ionicons-v5-l
Contact
Support

Import Mails to Gmail: How to Import Your Emails to Gmail

Learn how to easily import your mails to Gmail from any email provider. Follow our step-by-step guide to import your old emails to your new Gmail account.

 . Email Migration How To  . Import Mails to Gmail: How to Import Your Emails to Gmail
How to Import Mails to Gmail

There are many good reasons why Gmail is the world’s most popular email service: It offers a user-friendly interface, provides large storage space and robust spam protection, to name a few advantages of Gmail.

If you’ve decided to make Gmail your new email provider, you might want to import your existing mails to Gmail. To help you with this task, we’ve put together the following tutorial that explains how you can easily import emails to Gmail.

Video Tutorial: Import Mails to Gmail

In case you prefer videos over text, here’s a quick demo tutorial that shows a migration to Gmail.

Gmail email migration: Migrate emails from / to Gmail with MailJerry – the email migration tool for Gmail
By clicking on the picture a connection to Youtube will be established. Privacy

Import Mails to Gmail: Tutorials for Major Providers

Besides this tutorial, we’ve created step-by-step tutorials for major providers like Microsoft or Yahoo!. So before continuing with this tutorial, you might want to check if you wish to migrate from one of these providers to Gmail.

Not found what you’re looking for? Simply continue reading to perform import your mail to Gmail!

Tutorial:
How to Import Mails to Gmail

For the import to Gmail, you need the following :

  1. The credentials for your non-Gmail account (username, password & mailserver address).
  2. Your Gmail username (this is your email address) and your account password.
  3. MailJerry – your go-to mailbox migration tool  that migrates your emails to Gmail 😉

Step 01: Setup Gmail to Import your Mails

To import your mails to Gmail, you first have to setup your Gmail account by changing a few settings. Don’t worry, we’ll walk you through the configuration which is finished with a few clicks. After that, you can start the Gmail import of your emails.

To set up your Gmail account, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Gmail account at https://www.gmail.com/.

2 .Click on your account icon at the top right corner.

3. Click on the button „Manage your Google Account“.

Gmail Migration: Create App Password – Manage Account

4. You now see the settings of your Gmail account. In the left navigation, click on „Security“.

5. Scroll down to „How you sign in to Google“ and check if „2-Step-Verification“ is enabled. If not, click on the option to enable it.

6. As soon as „2-Step-Verification“ is active, click on the option to open the 2-Step-Verification settings.

Gmail Migration: Create App Password – Enable 2-Step Verification

7. Scroll down to „App passwords“ and click on it.

ℹ️ Don’t see the option “App passwords”?
Follow this link to create an app password: https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords

Gmail Migration: Create App Password – Open App Passwords

8. Now create a new app password: Enter any name (e.g. “MailJerry“) and click on “Create”.

Gmail Migration: Create App Password – New Password

9. Google will now show your app password. Copy the password and keep it safe.

⚠️ Copy your password and save it ⚠️
You’ll need the app password for the Gmail import of your emails.

For old Gmail accounts: Check if IMAP is enabled

Usually, IMAP is enabled by default for all Gmail accounts. However, if your Gmail account is quite old, IMAP might be disabled. In this case, it’s a good idea to check if IMAP is enabled. (View Tutorial)

Step 02: Import your Emails to Gmail

After the setup, it’s time to import your mails to Gmail. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to import your emails to Gmail using MailJerry, our cloud email migration tool.

In case you don’t want to use MailJerry, have a look at these alternative methods, but don’t forget to check the comparison to identify the pros and cons of each approach!

Advantages of MailJerry:

✅  Easy to use, self-explanatory software that suits inexperienced users and professionals alike.
✅  Supports IMAP, Exchange and partially POP accounts (emails need to be stored on the server).
✅  Fully automated process, migrates all folders and automatically converts them to Gmail labels.
✅  Automatically checks for duplicates to prevent data-chaos.
✅  Very fast and reliable Gmail import, works for small and huge accounts.
✅  Provides an auto-sync feature to import mails received after the initial Gmail import.

How to Import Mails to Gmail:

1. Download and install MailJerry on your device or open the email migration tool in your browser.

2. Click on „New Migration“.

3. In the section „Existing Address“, select the account type of your current provider. If you’re unsure, simply select IMAP.

4. Now enter the username and password for your old account, or – when using a Microsoft account – connect with your account.

Import Mails to Gmail: Add Existing Account

5. In the section „New Address“, select Gmail as Account Type.

6. Enter your Gmail email address in the field username.

7. Paste your app password in the field for „App Password“.

IMPORTANT: For your Gmail account, enter your app password instead of your login password in the “password” field.

ℹ️ In case you’re in a hurry or have to import a lot of emails to Gmail (several GB), you might want to consider enabling the option „Ignore Google Bandwidth Limits“.

8. Click on „Check Settings“. MailJerry will now perform several checks on both accounts to ensure that you can safely import your mails to Gmail.

Import Mails to Gmail: Add Gmail Account

9. After the check, you’ll see a summary of the Gmail import. If everything looks good, click on „Start Your Migration“.

Import Mails to Gmail: Summary

10. Your emails are now being imported to Gmail. Simply wait until the import finished. Of course, you can use your accounts during the import.

Import Mails to Gmail: Import in Progress
         

"My mailbox migration is complete and it is commendable that MailJerry outperformed all the migration softwares in the market including Google's own which was really pathetic.

MailJerry Subscriber, Oman

Task Completed:
Tips after the Gmail Import

After you successfully imported your mail to Gmail, there are a few tips you’d might want to consider:

Tip 01: Sync your Accounts after the Gmail Import

After importing your mails to Gmail, it’s very likely that you still receive emails in your old account. To automatically import those emails to Gmail as well, follow these steps:

1. In MailJerry, go to the “Overview” and select your Gmail import by clicking on it.

2. Scroll down to „Options“ and enable the toggle „Automatically synchronize emails for 10 days“.

By enabling this option, MailJerry will check your old account for new emails every three hours for the next 10 days and import those emails to your Gmail account as well.

ℹ️ Do you wish to use the auto-sync permanently? Then enable the backup mode!

Import Mails to Gmail: Auto-Sync

Tip 02: Enable the Backup Mode

The auto-sync runs for 10 days, which is plenty of time if you plan to close down your old account. But in case your old account stays active, you might want to automatically import your emails to Gmail for an indefinite amount of time. To do so, enable the backup mode:

1. In the options of your finished Gmail import, click on „Backup Mode“.

2. Enable „Permanently Sync Emails to Target Mailbox“. Optionally, you can choose between a monthly, weekly or daily interval.

Import Mails to Gmail: Backup Mode

Alternative Methods to
Import Email to Gmail

Of course, MailJerry isn’t the only method that allows you to import your mails to Gmail. To provide an alternative, we’ve reviewed two other popular approaches:

Gmail: Import Emails By Manually Forwarding

import mails: forward emails

Time required: Minutes to days (!), depending on how many messages you have.

With this approach, you simply forward all your emails to Gmail.

Here’s how it works:

1. Log in to your old email account that you’re moving away from.

2. Forward every message you want to import to Gmail to your new Gmail address. Some email clients let you do this in bulk, which makes the task easier.

3. After you forwarded your existing emails, go to your mailbox settings and look for an option that allows you to forward all newly received emails. Sometimes, you might also have to log in to the admin panel of your email provider to enable the auto-forwarding of new messages.

Pros:

✅  No additional tool or service required to import mails to Gmail

Cons:

⛔️  Bulk forwarding is often not supported
⛔️  Very time-consuming for large quantities of emails
⛔️  Forwarded messages appear as unread in your new mailbox

Summary:

This method to import your mails to Gmail can be very time-consuming for large mailboxes. By forwarding your emails, you loose the original message status (all emails appear as unread in your Gmail account). That’s why we only recommend this method if you want to import a very small number of emails to Gmail.

Import Mails to Gmail with the Gmail Import Tool

import mails: gmail import tool

Time required: Up to multiple days (!)

Google offers an import tool for new users that is suitable for small and medium-sized email accounts.

Here’s how it works:
  1. Sign into your Gmail account, click on the gear icon, and select the “See all settings” option.
  2. Navigate to the “Accounts and Import” tab.
  3. Click the “Import mail and contacts” option.
  4. Enter the email address you want to import and click “Continue”.
  5. Click “Continue” again and wait for a pop-up window to appear and show a login screen for your old email service.
  6. Agree to give Gmail access to your messages.
  7. Select what you want to import (your mail, your contacts, new mail for next 30 days) and click “Start import”.
  8. Wait up to multiple days for the import process to finish.
Pros:

✅  Import all messages in one go
✅  Accessible directly within the Gmail settings
✅  Ability to import contacts along with emails
✅  Can keep your mailboxes synchronized for 30 days
✅  Preserves message read status

Cons:

⛔️  Incompatible with Microsoft Exchange mailboxes
⛔️  Can take a very long time (multiple days) to finish
⛔️  Can lead to duplicate messages
⛔️  Not a lot of status updates and monitoring possibilities.
⛔️  Does not always work very well, according to our users.

Summary:

This built-in tool is great for those who need to import small to medium sized email accounts to Gmail, but it has several important shortcomings:

The Gmail import tool does not work for Microsoft Exchange accounts, making it impossible for many Microsoft users to import their emails to Gmail. Depending on how many emails you’re migrating, it can take up to multiple days for the Gmail import tool to finish its job. And because the tool imports all messages under a new label, you may need to take extra steps to eliminate duplicates.

Comparison:
Best Methods to Import Mails to Gmail

To sum up the three approaches to import mails to Gmail compared in this article, have a look at the following comparison:

Method 01 Forwarding EmailsMethod 02 Gmail Import ToolMethod 03 MailJerry
Supports IMAP
Supports Exchange⛔️
Supports POP3partiallypartially
Migration Speedslowmediumfast
Import Folders & Labels⛔️
Imports Sent Messages & Drafts⛔️
Duplicate Check / Prevent Data Chaos⛔️⛔️
Sync Mailboxes after the Migration⛔️
Suitable for Large Mailboxes⛔️
Monitoring / Updates during the Import⛔️
Support available⛔️
Conclusion:

As you have seen in the summary, each approach to import your mails to Gmail has different pros and cons. If you only need to import a few emails into your new Gmail address, forwarding the existing emails can be the quickest solution. For medium-sized accounts, the Gmail import tool may be worth a try.

➡️ If you’re importing large accounts or important messages to Gmail (or even migrate emails on behalf of someone else), you might want to consider relying on MailJerry, a software users all over the world rely on to import mails to Gmail on a daily basis.

No matter which method you choose, we hope this article has helped you to you make Gmail the new home for your emails! And in case you encounter any problems or still have questions left, scroll down to read the most frequent questions that arise when importing mails to Gmail.

Frequent Questions When
Importing Mails to Gmail

My Gmail import is very slow. What can I do?

When moving large amounts of data, Google applies bandwidth limits. This means that imports to Gmail slow down significantly after a certain amount of data was migrated (usually 2500 MB per day). Interestingly, this also applies to Google’s own import tool.To speed up the Gmail import, MailJerry provides the option „Ignore google Bandwidth Limits“ (see next paragraph).

What does the option „Ignore Google Bandwidth Limits“ do?

When enabling the option „Ignore Google Bandwidth Limits“, MailJerry will ignore the existing Gmail limits and tries to import your emails as quickly as possible. Only downside: It’s possible that your import breaks after some time. But don’t worry! If this happens, you can simply start the import again, this time disabling the „Ignore Google Bandwidth Limits“ option. MailJerry will pick up where you left, so you don’t loose any progress you made so far.

Can I use my email accounts during the import?

Yes. When using MailJerry, you can use your old and / or new account during the Gmail import. We only advise to not move large amounts of messages between folders (e.g. to clean up your mailboxes during the import), as this may result in duplicates.

The auto-sync creates duplicates. What can I do?

If this happens, your old provider does not use standard email headers, which are used to identify which message has already been migrated. To prevent duplicates, you can change the email header settings: Go to the „Settings“ tab in MailJerry, scroll down to „Email Header Settings“ and change the value to Message-ID.Now stop the auto-sync on the finished migration and start the migration again. This time, the migration will only take a few minutes, as only emails that are not already imported into your Gmail account will be migrated. You can then enable the auto-sync again and won’t experience any duplicates.

Why do I have to enable IMAP for my Gmail account?

MailJerry is an IMAP based mailbox migration tool. This means that your emails are imported to Gmail by using the IMAP protocol. Using IMAP has many advantages. For example, you don’t have to manually download and upload all your emails. If IMAP is disabled for your Gmail account, the import won’t work. Therefore, you need to enable IMAP in your Gmail settings before starting the Gmail migration.

What is an app password and why do I need it?

An app password is a 16-digit passcode that is generated for your Gmail account. With the app password, you grant non-Google apps or devices permission to access your account. Using app passwords for third party devices is very common. For example, if you use an email client like Outlook or Apple Mail, it is very likely that you were already required to generate an app password.

The app password is an extra security precaution that is required by Google. It helps to keep your data 100% save and within your control. Gmail email migrations that use an app password run smoothly and without any problems.

Where do I find the address of my mailserver?

Usually, you find the address of your mailserver on the data sheet you received from your hosting provider or on the respective help page of your hosting company.

But here’s a quick tip: Open the MailJerry email migration software, go to “Migrations” and enter your email address (yourname@domain.tdl) in the field “Username”. With the stated email address, MailJerry can guess your hosting provider and very likely suggest the correct mail server address.

⚠️ In case your username differs from your email address, don’t forget to change the value in the username field back to the username stated by your provider.

I don’t know my user name. What can i do?

Before contacting your email provider, try these common variations and see if MailJerry is able to connect with your email account:

Tip 01: Try common user name variations like your email address (e.g. firstname.lastname@domain.tld) or the part before the @-sign (e.g. firstname.lastname).

Tip 02: Sign in to your hosting providers customer center and search for your email credentials there.

Tip 03: If your emails are currently stored with a large hosting providers, 

If this does not help, a quick google search for “[name of your hosting provider] email credentials” might help to find out where to get the credentials for your email account. Or have a look at our list of email providers to find the right settings.

Can I migrate my emails from Gmail to Gmail?

Of course, simply have a look at this tutorial: „How to Migrate from Gmail to Gmail“

How do I transfer my emails from Outlook to Gmail?

To transfer your emails from Outlook to Gmail, you can also rely on MailJerry, that provides a convenient feature to connect with your Microsoft account using oAuth2. Here’s a tutorial on how to do so: “Transfer Emails from Outlook to Gmail“ 

I want to import my mails from Yahoo! to Gmail. Is this possible?

Yes, actually, it’s quite easy to transfer your Yahoo mails to gmail. Have a look at this article: “Transfer Yahoo Mail to Gmail: Import Yahoo Mails to Gmail“