When switching to Gmail from another email address, many people connected the two addresses using a handy hidden feature. Google allowed us, for many years now, to “check” another email and pull those messages into a Gmail inbox. But that time is coming to an end. If you’ve been using this tool, you’ll need to adjust some settings or take other action.
“Check Email from Other Accounts”
Not everyone is using this feature, so the first step is to locate this in your Gmail and see if this even applies to you. In a web browser:
- Go to the Gmail website and make sure it loads your Gmail inbox
- Click the cogwheel icon in the upper-right and then click See All Settings.
- Click Accounts and Import in the upper categories, and then look below for the Check Mail options
If there’s no email listed to the right of this feature, then this post doesn’t apply to you. But if you have an email listed, then that address is in danger of being cut off. You should take steps to make sure that your email continue to arrive to you. Because I cannot say if Google is going to give us any notice of when this feature shuts off!
Options!
If you’ve had Gmail “checking mail” for you from an old address, you don’t really have to do anything. Maybe that address is really old and doesn’t bring you anything of importance. You could just ignore it and let it go away… But if that address is still worthwhile, you’ll want to reroute things. Here are some ways to do that.
Forward the old email address. This involves you logging into the old email address at its webmail site, to find the email-forwarding function. Once you locate this, you can input your Gmail address and convince the old email provider to bounce your incoming mail over to your Google address.
Bookmark the Old Email’s Webmail Site. And then visit that website occasionally, to manually check the incoming email.
Setup the Old Email Address in an Email Client. I’m talking about Outlook or some other free email program that checks multiple email addresses.
Add the Old Email to your Gmail App. But this will only grant you access to the old email address on your phone or tablet in the Gmail app, not on your computer.
If one of these methods works for you, then you can later go into your Gmail settings and remove the address from the Check Mail area.
If any of this is above your paygrade, please reach out and I can work closely with you to migrate you to one of those solutions, above.