The Problem:
There are lots of skipped messages when migrating from Gmail to another provider.
The Solution:
Solution A: Ignore the skipped message, as they are caused due to the way Gmail works with labels. (learn more)
Solution B: Create an exact copy of your Gmail label structure by enabling the option “Sync / Migrate Duplicates from the Existing Address” before or after performing the Gmail migration. (learn more)
Why are messags skipped?
If you assign a custom Gmail label to a message, the message shows up in three places: The “All Mail” label, the “Inbox” label and your custom label. So it looks like there are three messages, when in fact, it’s only one. Since MailJerry automatically prevents duplicates, this message is migrated once and the “skipped message count” (in this example) increased by 2 (as in this example).
➡️ Are you unsure which solution works best for you?
Let’s dig a little deeper into how Gmail works with labels to help you find the best approach!
On this page:
Furthermore, have a look at these frequent questions!
The Difference Between Gmail Labels vs. Folders
How Gmail Labels Work:
When creating a new Gmail account, some labels are automatically generated, e.g. “All Mail”, “Inbox”, “Trash”, “Spam” etc. To organize your emails, you can create custom Gmail labels and assign these labels to your messages.
When assigning a custom label to your message, it shows up under three labels:
- the “All Mail” label
- the “Inbox” label
- the custom label
What Happens when Gmail Labels are Converted into Folders:
When performing an email migration, your Gmail labels are transformed into folders:
- MailJerry checks your list of custom Gmail labels and creates a folder for every label.
- Next, every email containing a custom label is moved to the respective folder.
- After all custom labels were migrated, MailJerry checks the “Inbox” and “All Mail” labels and moves emails that have not yet been migrated to your new inbox.
-
- Gmail example: One message with two labels
-
- Label to folder conversion: The message appears as three messages.
-
- After the migration: The duplicates were skipped.
Why emails appear as skipped:
Let’s assume you have one message containing the Gmail label “My Label”. According to Gmails logic, this message appears in three places: “My Label”, “Inbox” and “All Mail”, but is still one message.
When migrating this message, MailJerry moves your message into the “My Label” folder, but skips the “Inbox” and “All Mail” labels, therefore showing a count of two skipped messages.
➡️ So it looks like there are three messages, when actually, it’s only one.
How to Avoid Skipped Emails when Migrating Gmail Labels:
When performing a Gmail migration, there are two possibilities to handle the Gmails label concept:
a) Preventing duplicates by only creating one copy of each message and moving it into the folder that corresponds to the custom Gmail label, which increases the skipped email count (MailJerrys default behaviour).
b) Accepting duplicates to receive an exact copy of your Gmail account (one email with three labels = three emails in three different folders, no message appears as skipped).
How to Avoid Skipped Messages After the Gmail Migration:
If you’ve already finished your Gmail migration and realise that you’d prefer an exact duplicate of your Gmail inbox (with duplicated messages), follow these steps:
1. In MailJerry, go to “Overview” and click on your migration.
2. Scroll down to “Options” and enable “Sync Duplicates from the Existing Address”.
3. Now click on the “Sync Now” button.
➡️ MailJerry will now migrate the skipped messages as well and create duplicates in the respective folders. Depending on how many messages were skipped initially, the sync may take some time, so please be patient.
How to Avoid Skipped Messages Before the Gmail Migration:
If you’d like to create an exact copy of your Gmail inbox to preserve the folder structure to the cost of creating duplicates, you can tell MailJerry so right before starting your migration:
1. Start a new migration, select the account type, enter your mailbox credentials and click on “Check Settings”.
2. On the summary page, enable “Migrate Duplicates from the Existing Address” and start your migration.
For a detailed tutorial on how to perform a Gmail migration, have a look at this list of tutorials.
Summary: Pros & Cons of Avoiding Skipped Messages from Gmail Labels
As shown above, it’s easy to avoid skipped messages when performing a Gmail migration with MailJerry. But should you actually opt for this approach? This are the pros and cons of avoiding skipped messages in Gmail:
Pros of avoiding skipped messages:
✅ You create an exact copy of your mailbox.
✅ You don’t have to explain the different message count to your customers.
Downsides of avoiding skipped messages:
⛔️ A copy of the message is created for every label that is assigned to the email.
⛔️ Because of duplicates, you need more storage capacity in your new mailbox.
⛔️ If you delete a migrated message in the new mailbox, you need to individually delete the duplicates in the corresponding folders as well.
Because of these downsides, we’ve decided to avoid duplicates as default setting. However, feel free to enable the “Migrate Duplicates” option anytime to change this setting according to your liking!
Skipped Messages:Frequent Questions
Do skipped messages also appear when migrating directly between Gmail accounts (from Gmail to Gmail)?
Yes. Since the messages are migrated using the IMAP protocol, you’ll also see skipped messages in your migration count. But don’t worry: All labels will be automatically assigned in your new Gmail inbox as well. Therefore, you can simply ignore the skipped messages and go with MailJerry’s default settings.
I performed a Gmail migration, but some labels were skipped. Why is this?
Sometimes, labels are configured to be not visible over IMAP. To change this setting, open your Gmail account, click on the gear icon on the top right and select “See all settings”. Next, click on “Labels” and select “Show in IMAP” for every label you wish to migrate to the new destination as well.
Now, go to your migration in MailJerry, scroll down to “Options” and click on “Sync Now”.
Are the skipped messages really skipped? How can I make sure that I don’t loose any emails when migrating from Gmail?
To check if all messages were migrated, open your migration and click on the “Details” button. In the pop up, you’ll see a list of all folders with details on how many emails were migrated, skipped and failed. As long as there are no failed messages, you can rest assured that all emails were migrated, even when skipped messages are displayed.
I don’t care about duplicates. How can I create an exact copy of my Gmail label structure?
To do so, simply follow the steps described here.
