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.
Tutorial:
How to Import Mails to Gmail
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. So let’s start!
Step 01: Preparation: Setup to Import your Mails to Gmail
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“.
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.
7. Scroll down to „App passwords“ and click on it.
➡️ In case you don’t see the option app passwords, simply open this link.
7. Scroll down to „App passwords“ and click on it.
8. Now create a new app password: Enter any name (e.g. „Gmail Import“) and click on “Create”.
9. Google will now show your app password. Copy the password and keep it safe.
➡️ You’ll need the app password for the Gmail import of your emails.
Step 02: Migration: 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.
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“.
ℹ️ In case you’re in a hurry or have to import a lot of emails to Gmail (several GB), you could consider enabling the option „Ignore Google Bandwidth Limits“.
8. Click on „Check Settings“. The software will now perform several checks on both accounts to ensure that you can safely import your mails to Gmail.
9. After the check, you’ll see a summary of the Gmail import. If everything looks good, click on „Start Your Migration“.
10. You’re now importing your emails to Gmail. Simply wait until the import finished. Of course, you can use your accounts during the import.
"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.
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:
Auto-forward your emails to Gmail:
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, click on 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“.
With this option enabled, all new emails will automatically be imported to your new Gmail account every three hours.
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.
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
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 your 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
Time required: Up to multiple days (!)
To make it easier for new users to import their mails to Gmail, Google offers an import tool specifically designed for the job.
Here’s how it works:
- Sign into your Gmail account, click on the gear icon, and select the See all settings option.
- Navigate to the “Accounts and Import” tab.
- Click the “Import mail and contacts” option.
- Enter the email address you want to import and click “Continue”.
- Click “Continue” again and wait for a pop-up window to appear and show a login screen of the email service you’re importing from.
- Agree to give Gmail access to your messages.
- Select what you want to import (your mail, your contacts, new mail for next 30 days) and click “Start import”.
- 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
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 presented in this article, have a look at the following comparison:
| Method 01 Forwarding Emails | Method 02 Gmail Import Tool | Method 03 MailJerry | |
| Supports IMAP | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Supports Exchange | ✅ | ⛔️ | ✅ |
| Supports POP3 | ✅ | partially | partially |
| Migration Speed | slow | medium | fast |
| Import Folders & Labels | ⛔️ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Imports Sent Messages & Drafts | ⛔️ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Duplicate Check / Prevent Data Chaos | ⛔️ | ⛔️ | ✅ |
| Sync Mailboxes after the Migration | ⛔️ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Suitable for Large Mailboxes | ⛔️ | ⛔ | ✅ |
| Support available | ⛔️ | ⛔ | ✅ |
Conclusion:
As shown in the summary above, 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 may be the quickest solution. For larger accounts, the Gmail import tool may be worth a try. However, if you’re importing important messages to Gmail (or even migrate emails on behalf of someone else), you might want to consider relying on a third-party tool like MailJerry, that is used by users all over the world 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 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: In case this happens, you can simply start the import again, 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?
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 mailboxes (e.g. clean up your mailboxes during the import), as this may result in duplicates.
After I initially imported my mails to Gmail, 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 messages. To 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.
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“
