8. Return to Forwarding Settings: Go back to the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” Mail tab. You will see the email address you confirmed displayed.
9. Select Forwarding Options: In this section, select the “Forward a copy of incoming email to” option and choose the primary Gmail account you’ve set up.
10. Choose Email Handling: You can specify how you want the forwarded emails to be handled. Options include:
    • Keep a copy of Gmail in your Inbox.
    • Mark Gmail copy as read.
    • Archive your copy of Gmail.
    • Delete copy of Gmail (recommended if you don’t need to retain copies).
11. Save Changes: To finalize the setup, click on “Save changes.” Now, all emails received in the secondary account will be forwarded and displayed directly in your primary Gmail account’s Inbox.

Filter Forwarded Messages

One challenge with forwarded emails is that they are not marked in your main inbox, making it difficult to distinguish them from your primary emails. To address this issue, you can create filters to add labels to forwarded messages. Here’s how:

1. Access Google Configuration: Click on the gear wheel icon in your Gmail interface and select “See all settings.”
2. Filters and Blocked Addresses: Navigate to the “Filters and blocked addresses” tab.
3. Create a Filter: Click on “Create filter.”
4. Specify Email Source: All emails forwarded from other accounts are sent to your primary Gmail account’s email address. Use this as the filter criteria.
5. Create Label: Check the “Apply label” option and select “New label.” Name the label with the email address from which the emails originate.
6. Apply the Filter: Click on “Create filter.”

From this point forward, all emails received from another Gmail account will receive the label you’ve created. They will be accessible under that specific label within your Gmail account’s folders, simplifying the organization of your emails.